Best Practices

What is reverse logistics? Why it's important in modern business and how to create improvement in this area? This article will explain to you the current state of its theories, practices and offer some recommendations.

Learn how to help prevent loading dock accidents, save money, and improve productivity.

Focusing on tactics that will increase a supply chain’s productivity is essential to achieving positive customer satisfaction. There are some very effective ways to do this outside of systems, logistical infrastructure and analytics.

Purchasing and successfully implementing an ERP system is one of the costliest, labor intensive, stressful and business critical undertakings any business can embark upon. In this article we look at the importance of understanding the system, collaboration, budget control, resources, data migration, ongoing development and user adoption.

UPS believes that there is no room for unsafe work practices in any aspect of its operations. The comprehensive safety framework it has developed affirms that belief. At the base of this framework is personal value—a commitment by every employee to the safety system.

If there is only one theoretical concept you need to understand to make better supply chain decisions, it is Risk pooling. Very close but still a far second is the Bullwhip effect.

At the heart of the discussion about Apple's future is the tension between radical innovation, supply chain operations, and various manufacturing locations.

Often performance management is introduced into organizations with traditional bureaucratic cultures, which have features that are antithetical to the basic concepts of performance management. Organizations that simultaneously work to change their culture while introducing and using performance measures are those who get a full return on their investment.

Ongoing economic “volatility” and the growing global focus on sustainability are placing more pressure on logistics managers to establish a strategic, alternative distribution network. Here’s some food for thought before establishing yours.

Since the enactment of NAFTA in 1994, trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico has increased almost 200 percent to an estimated $930 billion. The cross-border flow of goods between the U.S. and Canada has grown to $400 billion.

Experts point to certain key traits of procurement excellence, including an overall strategic orientation, alignment with business objectives, a risk management role, and an ability to collaborate both internally and externally. Here are some insights on developing these capabilities.

Reshoring Initiative founder, Harry Moser recently participated in an Economist online debate, presenting in defense of the motion “Do multinational corporations have a duty to maintain a strong presence in their home countries?”

Supply professionals are in a unique, critical position to impact the global supply chain and therefore should supplement their organization's work in sustainability and social responsibility by promoting sustainability and social responsibility through leadership and participation on appropriate committees, boards and panels of governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

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?

Conservation International (CI) collaborated with our longtime partner, Starbucks Coffee Company, to begin answering these questions for its home-grown supply chain program, Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, and we have a few takeaways to share on the value of these assessments as well as how to build ongoing results assessment into your own program.

With responsibilities that include more than 70,000 outbound deliveries a week to Starbucks retail stores, distribution channels and outlets worldwide, keeping Starbucks products flowing from suppliers to customers is, needless to say, a complex exercise.

Organizations should consider how the costs of managing risk balance out with potential lost revenue and damage to reputation that can result from a disruption to operations caused by a natural disaster or political instability in key supplier regions. To be a global business, supply chain risk management is a necessity. The key is to determine how to do it efficiently and effectively.

The secret sauce behind Samsung's supply chain success is definitely "Best Practice Analysis". They study how other world's leading companies manage business and choose to adapt these best practices gradually.

Despite economic uncertainty and volatility, leading industrial manufacturing firms have posted significant gains in their operating margins. What is the secret to their success? These leaders have made peak performance not just a goal, but a top priority—and a centerpiece of their corporate cultures.

Analysts are pointing to 2012 as the year in which warehousing was finally recognized as a competitive weapon for multichannel online businesses. Progressive companies like Amazon.com are rapidly advancing the art and science of one of the supply chain’s most important—and most customer-facing—functions.