Articles
Commentary
Thinking Inside the Box Truck
While most people are at least somewhat familiar with box trucks, these little workhorses don’t get enough credit. Also known as straight trucks or bobtails, they are usually 26 feet long and can carry up to 10,000 pounds of freight. They can also come in small (12 ft.) and medium size (14-18 ft.) configurations.
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Auto Industry Shifts Logistics Strategies
While companies across industries and sizes are making changes to mitigate supply chain risk, the automotive industry seems to be leading the way on some of the top trends.
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Market Swing: Prepare Now or Lose Later
Market indicators are pointing to a stronger second half of the year—in carriers’ favor—signaling to prudent shippers that the time is now to reevaluate both short- and long-term plans.
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Lessons Learned from the 1997 UPS Strike and Their Relevance Today
THEN: In August 1997, the UPS strike that not many thought would happen, did. Not only did it surprise many companies – but worse was its impact: It exposed companies’ reliance on a single carrier for their livelihood. At the time, UPS dominated the ground network and had roughly 75% of the U.S. parcel market. […]
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Artificial Intelligence in Fleet Management: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using AI Resources in Fleet Operations
Today’s highly sophisticated and evolving artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools and resources, including ones that leverage natural language processing like ChatGPT and Google’s new AI product Bard, are creating many new opportunities for organizations. However, the actual impact AI will have on transportation fleets in the areas of improved equipment asset management strategies, and operations such […]
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This Ain’t Your Parents’ Inventory Cycle
Speculation has been mounting that the inventory cycle is back. Profit warnings by major American companies such as GAP, Walmart, and Target that had taken on excess inventories and now needed to run them down raised concerns that a concerted drawdown of stocks could make a likely U.S. recession worse.
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Hurricane Season – 11 Questions to Ask Yourself
Hurricane season for 2023 is upon us. And it’s never too late to be properly prepared. It’s always better to be over-prepared and then nothing happens than to be under-prepared and a major storm comes your way. Every business owner, regardless of the type of work they do, should address the following 11 questions in […]
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GOOD QUESTION: What one supply chain adjustment would make the biggest impact on ESG?
Mature your data so you can use it like Google Maps. Sustained ESG marries continuous improvement with reporting and analysis—predicated on trustworthy data. Every company has a different origin, destination, and journey. Equip your organization with dependable navigation skills by building data intelligence and embedding a culture of data-driven action.
–Michael Ochi
Sr. Manager, Sustainability and Digital Manufacturing
QAD
Warehouse Location Automation
If a robot told you where to go, would you listen? Choosing a domestic distribution site is a well-honed science with several schools of thought. Some supply chain practitioners favor the mega-DC approach, while others use retail locations to do double-duty as efulfillment centers. Other practices include a blended approach to match evolving customer demand.
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3 Strategies for Supply Chain Resilience
Supply chain disruptions can cost an organization 45% of its annual profits over the course of a decade, which makes figuring out how to live with disruption critical, as a global economy built on clear predictability is not viable.
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How to Combat Fraudulent Losses
Retail and ecommerce is experiencing a massive digital transformation, and with this comes an increase in bad actors who embrace innovation and take advantage of the latest digital fraud practices as well.
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Steps to AI Success in Your Warehouse
As global ecommerce expands, fulfillment operations need to look to artificial intelligence (AI) to keep pace with the demands of today’s digital supply chain. More and more organizations are considering digital technologies such as AI to improve supply chain performance.
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If You Don’t Quantify Risk, COVID Didn’t Teach You Anything
No one would argue after the events of the past three years that supply chains aren’t broken. Wild discrepancies between supply and demand resulted in a crazy roller coaster effect that vacillated between too much inventory and empty shelves. Billions of dollars of goods sat for weeks or more on transatlantic barges while consumers cashed their stimulus checks, ready to spend.
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The Coming Wave of ESG Reporting Regulations: How Should Businesses Prepare?
The goal is to showcase ESG data that can withstand the scrutiny of not just regulators, but all stakeholders who will use it to make comparisons among companies in the way they do with financial data today. The time to take action is now.
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GOOD QUESTION: How would you describe your job in five words or less?
Keeping it cold, when hot. –Jake McPaul Head of Refrigerated Operations and Product WARP Supply chain innovation evangelist. –Chris Jones EVP Industry Descartes Bringing transparency to carrier negotiations. –Josh Dunham CEO and Co-founder Reveel Fresh challenges around every corner. –Crissy Hatfield Dispatcher Xcel Delivery Services Expanding the potential of automation. –Matt Somerville Director of Sales […]
Read More4 Reasons for the Warehouse Investment Boom
Right behind the frenzied investment in ChatGPT and related AI is an investment boomlet in distribution center and warehouse automation and robotics. Four convergent trends are at work here. 1. Driven by current economic challenges is the necessity to extract every ounce of ROI from each sale’s dependency on inventory and the infrastructure that supports […]
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Rail Must Prioritize Safety Over Profits
Since the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, the full impact of the devastation to that community is yet to be seen. Although more than 1,000 derailments happen each year, it’s unacceptable that they are considered a simple cost of doing business. Our communities and the industries that rely on railroads to carry their products need and expect the rail industry to do better.
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Don’t Blame Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing has been blamed for the recent supply chain crisis, with critics claiming lean and just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing encouraged extremely low inventories of raw materials and components. When the pandemic arrived, and supplies were disrupted, manufacturers had to stop production due to material shortages. This had cascading effects all the way down the supply […]
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4 Tips for Procurement Logistics Pros to Weather Economic Storms
For logistics procurement, the past 12 months have been a continual, yet perfect storm. First, the pandemic exposed a decades-old model based on low transportation costs. Then the conflict in Ukraine created a fresh set of problems, including a huge spike in energy prices. The relative certainty that procurement and supply chain organizations enjoyed at […]
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FMCSA – Safety Is in Your Name. Stay in Your Lane.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s decision to further regulate freight rates, building upon a piece of 1980s regulation that requires brokers to share a copy of the pricing for each transaction with their carriers, is anti-free market and anti-business—and does nothing to solve real problems that impact everyone from carriers to consumers.
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