Measure for Measure
You don’t have to dissect Shakespeare to understand that what you put into something you redeem in equal measures—and often more. But in these Dickensian times, businesses are tasked with squeezing out costs and cinching their purse strings. Putting together this year’s Logistics Planner issue, we took William’s advice ≠- investing more time, more resources, and more research to craft nearly 500 pages of information with one singular intention—to help you get more done with less this year. Even Charles would be proud.
The idea of getting back to basics and paying attention to detail threads its way through this issue. This year’s cover story, Rediscovering the Classics, harkens back to the tried-and-true, with an instructive interlude into transportation and logistics fundamentals. Toning down pie in the sky strategy and techno-rhetoric, we give credence to the “gruel and grog” elements that nourish innovation. Complexity is borne of simplicity, so acing these basics can help businesses make sense of the convoluted.
If there is one industry that personifies the gritty determination and resolve of grassroots logistics, it’s motor freight. To give a pulse and feel for the twists and turns 2009 will bring shippers and carriers alike, Inbound Logistics invited seven leading trucking executives to share their insight and opinion in Ask the Big Wheels.
Sourcing LTL and TL shipments is at the core of transportation departments. In On the Move, John Edwards takes a peak behind closed doors and explores a day in the life of three transportation managers who stick to the basics to stoke greater efficiencies and economies in their respective enterprises.
Transportation managers can appreciate the planning and diligence necessary to bring food to the table. As a dessert to our main editorial entrées, How’d That Get On My Plate? cultivates the implicit challenges shippers face when transporting seasonal harvests to seasoned demand.
As always, the anchor of this issue is the Logistics Planner Profiles directory (p.327), an in-depth index of leading logistics players. These market leaders know a thing or two about transportation and logistics fundamentals. Bookmark and revisit these need-to-see profiles, and reach out to the companies featured as you work your way through the year.
Readers tell us the Logistics Planner issue isn’t a “scan and can” read. So share it with your peers, distribute it among your staff and supply chain partners, download it from our Web site. Spread the word, and use the Logistics Planner to build a measure of success in 2009.
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to the IL staff, who worked tirelessly and passionately to produce this issue: Michael Murphy, Mary Brennan, Shawn Kelloway, Joseph O’Reilly, Catherine Harden, and Sonia Casiano all bring an extra measure of talent and devotion to their craft.