Articles
Big Data
Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the Global Logistics Network in Three Key Areas
Two of the world’s most influential research and advisory firms predict major acceleration in artificial intelligence (AI) use as more businesses look to make the digital transformation leap. Forrester projects AI investment tripled in 2017, and Gartner expects AI to be pervasive in almost every new software product and service by 2020. With its cognitive […]
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Using KPIs to Optimize Transportation Data
Data drives sound business decisions. The same principle applies to decisions surrounding transportation issues. Specifically for parcel, the best data source is carrier invoices, supplemented by the manifest (TMS) data where possible. Your carriers should make invoice data easily available, especially if you use a third-party vendor to review and pay your invoices. They should […]
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Is Supply Chain Planning Right for the Cloud?
The explosive growth of data that today’s supply chain teams must manage creates challenges even for the most seasoned professionals. Manufacturers, retailers, and distributors need agile systems that help manage and simplify complexity. However, one of the biggest hurdles today’s organizations face is gaining executive approval to implement an advanced supply chain planning system. Is […]
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Manufacturers Take to Technology, Automation
Driven by globalization, intensifying competition, and rising customer demand for more options and higher quality products, a connected plant floor has become a necessity. As a result, manufacturers are adopting the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to enhance visibility and improve quality, with the number of organizations achieving a fully connected factory expected to rise […]
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Artificial Intelligence to Their Advantage
Artificial intelligence (AI) now touches almost every industry and walk of life. Driverless cars are chauffeuring themselves through Pittsburgh’s roads, robots dominate the activity within Amazon’s warehouses, and increasingly sophisticated algorithms for demand planning and design have gone digital. Personalization and machine learning continue to improve customers’ experiences and open countless doors for the tech […]
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Consumer Behavior: The Missing Link
In today’s highly competitive, omni-channel market, companies are realizing the path to success hinges on their ability to understand consumer behavior. Retailers and manufacturers can unlock significant competitive advantage by leveraging consumer insights to make category decisions and create localized merchandising assortments. Most companies lack the ability to mine and leverage important customer data, and […]
Read MoreDigital Change: Realizing the Potential
Digital Transformation (DT) is coming of age. Eighty percent of respondents to a recent IFS Digital Change Survey see themselves as “enabled”, “enhanced” or “optimized” to leverage DT. More impressively, 89 percent say they have “advantageous” or “adequate” funding in place for digital projects—a clear acknowledgment that the time of disruptive technologies is here, and […]
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It Happens Automagically
I heard the phrase “it happens automagically” not long ago, and it reminded me of an editorial I wrote in 2000, when I mused that one day we’d have “a global internet without wires, melded with interaction free detection—finding something without looking.” Today, it is real and it happened sooner than I expected. The Internet […]
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The Key to Lasting Supply Chain Innovation: Get Real
Managing a business for sustained growth often means finding and implementing innovative solutions to the challenges of complex supply chain logistics. Yet, when it comes to achieving lasting, repeatable innovation, it’s the real-world solutions that win out time and time again in leading logistics facilities. In his book Moneyball, Michael Lewis detailed how an analytical, […]
Read MorePutting an End to Black Box Shipping
Sometimes, for even the most critical shipments, the only two data points that the shipper receives is when the shipment left their hands and confirmation from the destination that the shipment has arrived. This can be likened to a black box in computer science, where a function is considered a black box when the developer […]
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Commentary: IoT and Analytics to Usher in New Era in Logistics
With millions of shipments being moved, tracked, and stowed by a variety of vehicles and people each day, it is no surprise that logistics and the Internet of Things (IoT) form a promising partnership. Trucks need smarter management systems that will help in increasing their utilization, reduce downtime, lower costs, and increase revenues. The movement […]
Read MoreHow to Prepare for the Digital Future
Digitization is rapidly transforming the ocean container shipping industry, according to INTTRA, an ocean shipping electronic marketplace. In a new whitepaper – Blueprint 2032: How Technology Transforms Ocean Container Shipping – INTTRA reports that the pace of technology innovation is accelerating as businesses seek new and more efficient ways to optimize. “Digitization is now a […]
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Ocean Freight Visibility on the Horizon?
Inbound Logistics attended the Digital Difference event in NYC where Maersk unveiled its partnership with Microsoft. What does that mean for ocean shippers? The possibilities are exciting. In the works… Connected vessels: Ships “talk” to each other to improve performance and make shippers’ supply chains more predictable. Actionable data: Shippers can see exactly where their […]
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How to Find Value in Big Data
There’s an endless amount of big data, but only storing it isn’t useful. The value is in what you find in the data. Instead of aggregating all the data you’re getting, you need to define the problem that you’re trying to solve and then gather data specific to that problem. Today we have the capability […]
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Winter Reading Guide 2017
Don’t let winter put a deep freeze on your logistics learning. Keep your knowledge evergreen by cozying up to books on wide-ranging topics, from food logistics to procurement practices.
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Joanne Wright: Turning Data Into Insight
Joanne Wright is IBM’s vice president of supply chain. She has held this position since 2013. Responsibilities: Strategy, execution, and business results for IBM’s manufacturing, engineering, procurement, logistics, fulfillment, and client solutions across more than 170 countries. Leveraging big data, analytics, and social media to create a world-class supply network. Experience: Numerous senior leadership positions […]
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Four Technologies Set to Change the Future of Logistics
Technology historically plays the role of a disruptor, the means to newer and better things, and the destruction of old ways of life. The following four technologies are sure to disrupt the business of logistics. 3-D Printing The technology of 3-D printing makes it possible for manufacturers, other businesses, and even individuals to print exact […]
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Doug Waggoner: Managing By Consensus and Common Sense
MORE TO THE STORY: Flying, Coding, and Watching Kids Grow Up When Doug Waggoner joined Echo Global Logistics as CEO in 2006, the company employed 35 people. Since then, the team has grown to more than 2,300, about 80 percent from the millennial generation, spread across more than 30 offices. Now chairman as well as […]
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Self-Improving Supply Chains Have Arrived
Imagine a world where supply chain planning systems can mold themselves into their environment, adapt, and improve as the business changes. Imagine systems that can monitor user behavior as well as customer and supplier anomalies, and advise accordingly. These are self-repairing supply chains. Imagine no more. With advances in processor speed and abundance of memory, […]
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Big Data: Breaking Down Key Information and Putting It to Work
Just mention the word data today and most people will envision something akin to a spinning galaxy full of ones and zeroes that is beyond comprehension. But data doesn’t have to be that way. Big data isn’t this giant nebulous of information that only analytical geniuses can understand. Rather, big data is everywhere and when […]
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