March 2014

The global retailer re-launched in North America and built a new multi-channel supply chain from the ground up with the help of its existing 3PL partner.

New systems and management techniques are providing the infrastructure needed to revolutionize the LTL market. Now, shippers and carriers need to sit down and re-engineer their relationships from scratch to improve margins for both. Here’s how it’s done.

According to recent market surveys, too many global shippers are still using a mix of manual processes and homegrown systems to manage global trade. Our analysts say “enough is enough.”

Camera-based bar code scanners are a must for 2D codes, but today’s payoff mainly ties to improving 1D code processes, ergonomics, and read rates. Here’s a look at how this versatile tool is helping to transform fulfillment accuracy in dynamic distribution environments.

Pent-up demand, depleted inventories, and a greater overall sense of economic security are converging in 2014. If so, ocean cargo carriers will be determined not to miss that opportunity to make rate hikes stick.

We’ve certainly been reading and hearing more about the benefits of improved communication and collaboration in logistics management—be it with our carriers, third party-logistics (3PL) providers, suppliers, and even competitors.

In a recent speech to shippers and carriers, Anne Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), said: “We need a real change in our transportation culture to recognize that safety means more than complying with safety rules. It means changing work/rest schedules that contribute to fatigue.”

Volatile markets. Unstable currencies. Vacillating demand. Unpredictable commodity costs. Manufacturers, like most companies, have plenty to worry about.

Natural gas prices have risen 40 percent to over $6 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) since the beginning of the year. As a regular reader of this column, rising prices should come as no surprise. In July of last year, when the price was just $3.52 per Mcf, I predicted that prices would rise to between $4.00 and $4.25 per Mcf by the end of the year.