Feature Stories
137 Tips for a Fully Charged Supply Chain
The ultimate list of tips for charging up your supply chain to full power in 2021 and beyond.
Reverse Logistics: It's All Coming Back to Me Now
Using reverse logistics strategies, shippers can recoup maximum value on a product when the first sale doesn't work out.
3PL Warehousing Gets In the Zone
By working as partners, third-party logistics providers and shippers take on today's warehousing challenges.
Everything's Coming Up Roses
As soon as a flower is picked at the farm, floral logistics blooms into a complex arrangement of proper packaging, refrigeration, and speed—especially during the holidays.
IoT, AI, ML: Keeping Innovation in Sight
Leaders set their sights on the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to enhance visibility, cut costs, and power growth.
Trucking Relationships: In It for the Long Haul
The pandemic is testing shipper-carrier partnerships in new and different ways. Here’s what transportation partners are doing to reconnect and keep their relationships healthy for the long haul.
Listen Up! 12 Essential Podcasts from Inbound Logistics
Future-proof operations, jump e-commerce hurdles, and perfect your digital transformation strategy with these must-listen episodes from our extensive library of discussions with logistics leaders.
2021 Winter Reading Guide
Delve into these logistics reads to learn about revitalizing retail, the inner workings of supermarkets, and a playbook for competing in a digital-first environment.
Logistics Challenges: Small Businesses Clear the Bar
These agile small and mid-sized businesses have picked up the pace to vault over supply chain challenges, including the pandemic.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Recovery Strategies
Expert advice on how supply chain leaders can continue to rise above unprecedented challenges through building on resilience, rethinking peak season, strengthening cold chain distribution, and even collaborating with competitors.
3 Underreported Trends That Will Accelerate Reshoring
Interest in reshoring is accelerating, according to Thomas research. Here are three under-reported trends that will help manufacturers speed up their reshoring efforts.
11 Supply Chain Predictions for 2021
Businesses got through 2020 with creative pivots and adjustments, but what’s to come in 2021? Experts are focusing on these trends as they look at the year ahead.
Uncorking Last-Mile Bottlenecks
To move goods to customers’ doorsteps efficiently, safely, and quickly, many companies need to overcome strained distribution networks, time-consuming manual processes, driver shortages, and urban congestion. Here are the latest last-mile innovations.
Case Studies
DC Solutions
Legend Valve Opens Fulfillment Spigot
The integration between 6 River Systems collaborative mobile robots called Chucks, Packsize, and JD Edwards’ ERP systems doubled Legend Valves’ pick rates and increased its order management and shipping accuracy.
e-Tales
Working Like a Dog to Fill Pet Food Surge Orders
A niche pet food company thrives during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a long-standing partnership with its third-party logistics provider.
I.T. Toolkit
SerVaas Laboratories Cleans Up with Business Intelligence
When a company's employee roster includes 100 workers but the products are sold in one dozen countries, accurate sales and inventory data is critical. Business intelligence solutions, however, have traditionally exceeded the budgets of small to mid-sized companies.
LeaderSHIP
An All-American Leader
Jessica Tyler learned in her early career as a teacher that the best way to help people reach their potential is to have a relationship with them, which shaped her open-book leadership style as president of cargo at American Airlines.
Reader Profile
Sylvia Wilks: Kicking the Tires
In her previous role managing supplier relationships at Starbucks, Sylvia Wilks learned what good customer service really looks like. Now that she supplies customers at TireHub, she knows how to meet their expectations and build the national tire distributor’s customer-centric culture.
Commentary
How-To
Ten Tips
Optimizing LTL Shipping
Less-than-truckload (LTL) freight shipping is critical to everyday commerce and is an economical way to ship palletized or loose freight. Here’s how to do it well.
Sponsored
Aptitive Helps 3PL Derive Insights from Data with Real-Time Analytics Platform
A Chicago-based 3PL turned to Aptitive to design a scalable data and analytics modernization platform. Aptitive delivered a solution that not only helped the provider, but their customers as well.
Accelerating Innovation to Meet Supply Chain Challenges
These three winning projects exemplify ID Logistics' mission to continually drive process improvements and boost service levels.
Knowledge Base
Data Management—Vital Today - Freight Management Inc.
There are value points in managing information gathered from a strong TMS system that can also provide a solid pre-audit program to double check accuracy of bills before payment.
Knowledge Base
Bringing Transportation in Sync with the World
True digital transformation requires the ability to think beyond the next load or the next order to find new and enduring ways to match fluctuating demand with capacity and connect relevant industry partners in efficient ways.
Knowledge Base
Is the Logistics Sector Ready for the COVID-19 Vaccine?
The last mile will have to accommodate the reliable distribution of the billions of vaccines that providers will manufacture and ship in 2021. Here are the obstacles facing the supply chain.
Knowledge Base
Keeping Your Eye on the Prize: What Formula One Can Teach Us About the RFP Process
When managing your next RFP, make sure you have the right tools in place that eliminate inefficiencies and allow you to keep your eye on the prize—finalizing and executing the routing guide.
Knowledge Base
Pandemic Spurs Accelerated Investment in Supply Chain Automation, Digital Technologies
How will digital technologies and automated solutions help your supply chain succeed in this new, post-pandemic reality? For starters, they increase resilience in the face of disruption and support your workforce.
Knowledge Base
Inventory Management: Two Key Indicators to Improve Warehouse Operations
Calculating the coverage rate and the turnover rate are excellent ways to add resiliency to your supply chain. To do this you will need a solution in which you can accurately track data in real time.
Solved!
Getting Crafty with Supply Chain Solutions - Verst Logistics
Verst Logistics helped an arts and crafts supplies company address peak season challenges and growing sales by expanding its supply chain capabilities.
Solved!
Holman Logistics Uses Artificial Intelligence to Increase Forklift Safety
Holman partners with OneTrack to bring AI solutions to the issue of forklift accidents.
Solved!
SEKO Partnership Provides Ecommerce Efficiencies for Retailers
Retailer Shein streamlined supply chain operations by leveraging a partnership with Air-City and SEKO, which enables shippers to move express e-commerce orders quickly across international borders..
Solved!
Partnering with a Nonprofit to Provide COVID-19 Relief to the Navajo Nation
Echo Global Logistics partners with a nonprofit organization to deliver thousands of water containers to the Navajo Nation in support of COVID-19 relief.
Solved!
Solutions for the Unprecedented
Meeting the unprecedented challenges of 2020, CFI leveraged its resources and delivered effective solutions for its partners.
Solved!
Warehouse Safety Best Practices: Building a Program
To build a program that has the strength and support to last, follow these practices and leverage your staff’s experience and expertise.
Solved!
Mode Shift to Eliminate Supply Chain Disruption
When supply chains require unique equipment and depend on damage-free, on-time service, partnering with a carrier such as PITT OHIO, that can execute mode optimization strategies, can impact the success of your business.
Solved!
3PL Outsourcing Beyond the Initial Goals
RedStone understands that cost savings are just a part of each client relationship; a 3PL must provide more if the relationship is to withstand the demands of an ever-changing supply chain.
Thought Leaders
Scaling SCM Ecosystems—Boardroom Insights
Modernizing the ecosystems while keeping up the ongoing business operations is the reality of every business. The current ecosystem, future solution expectations, and resource models are the drivers that determine the program's pace.
Thought Leaders
Agility, Data, and No-Code: Three Trends for the Future
Advances in data integration, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are changing every part of the supply chain.
Thought Leaders
Outsourcing Helps Close IT Gaps and Meet Milestones
By leveraging DDC FPO's expansive range of programming languages and skill levels, carriers can offer a consistent experience regardless of each shipper’s individual IT investment.
Thought Leaders
Build Supply Chain Resiliency with Digital Transformation
Adopting an integrated transportation management system delivers consistent ROI and helps create a resilient supply chain.
Thought Leaders
Converging Order and Logistics Management on One Platform
Today's technology empowers brands to offer a range of diverse, quality products, as well as customizable delivery or omni-channel fulfillment options to their customers.
Thought Leaders
New Directions in U.S.-Mexico Trade and Logistics
As U.S.-Mexico trade is flourishing, Port Tampa Bay is well positioned to accommodate the continued strong growth of its container business.
Thought Leaders
The Three Trends Driving Supply Chain Efficacy in 2021
An advanced solution that marries both technology and people through business intelligence reporting and automation is the only way forward for today's supply chains.
Thought Leaders
E-Commerce Trends Drive Automation Initiatives
Automation is the answer when it comes to adjusting supply chain operations to support increasing e-commerce fulfillment. It’s a tool set to make your employees more productive, and more effective. Instead of bringing on more people, you increase the value of the people you have.
Thought Leaders
Managing Transitions Effectively to Enhance Project Success
The effectiveness of a transition, from switching 3PLs to moving facilities, depends on how well the change is managed. It is essential to have a documented project plan and a dedicated project manager with experience across multiple disciplines.
Past Issues
Digital Editions
©2021 Thomas Publishing Company
Online ExclusiveCory Turner, Head of Healthcare Strategy, Tecsys
Are We Ready to Deliver the COVID-19 Vaccine?
Is the supply chain ready to deliver COVID-19 vaccines? The supporting technology exists and the resources are in place, but now that the vaccine is available, it's up to the logisticians to connect those dots from end to end.
Online ExclusiveMark Wheeler, Director of Supply Chain Solutions, Zebra Technologies
Warehouse Trends Resulting from the Pandemic
The demands that shaped the industry in 2020 will continue in 2021, leaving warehouses to evaluate how they will keep pace with consumer and commercial demands. The adoption of new technologies will help optimize operations for years to come.
3PL Line: Third-Party Logistics PerspectivesDave Bush
FTL vs. LTL: What's the Difference?
Understanding these seven key differences between shipping full truckload (FTL) and less than truckload (LTL) allows shippers to achieve the best possible results and support planning.
Checking InKeith Biondo
From a Modest Beginning
When we started Inbound Logistics in 1981, the latest technology was using fax machines to distribute routing guides to vendors. Forty years later, we've advanced to using technology in a pivotal year, empowering the demand-driven enterprise.
Checking InFelecia Stratton
A Valid Question
"Inbound logistics" doesn't sound odd now. But in 1980, it was counterculture. Today, many call this approach supply chain management or the demand-driven enterprise. No matter what you call it, the benefits and value are clear.
COVID-19Sean Harapko
Disruption Reinvents the Supply Chain
As COVID-19 changes our world, there has been a dramatic shift in how supply chains are viewed within an organization. It's now increasingly recognized as an area where companies have the most to gain or lose.
EcoDevMary Lamie
How the National Freight Strategic Plan Can Benefit Shippers
The new National Freight Strategic Plan lays out a vision for long-term investments in infrastructure, the workforce, and other essential parts of the freight system aimed at strengthening the nation’s competitiveness.
E_CommerceSteve Cernak
Revisiting Brand Management Policies
The pandemic accelerated the trend of consumers buying more and different products online. Manufacturers concerned about their brand reputations will impose new, or adjust current, brand management policies to account for this new reality.
Good QuestionKatrina Arabe
If you were writing a book on the supply chain in 2020, what would you call it?
With 2020 in the books, Inbound Logistics readers summed up the year with book titles encapsulating the page-turner that was 2020.
Green Landscape: Supply Chain SustainabilityRyan Purcell
Healthier Planet = Healthier Bottom Line
Companies must expand their focus beyond direct costs and simplistic service metrics and take a broader view to understand the sustainability and risk considerations in their network. If done properly, the following changes can promote a healthier planet and bottom line.
IT Matters: Logistics & Supply Chain TechnologyJon Chorley
Building Coherent Enterprise Architecture
To stay competitive, many companies have turned to new solutions like artificial intelligence, IoT, and blockchain for a competitive edge. Many companies, however, failed to address the elephant in the room: the on-premise, decades-old systems they used for core supply chain operations.
Logistics ManagementGlenn P. Clinger III
5 Steps to Process Improvement
As many companies close their doors and others struggle to stay afloat, process improvement has become more important than ever to save money and attain greater efficiency.
Reverse LogisticsKen Bays
Achieving a Sustainable Returns Program
Reverse logistics can be an opportunity for retailers and CPGs with the right approach.
Smart Moves: Supply Chain Careers & Education AdviceBrian Kennedy
Crafting a Notable Job Title
More supply chain jobs are readily available in the economy than there are people to fill them. A great way to take the next step in attracting supply chain talent lies within crafting a notable job title.
Supply Chain SecurityJohn Thielens
How Ransomware Kidnaps Supply Chains
The volume and sophistication of cyberattacks has increased in recent years, but even more so with COVID-19 and the shift to remote work. Most notably, there has been a particularly concerning rise in ransomware attacks.
The Lean Supply ChainPaul A. Myerson
Professional Education: Time to Pay It Forward
While more people are earning supply chain management degrees and certifications, it hasn’t been enough to fill current needs. We need to do our part.
Viewpoint: Logistics & Supply Chain AnalysisCharles Sauer
Rail Price Controls? Ridicule the Thought
The government needs to be looking not at rail freight price controls, but at ways to make the rail industry even more competitive, says Charles Sauer at the Market Institute.