Research

Peerless Research Group, the survey captures revealing—and sometimes surprising—information about the many ways a lift truck might make its way from the supplier’s showroom to the warehouse floor. From corporate policies to gut instincts, the results depict a real-world fleet landscape poised for sweeping change.

In our recent shopper survey, Shoppers today indicated that their top 5 uses of mobile phones in the store included: Looking up store information, Browsing online websites for products, Checking for sales, specials, or coupons, Looking for competitive pricing, and Using mobile coupons.

Modern Material Handling readers evaluate their usage of materials handling software technology, its value to their organizations, and spending plans for expanding and updating existing applications.

The “Unlocking Hidden Cost in the Distribution Center” research examines current views on distribution center trends and challenges from senior supply chain and distribution center managers within the UK, France, Germany and Northern America.

Last year, the market for data capture solutions used in factories, warehouses and logistics applications notched $11.066 billion in sales, according to Massachusetts-based VDC Research Group. While that’s a modest increase over 2010’s estimate of $10.6 billion, the outlook going forward is positive, even in a choppy economy, according to Michael Liard, VDC’s vice president of AutoID.

In order to determine whether centralized logistics structures also improve logistics performance, APQC compared the quality of deliveries, inventory management, and logistics costs of organizations using a centralized structure with those using a decentralized structure.

In our annual software survey, Modern readers tell us that they’re are torn between embracing change and riding out older technologies.

In her book, Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing, Kate Vitasek talks about three case studies, with P&G, McDonalds and Microsoft, and their successful supplier relationships. A common theme was the shift away from a traditional customer-supplier relationship to a highly collaborative relationship aimed at developing a win-win solution.

According to a new survey by Consero Group, an international consultancy based in Bethesda, Md, over 50 percent of Chief Procurement Officers said their company pursues short-term savings from suppliers that undermine long-term value.

Procurement leaders face new pressures in 2013 as companies focus on profitable growth and balance local agility with global scale in their value chains, according to new Procurement Key Issues Research from The Hackett Group.

Annual growth for the third-party logistics (3PL) market in 2013 is expected to be north of 6 percent, with much of current market activity centered around mergers and acquisitions, according to Evan Armstrong, president of supply chain consultancy Armstrong & Associates.

The Logistics Management 2013 salary survey finds the highest salaries in logistics and supply chain management will be earned by those sticking to time-honored values: education, hard work, and company loyalty.

Global poll of over 1,000 executives reveals that the e-commerce giant is more admired than its Californian rival on all major supply chain attributes except innovation.

It isn’t “all about carbon”; it’s about water; land use; waste and pollutants. It’s about which raw materials are used and where they are sourced, from energy and water to metals, minerals and agricultural products, as risk increasingly varies according to location.

A Global Trade Management (GTM) solution is characterized by software and services that integrates and synchronizes the end-to-end global trading process. Spanning the services provided by point software solutions and logistics partners, next generation solutions must focus on providing business benefits across the entire international transaction. Enabled by new technologies based on open standards, the integration of legacy systems, and new web-based services, Global Trade Management will open information flows and enable new business strategies.

Manufacturing growth began 2013 on a strong note in January, according to the January Manufacturing report on Business from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). The PMI, the index used by the ISM to measure manufacturing activity, was 53.1 in January, which tops December by 2.9 percent.

In a recent study conducted by Peerless Research Group, supply chain and logistics managers are in agreement that global supply chains are becoming progressively complex causing more potential points for disruption along the supply network.