Articles
Logistics
Managing Logistics Change: Doing it Right
Wrapped in a chrysalis of change, business logistics managers are rebuilding internal elements and morphing legacy systems to answer increased customer demands and manage never-ending variables. What emerges is a logistics process that is more agile, able to fly faster and go farther. See how leading companies use change to transorm themselves, with breathtaking results.
Read MoreZero Hour
What happens when disaster strikes and your shipment never makes it? Time stops for a brief moment … then the clock starts ticking and the phones start ringing. What do you do? How should your vendors and carriers respond? Read this gripping fictional account of one carrier dealing with the unexpected. The story may be make-believe, but the consequences are no less real.
Read MoreBrittain Ladd: Doing It Right The First Time, Every Time
Success to me,” says Brittain Ladd, “is educating others on the importance of quality and doing the job right the first time, every time.” As a Six Sigma black belt, Ladd has dedicated himself to eliminating variance—making sure his organization adheres to the highest standards in every detail. Ladd is transportation planning manager for Michaels […]
Read MoreBrian Godfrey: An Explosive Career
Work is a blast for Brian Godfrey. As a logistics supervisor for Dyno Nobel North America, Godfrey is in charge of moving truck, railcar, and barge loads of ammonium nitrate (AN), a fertilizer used as an explosive in mining and construction. He negotiates transportation contracts, traces rail shipments, and routes his goods from manufacturing plants […]
Read MoreAre You a Logistics Laggard?
Logisticians get saddled with lots of responsibility when things go wrong—the shipment is late, the shipment is lost, the carrier filed Chapter 11, the ports are closed. Now we learn that we are not practicing “socially responsible logistics.” Talk about piling on! “The logistics discipline appears to be more of a laggard with respect to […]
Read MoreLogistics 101: Back to Basics
Logistics can confound the newly initiated and veterans alike. So take out your notebook, sharpen your pencil, and take this Inbound Logistics short course on the fundamental concepts driving logistics theory and practice today.
Read MoreKaren Caswelch: Quality In High Gear
When Karen Caswelch joined Allison Transmission as director of purchasing last year, she had no corporate purchasing experience. But her record in operations and quality management made her supremely qualified to carry out her number-one mission. “The ultimate mandate,” Caswelch says, “is to keep the plants running. And you’ve got to keep them running with […]
Read MoreCLM: The Rules are Changing
The rules are changing? I wish somebody would tell that to the longshoreman’s union. I was recently in the center of the dock lockout imbroglio in San Francisco, having made the trip to attend the Council of Logistics Management’s 2002 conference. Business as usual for dockworkers apparently means a 70+ percent increase over three years, […]
Read MoreBob Wegmann: Blood Work
As Americans jammed Red Cross blood centers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bob Wegmann and his staff worked the phones. Their mission: to get vendors to rush enough blood bags, swabs, printed forms, and other supplies to accommodate the hordes of donors. “Obviously, no one predicted Sept. 11. But we were able to predict, […]
Read MoreChoosing the Right Logistics Consultant
Choosing a logistics consultant should not be a search for the lowest-cost solution, but rather a search for experience and success based on definitive criteria. Dr. Dick Powers, CEO and president of the Bend, Ore., and Manassas, Va.-based consulting firm INSIGHT, which solves logistics and supply chain issues with optimization-based solutions, offers these tips for […]
Read MoreMichael Trotter: Striking a Balance
Loading pallets with electrical supplies bound for factories and construction sites, “you learn quickly that you can’t set light bulbs on the bottom and put wire on the top,” laughs Michael Trotter, director of logistics at Van Meter Industrial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But for a distributor with 29,000 SKUs of all sizes and shapes—from […]
Read MoreAndrea Greco: Greco’s Game
The biggest logistics challenge I have right now is being able to go fishing on the weekends and still spend time with my kids,” laughs Andrea Greco, vice president, supply chain for Fila USA. Shuttling between a job near Baltimore and a young family in New York demands careful organization. So does coordinating the supply […]
Read MoreStacy Eakes: A Seasoned Professional
Stacy Eakes took up rock climbing this year for fun, but she finds that the sport has a lot to teach a logistics professional. “It’s all about problem solving,” she explains. “You learn to shift your weight and look at things from a new perspective, opening new possibilities.” Back on the ground, that mix of […]
Read MoreInbound Logistics: Playing the Name Game
“You are so much more than just inbound.” “Inbound Logistics…is this a magazine about importing?” “Why do you cover only inbound transportation?” So why do we call the magazine Inbound Logistics? Over the years, I have been asked this question, and at a logistics trade show in Chicago last month, I was asked it repeatedly. […]
Read MoreWayne Paul: Sticking to the Basics
Wayne Paul caught the logistics bug as a college student working in the receiving department at Sears. And much of what he knows about managing a demand chain he learned from his first post-college employer, Roadway Express. Paul joined the less-than-truckload carrier after earning his B.S. in Transportation from the University of Alabama in 1980. […]
Read MoreRaking in the Trash
“It’s only trash.” That’s how supply chain managers often refer to the mountains of packing material, broken pallets, paper, and other trash that clutters distribution facilities. For most companies, disposal is an expense item, with additional costs for compactors, waste bins, carting, landfill use, and myriad other variables. With a little of the same skill […]
Read MoreDennis Hilborn: Know Thyself
“Who are we?” is one of Dennis Hilborn’s favorite questions. In his two and a half years as director of distribution at sports apparel maker Cutter & Buck, asking employees over and over who they are has helped him transform the Seattle-based company’s distribution center (DC). When Hilborn arrived at Cutter & Buck, “distribution was […]
Read MoreMaking Dollars & Sense Out of Logistics
Treating logistics as a profit center can expand both revenue and profit, and build your leverage base. But this approach is still a brave new world.
Read MorePhil Saracin: Whatever it Takes
Phil Saracin, global logistics manager at Kemet Corp., enjoys the challenges of finding new ways to reduce cost and cycle time, and developing new tools to improve information flow.
Read MoreMichael Beaver: Leave it to Beaver
Michael Beaver recently started learning Spanish, and he wishes he had mastered a few more languages earlier in his career. As a supply chain executive with a global corporation, Beaver knows communication is the key to forging profitable relationships. Speaking to colleagues and partners in their own languages helps to assure them that the company […]
Read More