Articles

Warehousing

Trends—December 2015

Trends—December 2015

Data Capture Technology Ripe for Picking Reducing picking errors remains a high priority for distribution center operators, especially as customer expectations, particularly for faster and more accurate delivery, continue to increase, according to a recent Honeywell survey. Distribution centers are currently losing an average of more than $400,000 annually to picking errors, the survey finds. […]

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Sid Geddam

Building the Connected Warehouse

Boxes, pallets, and forklifts aren’t the only things that move throughout a warehouse. Data also flows across a range of warehouse business processes, from the receipt of goods to storage and tracking, picking and packing, and outbound transportation. How effectively a business utilizes that information has a massive impact on warehouse and supply chain performance. […]

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Sean Smith: Ingredients for a Great Career

Sean Smith: Ingredients for a Great Career

Sean Smith is supply chain director at Agropur Ingredients in La Crosse, Wis. He has worked for the company since 2013. Responsibilities: Purchasing, inbound and outbound logistics, production planning, inventory management, analytics, and warehouse operations. Experience: Supply chain manager, U.S. Army; strategic sourcing manager—facilities, Citigroup; supply chain manager—contracting and sourcing, Adventist Health Systems. Education: Diploma, […]

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Felecia Stratton

Just Another Brick in the Mall 

Travel around the world, and you see up-and-coming economies sporting many shiny new buildings, airports, ports, and factories, while more mature economies display aging legacy infrastructure. It’s the nature of progress. You see the same parallel in retail operations, where newer e-commerce models seem to overcome legacy brick-and-mortar models. But not entirely. Yes, e-commerce is […]

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John Sell

How Non-Traditional Service Offerings Are Enhancing Supply Chains

Q: How do non-traditional supply chains differ from traditional supply chains? A: Traditionally, 3PL providers offered a specialized set of services focused around warehousing, order fulfillment, transportation and supply chain logistics. Today, several factors have driven 3PLs to non-traditional services that spread their influence further into the supply chain. Non-traditional supply chain services include various […]

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Retail Collaboration: It’s All in the Jeans

Retail Collaboration: It’s All in the Jeans

When Lucky Brand Jeans was sold to a private equity firm, and had to separate from the supply chain of former parent company Fifth & Pacific Companies, the apparel business needed to quickly establish its own, standalone distribution center (DC). The company marshalled help from a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, a technology firm, and a […]

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Felecia Stratton

When the Walls Come Tumbling Down

It might sound like two things I did this month—traveling to Phoenix for ISM’s annual conference and working on this Warehousing issue—have nothing in common. Ah, but they do. What happens in the warehouse, the orchestration of products coming in and going out to where they need to be, hinges on the convergence of many […]

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Keith Biondo

The World is Your Warehouse, 2.0

Inbound Logistics regularly reports on the benefits of better linking demand to supply lines. Given the new and ever-growing crop of supply chain technology solutions delivering global visibility and ability to execute, we sometimes refer to the world as your warehouse. That’s why Apple’s patent #8,989,773 caught my eye. Granted on March 24, 2015, by […]

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Michelle Coleman

Best Practices for Preventing Pallet Rack Damage

Warehouses and distribution centers can be hectic, and it is essential to have solid damage prevention practices in effect to prevent employee injury and minimize loss. However, in an environment where workers are maneuvering heavy equipment and heavy loads in confined spaces, accidents are bound to happen. Even the best driver occasionally has a collision, […]

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Trends—February 2015

Trends—February 2015

The Jones Act: Time to Change Course? Debate over the Keystone XL Pipeline Act has raised a new regulatory specter. The U.S. maritime industry fears that an amendment recently introduced by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will counter the pro-jobs pipeline bill by gutting the Jones Act and existing cabotage regs. The senator’s amendment seeks […]

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