FedEx Supply Chain

Shippers everywhere face the perpetual question: What’s the best way to get our products to customers efficiently and at the best cost?

An international producer of healthy, convenient and affordable foods was struggling to maintain an efficient, cost-effective supply chain. The third-party logistics (3PL) provider managing its West Coast distribution was failing to deliver on commitments, leading to unacceptable results.

The online shopping boom and a steadily growing economy has put an enormous amount of pressure on the supply chain, which is currently struggling to find the personnel required to efficiently distribute goods across the United States. In addition, businesses interested in bringing low-cost manufacturing to their operations have forced logistics experts to assess how such an economic change would affect their practices.

Jerry Hempstead, president of parcel consultancy Hempstead Consulting, said that last month’s announcement regarding changes in FedEx Ground’s pricing is a huge change, which he has been predicting for several years.

From transportation execution to your relationships with suppliers, the success of your inbound supply chain relies on several substantive elements. Balancing these elements and making sure that they are aligned might seem daunting and appear to detract from your core competencies. However, evaluating your inbound supply chain and determining the validity of changing it —the timing, risks, alignment with

It would be a fundamental mistake for companies to assume that the recent wave of economic growth means they can relax the efforts to maximize efficiency and reduce operating costs they may have adopted in the wake of the Great Recession.

Leaders from Teamster local unions that represent workers at YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) overwhelmingly recommended to approve a tentative agreement and to send it out to the membership for a vote. The tentative agreement with YRCW, if ratified, will provide a pathway for substantial debt reduction and refinancing initiatives that will permit the company to protect and preserve more than 30,000 good American jobs.

So what's next for YRC? Whatever road YRC chooses, it’s clear that shippers and its own 26,000 Teamsters employees hold the key to long-term survival of the venerable 90-year-old company whose roots date to the golden age of trucking.

A product begins its life with maximum profit potential during the manufacturing process. But as that product moves through an increasingly complex, global supply chain, excess time and handling costs erode its profit.

Do you have unlocked optimization potential in your supply chain set up? A Lead Logistics Partner (LLP) can steer you in the right direction. Scalable, flexible and giving real visibility, your LLP journey can start with a small step.

An international producer of healthy, convenient and affordable foods was stuggling to maintain an effifient, cost-effective supply chain. The third-party logistics (3PL) provider managing its West Coast distribution was failing to deliver on commitments, leading to unacceptable results.

In today’s dynamic global marketplace, increasing logistics flexibility is critical as shippers look for greater collaboration with their third-party providers on the way to seamless integration of supply chain activities.

An effective strategy is to implement a reverse logistics solution that capitalizes on the synergies between the provider and the customer. Sure, the reverse logistics provider is looking for the right fit. But the customer can’t afford to simply opt for a standard “out of the box” solution for processing goods at the lowest operating cost.

This year, 3PL CEOs, surveyed in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, are generally optimistic about company and industry growth prospects over the next one and three-year periods. North American and European CEOs forecasted higher three year company revenue growth projections than last year, 14.6 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.

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.