Articles
Commentary
The Secret Behind the Best Supply Chain Transformations
Even the most well-oiled supply chains have room for improvement. But what if you want to do more than just improve; what if you want to transform? Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) can disrupt—and, yes, transform—your supply chain.
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Tips for Shipping Across the Mexico Border
Does your business have the knowledge and resources to manage cross-border shipping effectively? Review these five critical questions to ask before booking your next load across the Mexico border.
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Ten Minutes From Now—Do You Have a Plan?
While the publisher is focused on planning for a far-off future, I’m focused on providing practical information that you can use in the here and now. Leaf through this edition for the next 10 minutes, and you’ll find plenty of practical examples to help you navigate 2020. The content we provide is specialized because the […]
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Ten Years From Now—Do You Have a Plan?
It’s a new decade and time to project and plan for the next one. Ten years from today, what will your market look like? What kind of customers will you have and where will they be located? What will they buy? How will they buy? And how will you adapt your supply chain operations to […]
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What to Look For in a 3PL
The field of third-party logistics (3PL) service providers has grown fiercely competitive, and the services and capabilities a 3PL can offer become difficult to differentiate.
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Stop, Thief! Five Ways to Protect Your Supply Chain
Today’s supply chain ecosystem is increasingly complicated. We rely on suppliers and buyers across the globe and use multiple transport modes, languages, currencies, and laws across borders.
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Good Question: Will the Supply Chain Management Function Be Obsolete in 10 Years? Why or Why Not?
Zero chance. Supply chain success is dependent upon human relationships, collaboration, partnerships, leading and influencing, servicing customers, and the like. Robots, algorithms, and other new technologies will make certain jobs obsolete, but not the function of supply chain itself.
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Supply Chain AI: This Time It’s for Real
Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are hot topics these days, especially in supply chain circles.
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Mitigating the Flood of Post-Holiday Returns
Businesses across the country spend months gearing up for the holiday season. And while they survived this year’s frenzy, many are now bracing for a flood of post-holiday returns.
Read MoreModernizing Information Along the Supply Chain for Natural Disaster Response
When Hurricane Maria threatened Puerto Rico, it was already a Category 5 storm. Baxter International, which manufactures saline solution bags in the commonwealth, took a major hit in production. The slowdown crippled the flow of these essential medical supplies to Baxter’s primary hospital consumers in the continental United States. Despite dire forecasts about the hurricane, the medical industry could not react fast enough, resulting in a major shortage of saline bags.
Read MoreUsing Mentors and Technology to Close the Talent Gap
New logistics technologies can lead to major operational improvements. However, few organizations have the personnel—along with the right mindset and skills—to take advantage, much less the ability to adopt new processes and infrastructure.
Read MoreImplementing Industry 4.0 to Streamline Your Supply Chain
How beneficial will the fourth industrial revolution be for manufacturers? Adrian Burton, from Harrison Castings, explores three ways Industry 4.0 may help streamline your supply chain.
Read MoreAre You Ready to Join the Circular Supply Chain?
It may be time to revisit how your company produces and delivers products as consumers and retailers become more environmentally aware and shift to a circular supply chain.
Read MoreGOOD QUESTION | When choosing a logistics provider, what’s more important: cost or customer service?
With a tumultuous global economy and trade uncertainties, the most important consideration is value. Can they provide global visibility to your supply chain? Can they help you effectively navigate the ever-changing regulatory landscape? Park Williams VP, North America Sales BDP International Customer service. Simply put—you can win and lose with cost, but you will always […]
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Seeing Clearly: The Value of Visibility
Few parts of the enterprise have transformed more radically over the years than supply chain as companies struggle to navigate global sourcing, just-in-time delivery models, and unprecedented customer expectations for product availability and delivery speed.
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Four Ways Reusables Benefit the Circular Economy
The consumer-packaged goods (CPG) supply chain is changing. From faster, more frequent deliveries to specialty packaging, the way goods are handled and delivered has adapted and evolved. But change can come with consequences and the amount of packaging waste due to e-commerce has skyrocketed.
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What’s the Word?
We asked the experts in our audience for the hot supply chain words or phrases you and your colleagues will be talking about next year. Here goes. Door to floor. Given e-commerce deliveries of larger consumer products, door to floor is a thing, explains Bob Hitt, industry go to market manager for Salesforce. Some call […]
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The Death of Your Profession?
In a few short years you won’t be employed. That’s right, if you work in the supply chain management field, and have a decade or so until you retire, it’s time to dust off your resume and consider other career paths. That’s according to commentary authors Allan Lyall, Pierre Mercier, and Stefan Gstettner in a […]
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GOOD QUESTION | Popeyes chicken sandwich shortage: Supply chain fail or marketing savvy?
All marketing strategy in my humble opinion. Like a limited release of Jordan sneakers and then a re-release at a later date. Milton O’Quinn III National Operations Manager, RPM It’s a great lesson—companies should do more data analytics to better understand how consumers respond to social media marketing and build up supply chain agility and […]
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Drilling Deeper Into Your Supply Chain
Data analytics is the science of examining raw data to help draw conclusions about information. When applied to the supply chain, it allows companies to drive insight, make better business decisions, and verify or disprove existing models or theories. Data analytics breaks out into the following categories: Descriptive analytics. In supply chain, descriptive analytics helps […]
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