Leading Logistics to the Fourth Dimension
This past year has brought growth, mergers, and a steady move toward collaboration among supply chain suppliers and users. The supply chain community is growing up—and boldly—in a not-so-confident e-commerce world. There is a big difference between B2B supply chain organizations and standard fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants e-commerce companies. The strong will survive and the poorly thought through […]
Selecting A Supply Chain Management System
Choosing supply chain management (SCM) software can be the single most important decision a logistics manager can make. This solution can be one that drives your business to 99.8-percent fulfillment levels or drives it into the ground. Blinco Systems Inc. (www.blinco.com) offers this 10-point checklist to use when interviewing vendors and evaluating SCM software packages. […]
e-Commerce Change Is in the Air
In 1995, a major financial services firm said, “our customers will never go on-line to trade.” Five years later, the landscape of that sector has changed significantly with a whole new way of doing business and with a cadre of new companies that are formidable competitors. To some degree, the transportation sector, and specifically air […]
Choosing Technology Over Nuts and Bolts
Picture this Information Technology (IT) department of a transoceanic shipping company: Hundreds of programmers sitting in front of computer screens. Managers training employees on outdated systems in use for 20 years. Phone calls from business unit heads wondering why legacy work is delaying project deadlines. This was Sea-Land in 1992, when I became CIO. Yet […]
Cross-Pollination and Excellence
Remember way back in high school bio class when you learned about J. Gregor Mendel’s experiments with peas? I bet you said to yourself, “What am I learning this for? I’ll never use it. I’m not gonna be a farmer.” Guess again, Mr. Greenjeans! You’re all grown up now, and you are the world’s finest […]
Dot.com Fever
No doubt about it. Throughout 1999 and early 2000, Dot-coms were hot, hot, hot! The opportunities offered by the Internet were seized by a whole new breed of entrepreneurs—bold and brave, innovative and uninhibited. Often their ideas—and their businesses—went from conception to realization in a matter of months. Their companies were unencumbered by the overhead […]
New Logistics Portal Saves Money on Every Shipment
Supply chain portals are growing in number, uniqueness, and breadth of service to all partners. They will continue to grow, given the ever-increasing usefulness of conducting supply chain management on the web and the constant growth of new technologies in this area. One new portal, which went live in November 2000, is worth noting. LTLNET.com, […]
Transportation Software: A Guide for the Perplexed
Making the right transportation software choice is harder than ever. More than 60 Internet transportation dot.coms have launched in the last 12 months alone. If you’re like most people, you’re wondering: “How can I make sense of all these companies?” The good news: the Internet can provide enormous productivity gains for transportation and logistics companies. […]
Get Customer-Centric or Get E-liminated
Ask three people to define e-commerce, and you’ll end up with three disparate answers. The problem is that companies use e-commerce to define varying degrees of involvement in e-business. Some companies think they conduct e-commerce because they have e-mail. Some believe that the mere presence of a web site constitutes an e-commerce approach. The fact […]
Carpe Diem Logistica
For purists, 2001 is when the new millennium really starts. For this magazine, 2001 marks the beginning of our 21st year of publication. It also marks the beginning of the third decade of championing the inbound approach that advanced the idea of traffic management from its humble, if not important, beginnings to an engine of […]
The Lights Are On But No One’s Home
We have a saying in the big city, “the lights are on but no one’s home.” By the time you read this, in California at least, everyone may be home but the lights may be off. Chalk another one up to federal and state energy policy pooh-bah’s polymorphic foul-ups. They hit the off switch. Few […]
Automatic Information: The Supply Chain Goes Live
As the pressure for speed and accuracy increases within the supply chain, companies constantly search for technology to deliver goods quickly and reliably. To meet that demand, an ever-increasing number of end user communication solutions—such as RF devices, subtle bar-code readers, cell phones, and personal digital assistants—have been developed and marketed in the past 10 […]
The Right Route with the Right Rate
Can a dot.com company take complexity and cost out of supply chain management? SupplyLinks says it can.
Stress-Free Shipping: The Reseller’s Way
Are you the owner of a small- to medium-sized business looking for ways to give your customers better service? Have you encountered stress in your business even as you’ve searched for something as seemingly simple as an overnight shipping service? In addition to the cost of transporting a package, perhaps you’ve had questions of dependability […]
Online vs. Offline Shopping: Retailers Must Respond
E- tailing has emerged as a significant retail force—consumers are shopping online. Now it’s up to traditional brick and mortar retailers to respond. With even more recent pressure on pure-play dot.com retailers, an integrated retail strategy seems to be in mode. Whether you adopt the creative label, or simply treat the Internet as a channel […]
This Land is Your Land: Real Estate Cuts Costs
As competition among 3PL firms continues to increase, finding new ways to reduce your operating costs and maximize supply chain efficiencies becomes increasingly important. A 1999 analysis of the logistics industry found that an estimated eight cents on each dollar spent on logistics can be allocated to the warehouse with the majority, or 59 cents, […]
Sharing Your Logistics Wealth
Hats off to the National Industrial Transportation League, which has joined with Transportation.com and Transportation for Tots to collect toys and cash for needy kids at its annual conference and at other transportation-related events. Transportation.com also teamed up with e-Toys.com this holiday season for a six-week online toy collection campaign. These folks know that logisticians—and […]
Part of the Ship’s Engine, Not Part of the Load
It’s amazing what we can learn if we stop talking long enough to listen. As a CEO, there are so many occasions to speak, to describe, to explain, and to present our ideas. But I find that the most valuable experiences are those that offer the chance to simply hear—really HEAR and fully UNDERSTAND—what those […]
Delivering B2B Supply Chain Flexibility
The stakes continue to rise in the online business-to-business world. Despite the still rapid entry of new dot.com players—1,000 new sites since the beginning of the year—Forrester Research predicts that within three years, less than 200 will remain. While there are many reasons for the falloff, the main reason is that many sites do not […]
Redefining e-Business Through Connectivity
Looking to connect seamlessly with all your trading partners without investing in information technology? ECOutlook.com can help.
Supply Chain Revolution Is In Your Hands
Corporate leaders today recognize what logistics professionals have always known: supply chain performance can have a significant dollars-and-cents impact on an organization’s market share and profitability. The evidence is compelling. For example, best-in-class companies spend five to six percent less on supply chain management as a percentage of sales than median performers, according to The […]
Getting On Board with Windows CE
Although on-board computers have been used in the transportation and logistics industry for more than a decade, most have been single-function proprietary devices that users could not customize. Now, multi-function, open-systems devices are available that operate all applications, are user programmable, and can be connected to corporate data networks with widely used protocols. Industries such […]
Securing America’s Future by Riding the ITS Wave
Ocean liner service is the backbone of international transportation for manufactured goods. General cargo ships, sailing on regular schedules along established trade lanes, annually move more than 1.2 billion metric tons of consumer, industrial, and military commodities ranging from fatigues and milling machines to perfume and designer jeans. In the past 10 years, the number […]
Happy Holidays! Are You Ready?
Is all your product staged for this holiday season? Some companies were not ready for the shopping frenzy last year, and it wasn’t just the dot.com failure to execute and deliver in time. Low inventory levels and faster moving supply chains, given the growing practice of inbound logistics, offer high rewards but there are high […]
Leveraging the Power of XML for Supply Chain Integration
Using the Internet to automate the supply chain process is a growing worldwide trend. While many players from diverse backgrounds have entered the field, that does not mean they all have the right stuff to make it in this market. These players—whether providers or users—have to keep in mind the need for new and robust […]
Keeping it in the Family: ODW Logistics Gets Personal
ODW takes customers into the future by being flexible and implementing solutions that meet their needs.
Logistics Land and Supply Chain City
One of the more interesting ideas to come along the business philosophy turnpike in recent years is the concept of the “experience economy.” Spurred on by consumers who want not only goods and services, but also immersion in memorable encounters, providers began looking for ways to maximize the experience potential of their businesses. The most […]
From Market Position To Eco-System
The door to dialogue is open! In the April and May issues of Inbound Logistics, this column focused on the ways our business is changing. Rapidly. Dramatically. And permanently! I invited readers to respond with their thoughts and their experiences, and respond you did. You wrote about increasing the velocity of supply chains, synchronizing activities, […]
ACCUSHIP.com: A Leader in the Pack
ACCUSHIP may come closest to providing a single-source solution for managing motor freight on the web.
Collaboration… It’s More Than Visibility
Collaboration. The use of this term in business-to-business marketing is equivalent to “free” in consumer marketing. It’s catchy, it’s new and, best of all, no one knows what it really means. Collaboration has been used to describe open-market bids, trade exchanges, shipment tracing/tracking, sharing order status information, and more. But what is collaboration really? What […]
Understand the Net, Don’t Get Caught In It
This past year has seen an unprecedented move toward consolidation of the supply chain and the Internet. It also has seen a major push toward integrated trading exchanges. These trends are keeping consultants such as Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR), The Gartner Group, Dataquest, and Aberdeen Group pretty busy. Here’s a look at what these analysts […]
On-the-Go Transport Management
Palm Inc. partners with freightquote.com to provide on-the-go bidding, scheduling, and shipment tracking.
E-Commerce Changes Rules for Back-End Operations
Prior to 1999, every aspect of back-end support operations for the direct marketing industry was tailored to meet the typical cataloger’s needs. In the 1970s and 1980s, direct marketing was limited to the mailbox, and order processing and fulfillment operations were designed to meet the catalog or direct mail customer’s demands. The costs and requirements […]
Warehouse Without Wires
Last month in this column, Publisher Keith Biondo gave voice to the challenge of adapting to Internet change as a growing tide of logistics dot.coms sweeps our industry. His head hurt from trying to keep up with this Internet thing—so much change, so many choices. Well, just as the pain was easing (we thought), they’ve […]
Life in the Fast Lane
There used to be those who viewed logistics as a slightly sleepy business. Sure, we worked against the clock, we moved things along, we met our customers’ timetables, we worked very hard to get products safely and on time to the places they had to be. But the pace, compared to the way we move […]
WMS: The Hub of Customer Service
Sometimes, accessible information is more important than automated processes.
Specialty Products: Don’t Get Boxed In
Thinking outside the box is good advice to follow—both figuratively and literally—when it comes to shipping odd-sized, high-value products such as structural components, store fixtures, trade show exhibits, display cases, office furnishings, computers, and related merchandise. Indeed the box or crate, with its attendant cost and downtime delays of packing and handling, can critically limit […]
Buying an ERP System in the Internet Age
The standard business model on which an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is based is inherently inward-looking. An ERP system, typically with client-server architecture and a Windows interface, works on the assumption that a fairly small number of company employees within a specific department will need to access an application. The advent of the Internet […]
Is Your Supply Chain Achieving Customer Loyalty?
Business logistics executives face four major challenges: Achieving dramatic reductions in time-to-market. Creating value for shareholders. Marketing their supply chain as a competitive edge. Earning customer loyalty. Organizations must focus time, attention, and dollars on these areas. While many companies have plans to achieve challenges one through three, market leaders know that without true customer […]
Start-me-up, Scotty!
In the classic Star Trek series, whenever someone wanted to go from here to there in an instant, they just said, “Beam-me-up, Scotty,” and there they’d be. It was more than transportation. It was transformation. And “beaming up” might be a way to describe what is happening today. Our bold new 21st Century has vaulted […]
Global e-Logistics Comes of Age
The technologies available through the Internet, combined with ongoing advances in logistics software development, have given supply chain management an enormous boost—far greater than those who first promulgated the supply chain could have anticipated. The scale of solutions has increased while the volume of transactions has grown at a staggering rate. This is a time […]
Online Recruiting: Set Your Sights on These Job Sites
Vertical dot.coms make it easy, economical, and expedient to recruit logistics professionals.
The e-Enabling of Hub Group
The advantages of collaborative partnerships in the emerging world of e-business logistics are numerous. As portals, application service providers, and other services burst forth into this arena, it is important to understand that no enterprise is large enough to do it all alone. Hub Group Inc., Lombard, Ill., a non-asset-based transportation management company specializing in […]
iLink Global: Rockin’ and Rollin’ with E-Logistics
iLink Global acts as a logistics bodyguard for e-commerce fulfillment of rare collectibles and fine art purchases.
Staying Up to Speed with Non-Stop Demand
The demand side of the supply chain continues to undergo major changes in strategies and technologies. The scale of consumer demand—and the need for both accurate forecasting and a fast response to demand—acts as the driving force. Fast response time is king of the market. While the Internet has been given a lot of credit […]
Online Customer Service Gets Personal
The Right Start Inc. has created a dynamic symbiotic relationship between its web site and physical storefronts, providing exceptional customer service for every potential sale.
Real Estate Companies Deliver Distribution Solutions
In today’s economy, companies are experiencing an increased amount of pressure to deliver their products to market more rapidly and cost-efficiently. Customers have little tolerance for lengthy delays in the fulfillment cycle, and they reject the exorbitant costs often required to deliver the products to market more efficiently. To avoid these pitfalls, companies have begun […]
And Millennium Realities
It might be fun to take a trip in that logistics time machine the publisher talks about on the previous page, but prudence dictates we take a look at our logistics realities. A dichotomy exists in our market between those who get it and those who don’t, those who lead in logistics best practices and […]
Millennium Musings…
Standing in the doorway of the 20th century, 19th century scientists and engineers couldn’t imagine they lacked a true understanding of their reality. They knew there would be inventions, new developments, but they believed they had a clear picture of their world and its physical limits. “The basic fundamental principles governing the behavior of our […]
Capturing a ‘Supply Chain Moment’
A “Kodak moment” can be the moment that grandma sees the new baby or Aunt Helen gives the proud graduate a check. What is a “supply chain moment”? The supply chain deals with a very complex set of technologies and issues. Technologies are stacked over the supply chain like planes over O’Hare on Thanksgiving. Any […]
Logistics IT News for the New Year
Here are several recent Logistics Information Technology solutions and newsworthy events.
Reaching the Pinnacle of SCM Success
Leading supply chain software developers are taking a more creative and inventive view of intelligent practice in applying their solutions. The idea of one company doing it all is usually dismissed; many SCM providers are now carving out niches of specialization. But one company is taking a different approach—many companies under one parent offering an […]
Anyone Can Sell on the Web, But Can You Deliver Worldwide?
Through its GLS software, Syntra addresses the three significant areas of constraint that inevitably impede international trade—regulatory compliance, financials, and logistics management.
Positioning the Supply Chain in a Volatile Market
The supply chain and its attendant technology is a warp-speed moving target that responds to enterprise strategy changes, the intelligent moves and vagaries of the Big Six accounting firms, the latest acronyms of the supply chain consulting community, and the shifting forces of the marketplace. The need for faster response time alone has ushered in […]
Will E-Commerce Deliver Holiday Demand?
A cornucopia of new logistics IT solutions offers much to be thankful for this holiday season.
Richter’s Model for Success
The merging of global sourcing and transportation with industry-specific manufacturing creates a golden opportunity for software providers. The apparel and fashion business in particular is prime territory. Staking its claim to this territory is Richter Systems Inc., based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1968, Richter focuses its software applications on the apparel industry. “The apparel […]
Celarix: E-Logistics From Any Desktop
A total application service provider brings Internet-based, web-browser access to logistics management.
QUALCOMM: Managing Information in Motion
While many technologies have been brought to bear on the supply chain, none have exceeded the importance of the advances in communication. It is all right and good to get products resourced, manufactured and distributed, but if the level of communication to accomplish these tasks is not of the highest order, business is not being […]
Taking a Community Network Approach to the Supply Chain
The increasing growth of e-commerce is not just augmenting normal business practice; it is changing how people do business and what kind of business they do. The necessities of global sourcing, global selling, global manufacturing, global logistics and global distribution have placed managing a successful business in a whole new context. RockPort Trade Systems, Gloucester, […]
McHugh’s Road Leads to Integrated Logistics System
There are as many roads to supply chain management as roads to Rome. One road is to concentrate on integrating the various levels of logistics execution—such as warehouse management, distribution management, labor management and transportation management—which allow the product to move from its point of origin to its consumption as fast as possible, at the […]
A Supply Chain Alliance for Progress
No single LIT vendor can meet every need of every user within the supply chain. But there’s strength in numbers. Paragon Management Systems, EDS/A.T. Kearney, Sun Microsystems, and Selectica have formed an interesting alliance offering a complete supply chain solution. Each company brings something vital to the table. Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif., provides the […]
Crossdocking: The Supply Chain Core
Crossdocking has become a key technology in handling products and packages properly within the supply chain. For crossdocking to come of age, certain technologies had to be firmly in place, including portable and fixed bar-code equipment, data collection terminals, software applications, a dedicated database, a network or a combination of network and radio frequency devices. […]
The Summit Group: Logistics Pros
Functions that used to operate in silos, such as warehousing and transportation, must now answer to the greater demands of the supply chain. In turn, the supply chain must answer to its primary driver—the customer. Providing satisfaction to the customer has become the means by which an enterprise achieves its own business goals. Providing exceptional […]
Optum Inc: SCM Execution Solution
We used to talk about warehousing as a place; now we talk about it as a process. New supply chain strategies and technologies are capturing this process. The architecture of logistics information systems is changing as different software applications take possession. For example, MRP II’s replacement, ERP, functionally provides a suite of applications that handles […]
JD Edwards: The Fourth Wave of Supply Chain Management
The dynamics of the supply chain as a strategy, as a market, and as a set of technologies are creating a tidal wave of change. One company riding the crest of the wave is J.D. Edwards, Denver, Colo. Best known for its very strong position in the ERP market and recent phenomenal growth surge, J.D. […]
Can Competitors Unite On Your Behalf?
In 1997, DSC Communications Corporation, a $1.6-billion telecom equipment maker based in Plano, Texas, decided to get radical. In an attempt to streamline the number of freight forwarders not only swarming its docks, but swamping the progressive company with paperwork, DSC turned to outsourcing. Putting its domestic, international, and van line segments out for bid, […]
Got Milk?
What did you have for breakfast this morning? A bowl of Wheaties at your kitchen table? No? You stopped at McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin, or you upscaled your way to Starbucks for coffee and a croissant, didn’t you? I know, I know. Who has time to sit down for breakfast anymore? If you actually […]
Turning Traditional Software Upside Down
The supply chain’s fast lane is getting faster. Camelot IS-2, Cambridge, Mass., (www.camelot-is2.com) offers a product called skyva that is aimed at optimizing the supply chain process.” skyva enables the integration of best-of-breed applications and provides flexible, scalable, and dynamic enterprise software solutions,” says Dr. Guenther Moeckesch, Camelot chairman and CEO. skyva is generated directly […]
Logistics Success: Take it to the Bank
Global economics plus smart financing equals huge opportunities. But overseas trade presents many logistics risks that can cause lending institutions to hesitate in financing all the working capital needs of their clients. The success of a transaction depends on a well-oiled logistics process, with the job finished only when the goods satisfactorily reach the customer’s […]
Logistics for the Common Man
Since I started editing Inbound Logistics in 1984, IL’s mission has been to help companies of all types and all sizes adopt new logistics ideas; specifically to take a pull approach to logistics. As I plan our editorial coverage for next year, I’m hearing more and more from readers at small and mid-size companies who […]
ERO Enhances Supply Chain Software
As Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) expands out into the supply chain, its reach, and many of its functions, takes on a different set of characteristics. These characteristics include increased access to information, greater efficiency among various enterprise functions, and a better handle on easier implementing, better planning, and optimal producing. PeopleSoft, Pleasanton, Calif., refers to […]
The Price of Progress: Affordable E-Commerce
Netscape’s electronic commerce exchange software provides a transparent infrastructure to streamline supply chain networks.
Creating and Managing Intermodal Partnerships
Much has been written about creating “partnerships” in business today. Increasingly, the word implies more than just establishing a close cooperation between two parties and maintaining an acceptable level of service. “Partnership” has become synonymous with forging a true vendor-customer alliance to achieve predetermined objectives and proactively identifying ways to provide the best service at […]
Tax Credit Gives Boost to Boston
The state of Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, have drawn sustenance from the ocean and its maritime industries for more than 300 years. Now, as the 21st century approaches, U.S. ports, including the Port of Boston, have to reinvent themselves to meet the changing global economy. One of the biggest challenges facing U.S. ports is […]
How To Not Get ‘Dissed’
In the parlance of the street, getting “dissed” means getting disrespected. In the business realm, many intermediaries, or middlemen (distributors, for example) are worried about getting dissed another way, falling victim to the disintermediation trend. That’s a lot of alphabet, but it means simply that technology, the Internet, and the need for corporate efficiency has […]
Balancing Inventory With Customer Service
A key link in the supply chain is the management of inventory and its vital replenishment. Manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers all have a large stake in the process. Cooperative replenishment can lead to inventory reduction, sales growth, and reduced management and processing expenses. Supply Chain Solutions, Williamsville, N.Y., offers inventory management services specifically for […]
FedEx APIs Create Cinderella Success Stories
FedEx’s ShipAPI leverages the internet, eliminating order errors and the need for middleman distribution.
Thinking of Outsourcing? Ask Me Two Questions
A potential customer who was considering outsourcing her logistics operations recently asked me two thoughtful questions. The questions are fundamental, yet critical to ensuring that you, as the customer, share with your 3PL providers a common understanding of the task at hand. Her first question: What is logistics? The proliferation of logistics directories illustrates the […]
JIT II Partnerships Require Leap of Faith
United Printing was in the unique position in 1986 to be part of Bose Corporation’s now-famous JIT II experiment. Under this new approach to managing business logistics, Bose consolidated all its printing with one JIT II partner—United Printing—in exchange for immediate cost reduction, an inplant representative, and a defined ceiling on all pricing. Twelve years […]
Force of Nature
Say what you want about the trucking industry, but it has never been more exciting for carriers. Opportunities for growth are great, but “little” errors or lack of vision can have fatal results. What fun, as customers pull carriers in seemingly opposite directions. Demands for inventory reduction and the resultant “efficiency” mindset drives this trend, […]
Warehouse Management Takes on the Supply Chain
Extending themselves beyond the four walls of the warehouse and into the world of the supply chain, Warehouse Management Systems have become powerful tools. Most now serve one of the three key functions of the supply chain – source, make and distribute – as defined by SCOR. The evolution from warehouse preoccupation to distribution management […]
DHL Simplifies International Transportation
DHL Connect Automates the Processes Required to Transport and Track Global Shipments.
All You Need To Know About Co-loading
Many businesses are unfamiliar with the concept of co-loading, and wonder whether this practice can benefit their operations. Here are some answers to common questions about co-loading. What is co-loading? Co-loading is the equivalent of ride sharing for freight transportation. It is the consolidation of shipments across multiple companies on the same transportation vehicles. Companies […]