For several years, one of the major concerns of supply chain managers and much of the general public has been the deteriorating transportation infrastructure in the country. The major problem has been not so much the recognition of the road and bridge issue but the fact that Congress has consistently failed to provide a satisfactory […]

As the Christmas season approaches, both retailers and their customers are getting a little nervous about the ability of retail distribution systems and package carriers to handle the holiday volume. Many of us will remember that last year, approximately 2 million packages did not make it to their destinations by Christmas morning, resulting in disappointed […]

Twenty years ago this year, President Clinton signed into law the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement. The primary objective of this treaty was to “eliminate barriers to trade in, and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services between the territories of the Parties.” In the case, the “parties “were Canada, Mexico, and the […]

Several years ago, I developed what I felt were ten sound principles for the outsourcing of logistics services. I certainly was not the first to do so, nor have I been the last. Recently however, some of the suggestions I have read seem to place more responsibility on the providers than on the outsourcers themselves. […]

Arguably, one of the most overworked words in the English language is networking, particularly in business. Most of us talk about building a network, networking, etc. but many of us don’t have a grasp of what it really means. Webster defines if as the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business. In my mind, […]

A late fall issue of Bloomberg Business Week featured an interesting article describing how the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 5 jumpstarted their Asian supply chain. One of the Apple subcontractors in Malaysia immediately contacted job brokers in Nepal seeking 1500 men to assemble cameras for the iPhone. These brokers in effect “sell” the jobs for […]

In the several decades I have been in the supply chain industry, I have seen any number of changes in almost every aspect of the industry. However in my opinion, there are just three developments that have made more of an impact than everything else combined – globalization, technology, and Walmart. All three have influenced […]

  As we discussed in one of our June blogs, the Highway Trust Fund was quickly being depleted, and by most accounts would be empty by this month if Congress did not act. As predicted, they did act, but not in a terribly responsible way. On July 31, the day before they were to leave […]

For some time now we have been reading about what could happen to freight costs as the economy improves. Most forecasts have suggested that capacity will become tight, which in turn will result in higher rates. The ironic point here is that economic conditions don’t have to get much better for that to happen. The […]

The outsourcing of logistics services is not a new concept by any means; and for the past 50 to 60 years it has seen a consistent growth. While this growth was steady, it was moderate until the early 1990’s when management guru Peter Drucker published his book, Post-Capitalist Society. There he described outsourcing as a […]