Articles
Commentary
Reopening Fulfillment and Distribution Centers in the Wake of COVID-19
The chaos and disruption from the COVID-19 outbreak is slowly moving toward recovery for businesses. Like most enterprises, fulfillment and distribution centers will not be able to simply “flip a switch” and return to normal operations. The complexity is even greater for networks that span multiple states or countries. Reopening will require a rigorous methodology […]
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USMCA: A Bright Light for Shippers
Many businesses around the country are suffering due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. Small and mid-sized businesses especially are being hit hard, with thousands in survival mode. Furthermore, declines in exports and global commerce are affecting the logistics and transportation sectors. However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.
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How Returns Impact the Warehouse and What You Can Do About It
Returns have always been a challenge, but distributors today are experiencing a surge in returned items and orders. The cost of return deliveries in the United States will increase to $550 billion in 2020, according to Statista. That’s up from $314 billion just four years ago.
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What COVID-19 supply chain pivot impressed you the most? Why?
One Million Masks, founded by Shafqat Islam, which has built a digital supply chain. Powered by UPS, they have secured hundreds of thousands of PPE units for hospitals. Furthermore, it demonstrates a supply chain that was built in months that otherwise would have taken years. Over the coming months, we will continue to see this type of rapid innovation from savvy organizations.
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What’s Lurking in Your Supply Chain?
You may think your company is well protected when it comes to cybersecurity, but an often overlooked source of vulnerability is your supply chain. If you can’t honestly say you are fully apprised of the security postures of your vendors, partners, and contractors, then you are already at major risk of a cyberattack.
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In Defense of You
You’ve failed at logistics. So says David Segal in his recent article entitled "What Happened to the Great American Logistics Machine?" in The New York Times. Here are the article’s punchlines: The virus is "winning at the logistics game," and "let us acknowledge the obvious: The country is flunking a curriculum that it basically wrote." […]
Read MoreWhat’s the most unexpectedly good advice you’ve received about the supply chain?
Speed is not always the solution. Breaking shipments into inventory replenishment and just-in-time SKUs allows price and transit time optimization. Asia-to-U.S.-East-Coast transit through the Panama Canal versus the Suez Canal differs by 7 to 13 days. Pushing inventory cargo to the slower/lower-cost options provides free warehousing on the water while reducing overall landed cost. —Alan […]
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It’s Time to Digitize Your Back Office
Upgrading back-office functions may not be the sexiest subject when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and business automation but, according to IDC research, it goes the furthest.
Read MoreHow Mobile IoT Brings End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility to Life
End-to-end supply chain transparency has proven a difficult-to-attain gold standard, not only by transportation and logistics companies, but by any company that depends on the movement of goods to propel business forward. In the thick of the COVID-19 era and its ripple effects, this need has become even more critical across nearly every sector. The […]
Read MoreAutomation Is the Key to Warehousing During COVID-19
Supply chain managers don’t have to sacrifice worker safety to maintain production levels during coronavirus—warehouse automation can solve the problem. COVID-19 has infected a great number of essential workers in the United States, leading companies on the front lines to implement new safety processes. While the spread of the virus has been grave enough to […]
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