If you are not a retail industry supply chain manager, you might not be paying much attention too the world of on-line orders, same day deliveries, or the Amazon Effect. In fact, all the developments in retail marketing and distribution might make you thankful you are in another business. If only that were true. The […]
It is that time of year when pundits attempt to predict what will happen in the year ahead; and every year or so, I try it myself. Sometimes I have been right, and other predictions have fallen flat. For example, I really thought this would be the year for the Dallas Cowboys, but that no […]
As 2018 draws to a close, it is clear that the country will not see the improvements in infrastructure we have been promised for several years. Most recently, President Trump decided infrastructure improvement was a high priority and one of the first problems he would address when he moved into the White House. In May […]
Recently, Prologis announced they would be building the first multi-story warehouse in the United States. Some of our more senior readers will realize that is not quite true. They may remember when it was not uncommon for warehouse operators to utilize multi-story buildings, usually no more than 3 or 4 stories high. Products and equipment […]
Every fall, for 23 years, Dr. John Langley of Penn State, along with annual sponsors, has published what he has titled “Annual Third-Party Logistics Study”. It is a comprehensive report on the current relationships and the progress of logistics service providers and their customers. This year’s study was particularly interesting in that we are in […]
Last week, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) the research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), released its annual Top Industry Issues report. This report identifies the top ten critical issues facing the trucking industry in North America. The analysis also includes the major strategies for addressing each. This year’s report was based on […]
The current growing concerns about the U.S. trade environment are focused on two fronts. One is the (hopefully completed) renegotiation of NAFTA, and the other is what some believe could explode into a major trade war with China. As we have written before, President Trump campaigned against what he called “the worst trade deal ever…the […]
Our industry, like so many others, has long been blessed with a wretched excess of buzzwords and terms. We have spent so much time thinking out of the box about the paradigms of globalization in the new millennium that we have not had time to push the envelope in the development of our E-commerce business […]
Over the past few years, millions of words have been written about “big data” and how to manage it. It has often been considered as one of the major disruptions to supply change management. The fact of the matter is that big data is simply a new term for an old condition. Almost from the […]
On August 27, President Trump announced that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a “preliminary agreement in principal subject to finalization and implementation” on new trade provisions. While those words seem to be the mother of all hedging, at least they represent some progress. While it has been a part of the NAFTA negotiations, Canada […]