Blogs

The last few years have brought significant changes to the retail landscape, and 2014 will be no exception. While a few brands are delivering on their omnichannel strategies, many are still struggling to meet expectations. The latest retail survey from GT Nexus sheds some light into what today’s consumers expect – and what they’re actually getting.

Consider what the world, and your life, would be like if there were no truck drivers. How would products get from the manufacturers to your door? What would happen to the world’s economy?

I recently attended and co-presented with one of our retail clients to an audience of retailers and distributors at the Vendor Compliance Federation’s (VCF’s) Fall Conference. The amount of time, energy and money companies spend on reporting, capturing and problem-solving around non-compliance is astounding.

The recent downtime experienced by Amazon E3 and Microsoft BPOS has created quite a buzz about the stability of cloud computing. Has your organization proactively made provisions and does it have cloud security best practices in place to protect your vital business data and processes in the event of a natural disaster?

Today, and into the foreseeable future, retailers must move past multi-channel retailing to omni-channel retailing. While the two are similar, omni-channel focuses on creating a homogeneous customer experience across all channels. The customer experience is brand focused, versus channel focused. Brick-and-mortar stores become part of the retailer’s overall supply chain and should be considered an inventory and fulfillment source to meet the demands of their customers.

Many people attribute the reshoring trend to the inflating manufacturing and logistics costs in low cost regions such as Asia. As the cost advantage of offshoring diminishes, will firms eventually all move back to the US? Not necessarily.

In health services, the first duty of care is to the patient. People need to be treated as individuals, and their needs must be addressed in relation to their respective and possibly unique conditions.

Despite Customs remaining largely staffed during the government shutdown, many companies are seeing their import and export operations screeching to a halt as they hit trade roadblocks from other furloughed agencies.

Manufacturing Day would not be complete if it did not offer opportunities to hire our heroes—the men and women who have served in the U.S. military. Veterans play an important role in closing the skills gap. They have skills that make them uniquely suited to careers in manufacturing.

Intermodal can be a key ingredient to any transportation strategy to move an organization toward a multimodal strategy for scalability, flexibility, mitigation of risk and business continuity.

All eyes are on Congress regarding funding to keep the U.S. government open. If the government does shutdown, between 800,000 and 2.1 million employees across the federal government will not be at work. This will include some who work to keep our freight moving safely across the country and the world.

The roadmap in addition to our statement of production also re-affirms our commitment to continue to invest in the product for at least the next five years.

Okta Secures $27 Million to Accelerate International Expansion - Sequoia Capital Leads Series D Round; Okta Appoints Philip Turner As New GM For European Operations.

Is the inbound direct materials supply chain getting the attention it deserves? How can these crippling parts shortages occur? Why is there not greater visibility into this segment of the supply chain?

A program to audit suppliers across multiple tiers of the supply chain is an important first step. That process begins with a supplier code of conduct which provides a baseline for evaluating a supplier’s basic labor and human rights policies.

Easy access to online shopping channels has changed the way that consumers purchase goods. Most retailers would not be surprised to find that e-commerce has outpaced in-store purchases in recent years. Research by comScore found that U.S. online retailing grew 13 percent during the first quarter of 2013. By comparison, the entire industry saw a modest 2 percent expansion during the same period.

New technology and data analytics are helping organizations in every industry improve their supply chain management. These tools allow companies to increase transparency and gain insight into future demand and shipping requirements.

How relevant is this ranking given that most of these companies outsource their manufacturing to suppliers and contract manufacturers plagued with CSR issues in Asia?

Starting on July 9, 2013, liquidated damages of $5,000 per violation will be issued for inaccurate, incomplete, or untimely filings. CBP may also withhold the release or transfer of cargo for which an ISF has not been filed. Noncompliant cargo will also be subject to further inspections.

Founding Supply Chain Management Review Editor, Frank Quinn Retires - "It's Been a Great Run and in thinking about those whom I’m indebted to for the success of SCMR over 16 years, there is one constituency that must rank first on the list - you, the reader."