Many of us will remember a time not too long ago, when we said, “We need to put 2020 behind us. 2021 will be better.” And for a while, it appeared that it might be true until the new year arrived. While not a supply chain issue, January 1 found us still distracted by the 2020 Presidential election, and the disruption became worse as we experienced the unprecedented riot in Washington and the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump.
For over twenty years, Armstrong & Associates and Penn State’s John Langley and his partners have examined the logistics service provider (LSP) industry. Recently, there has been a new entry into the analysis of this segment – 3PLCentral. Their report for 2021 suggests trends and best practices that LSPs need to consider, in order to […]
For years, the so-called “last mile” delivery has been problematic; and as online buying has increased, the challenge has become even more pronounced. In 2020, U.S. consumers spent $11 billion on line, about 15% over last year. Part of this increase was a result of individual changes in buying habits, and part was brought about […]
Two weeks ago, President-elect Joe Biden announced he was nominating Pete Buttigieg to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Buttigieg is a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a one-time Democratic presidential candidate. He was generally considered to be an effective, innovative leader in South Bend; and unlike most of the other candidates, […]
As Charles Dickens reminded us in “The Tale of Two Cities”, “It was the best of times; It was the worst of times”……………… The holiday season of 2020 will long be remembered as one of the busiest, saddest, most exhausting, and most stressful of any in recent memory, as every action we have taken […]
Hopefully, those of you who read this had a good Thanksgiving, or as good as possible, considering the restrictions COVID-19 has forced upon us. Black Friday is over (maybe) and barring some wildly improbable circumstances, we will have a new president in January. Even better news is the fact that we probably will have a […]
As we approach this year’s Presidential election, as supply chain managers, once again we find ourselves concerned about much-needed infrastructure improvement or lack thereof. In short, we are just about where we were years ago at this time. We were facing a contentious election, Congress was arguing about a Supreme Court nominee, and rumors of […]
Every fall, for the past 25 years, Dr. John Langley of Penn State, has published the “Annual Third-Party Logistics Study”. I have been following this report since its inception, and have always found it to be a comprehensive summary of current relationships between logistics service providers (LSP) and their customers. This year’s study, sponsored by […]
“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise.” – Mark Twain When the $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal was completed in 2016, its capacity was doubled, making it possible for more ships, as well as larger ships to transit the canal and call […]
Before the pandemic changed our lives, I was doing some work with Epicenter, a business start-up accelerator program based in Memphis. Founded to encourage and support entrepreneurship, its expressed purpose is to “ensure that entrepreneurs have equitable access to the networks, ideas, people, capital, and customers they need to launch and thrive.” Through my association […]