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2009 is finally behind us, and we're seeing the upturn of the Great Recession. While you're catching your breath and recovering from the holidays, consider AMR Research's top 10 predictions for the consumer products value chain to help you get ready for the new year.
More direct purchasing could help Wal-Mart get better control over inbound inventory.
A sagging economy and new low-cost for-hire competition are redrawing the map for dedicated fleet operators.
This year's FL100 listing offers tools and services to help companies weather the economic storm.
When clients ask when they should use private or dedicated fleets, the answer requires a look back to the genesis of fleet operations.
A client once said to me, “We have no way to know if we are getting better or worse in transportation. All we know is if costs are going up or down.”
The for-hire carrier market is extremely soft, and shippers are taking advantage of it.
Site selection experts from both real estate and supply chain think tanks have identified a handful of trends that are affecting how and where DCs are now being located. By proactively responding to these trends, companies can better position themselves for the next wave of economic recovery.
Can squeezing more pickles into a pouch make that $5 Footlong easier to swallow? SUBWAY thinks so. Guided by its “Eat Fresh” motto, SUBWAY is intent on nurturing a “green” logistics strategy by reducing the carbon footprint of its massive supply chain while reducing costs at the same time.
We’ve seen unprecedented renewed interest in collaboration recently.
Shippers are tired of hearing a lot of noise about going green. So, to help clear the air on what “green” really means to logistics operations, LM gathered four straight-shooting supply chain experts to give you the scoop.
Excess capacity means bargains for shippers, bankruptcy for truckers weakened by recession. The economic recession is opening new cracks in the road for the trucking industry — and thousands of tractors and trailers are falling through.
Who would question the need to increase the understanding of what drives transportation performance?
The answer is a resounding yes. The only question is when.
“How does my supply chain stack up against that of my peers?” This question keeps chief supply chain officers up at night. What should cause them total insomnia is the benchmark data they use to make major decisions, which may not be clean, comparable, or relevant. This article helps companies understand where to get benchmark data, the capabilities and pitfalls of benchmarking providers, and how to sort through the options.
Clorox successfully tackled supply chain complexity through cost-to-serve analysis and drove first-year returns that were eight times the initial investment to the bottom line. Here are some insights on the project.
Even as logistics providers struggle to cope with rising costs and a drop in customer demand, they are thinking about how to prepare themselves for economic recovery.
Transportation and Logistics constitute a major percentage of costs in the supply chain, hence are prime targets for companies looking to cut costs in the current economic environment. According to industry estimates, the total logistics spend in India in 2007 was about US$135 billion, including $75 billion on transportation. One of the key concerns of India’s logistics sector is the heavy fragmentation of the transportation sector – almost 65 percent of the country’s trucking outfits operate fleets of five vehicles or less, while a little over 15 percent operate fleets of more than 20 vehicles.
Over the last three years, the quick-serve leader's green logistics strategy has cut carbon emissions by 120,000 metric tons and reduced its oil consumption by 277,000 barrels annually—all while growing its number of stores by 12 percent. And they've only just begun.
A growing consumer market and tax-law changes make it an ideal time for multinational companies to start setting up supply chains in India.
Commodity managers understand that 2009 is not a year of business as usual. In fact, they have very different tasks at hand versus a year ago, with falling commodity prices, escalating demand volatility, and uncertain supplier health. AMR Research interviewed managers from five different industries to find out just how manufacturing companies are coping with the current economic upheaval, identifying six best practices for commodity management.
Getting Freight Rate Reductions is Easy – Keeping them is Tougher.
In recessionary times, more so than any other economic cycle, cash is king.
Companies are assessing the conditions affecting the global supply chain to determine if it makes sense to pull back from or alter current offshore strategies. This article exposes how fundamental assumptions once used as the original basis for an offshoring strategy have changed, as well as how some companies are beginning to explore alternative geographic plans, such as nearshoring. We’ll also explore how companies are using their logistics service providers to help with what-if modeling and nearshore strategy execution.
As the escalating oil crisis unfolds, companies with long, complex global supply chains are reevaluating whether their Asia-based networks still make economic sense.
As fuel prices soar, many shippers figure the only thing they can do about rising fuel surcharges is complain. They're wrong.
Chainalytics is extending its Transportation Procurement services to include support during implementation and realization of new transport contracts.
As value chains mature, companies can move from reacting to demand to orchestrating demand. Demand orchestrators actively sense and shape demand in addition to aligning supply. Here we’ll define seven actions to take to become a demand orchestrator, which can help your company navigate the changing commodity and market conditions.
Capacity Reduction May Have Gone Too Far; Better Re-Bid Soon Before Rates Head Upward. Is the rate reduction party over? Have we gone too far?
More Fuel Efficient Transport Modes Have Inherent Advantages in Fuel Surcharge Levels to Shippers.
Inventory Optimization Projects and Technology Involve Optimization at Three Levels: Policies, Inventory Deployment, and Customer Service; Different Questions, Different Answers.
It is not the ROI, says Chainalytics’ Jeff Metersky; Companies Sometimes Lack Clear Vision of Inventory Processes and How Decision-Making will Change.
Commodity price pressures combined with our recessionary downturn are a perfect storm for consumer products companies to break ahead of the pack and redefine their categories. Those that will win will be able to successfully orchestrate demand. In this article, we share seven insights on how to successfully weather the storm and emerge stronger through supply chain excellence.
Transportunities: Getting Freight Rate Reductions is Easy - Keeping them is Tougher.
As a major source of energy consumption and carbon emissions, the supply chain is one of the first areas companies look to for savings when they initiate a “green” strategy. The good news is that supply chain efficiency and carbon efficiency often go hand in hand.
Is India the “next big thing” for your business? If you are looking to cash in on India’s growth, here are some opportunities and obstacles you can expect to see when your supply chain expands in that direction.
With 2008 upon us, consumer product companies are launching their plans for the year. Here are the five most important trends in the industry for the coming year.
The companies that are truly more leading edge have embraced the fact that change is all around them.
India has long been a fertile ground for sourcing highly skilled IT and engineering services, but it’s estimated that manufacturing and retailing is the next boom.
One of the most packed sessions at the recent CSCMP annual conference in Philadelphia was a session on best practices in Transportation procurement, featuring Nestle’s Joe Lombardo, Kevin McCarthy of CH Robinson, Mark Calcagni (JB Hunt), and moderator Gary Girotti of Chainalytics.
Logistics costs have outpaced the growth of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the past three years; a fact backed by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional’s (CSCMP) 18th annual report on the state of U.S. logistics. The surprise may be the magnitude of the climb and the gravity of the issues with current logistics infrastructure.
Wal-Mart goes global... B2B connectivity rises... Private label opportunities... SupplyChainScanner is now Equazion.
Inventory optimization specialist Optiant is acquiring network design and optimization vendor SLIM Technologies for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition expands Optiant’s market opportunity and options, and also reflects ongoing consolidation and market shifts in the strategic supply chain applications market.
France-based supply chain optimization and business-rules management software vendor ILOG is acquiring Chicago-based network design and inventory optimization specialist LogicTools for approximately $15M in cash ($10M) and stock ($5M). The combination which has a lot of potential, reflects important market dynamics. If marketing hurdles can be overcome, the new ILOG could be a major player in the market for strategic supply chain applications.
By 2012, India may have 14 times as much space dedicated to modern-format retail as it had in 2002, provided the supply of land rises quickly enough to match demand.
2007 is shaping up to be a year of change for consumer products (CP) companies. Here we share our predictions on macro trends in the CP industries for the new year.
Why are fuel surcharges so high? How can I keep costs under control? Here’s everything you need to know about fuel surcharges but didn’t know who to ask.
Identifying and coping with shortages will ensure sustainability.
Targeting affluent markets...Mismatched invoices happen—a lot...Transportation costs are here to stay.
Article: Peak Oil and the Supply Chain
By Gary Girotti - Vice President, Transportation, with Mike Kilgore - President & CEO
The Journal of Commerce, August 2006
The days of low-cost oil are long gone and they are not coming back. Many economists and scientists believe we have reached what is known as "peak oil" - the point at which one-half of the world's supply of refinable oil is gone. Shippers can only hope their pain from diesel fuel prices has peaked.
The motor freight industry continues to be plagued by cost pressures that keep truckload capacity tight and drive shipping costs to record-high levels. Currently, motor freight carriers are struggling with...
I had the pleasure in the last couple of weeks of speaking in detail with two of the industry’s real experts on supply chain network design.
Supply chain strategy expert offers tips for achieving agility and responsiveness.
Article: 2006 Pros to Know
Includes Jeff Metersky, VP, Chainalytics
Supply & Demand Chain Executive, March 2006
While rising fuel prices and a shortage of truck drivers have gotten all the attention as reasons why the cost of shipping freight continues to rise, there's actually a much simpler explanation for the carriers' rate increases in 2006: freight volume growth.
At the recent Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals conference in San Diego, John Hulton, director of inbound transportation at retailer Staples Inc. (www. staples.com), and Mike Kilgore, CEO and president of consulting firm Chainalytics (www.chainalytics.com) , offered several reasons to explain the high cost of logistics.
Sales growth, global sourcing, product proliferation, and transportation delays have some shippers adding safety stock.
ABN-AMRO makes outsourcing history... Hosted heats up in CRM... Vendavo gets the pricing right... Procuri prospers... TNT gets Optiant... Supplying after Katrina
One of the few topics that almost everybody agrees on is that it's the carriers' world right now, and the rest of us are just living in it.
The market for inventory optimization software is confusing. While strategic network design applications are mature and fairly well understood, inventory configuration and inventory policy software applications are not. This Report provides an overview of network design and inventory optimization software, identifies vendor functionality, and helps companies narrow the list of vendors that can help solve specific inventory problems.
With the deverticalization and globalization of the supply chain, successful organizations see inventory as an important buffer against demand and supply variability. Defining the role of inventory is the key in the determination of a pull-based replenishment strategy. For companies to succeed, inventory must be right-sized and aligned with DDSN strategy. To enable this change, technology is available, though evolving.
SCM systems need to right-size inventory buffers and provide demand visibility signals across internal organizations and external networks.
Santa isn’t stuck in the chimney--he’s stuck in Long Beach. The global and U.S. logistics infrastructure is dangerously stressed, and just in time for the holidays! Because of the dramatic, faster-than-expected growth in Pacific trade, companies are scrambling to overcome logistics delays, increased lead times, and soaring costs. Those that didn’t predict the congestion and the extended lead times may well be missing their own Christmas bonuses.
Inventory optimization is a growing software market with compelling returns. However, in the selection of the products, manufacturers and distributors must navigate the confusion and forge new processes.
Inventory is still hard to control, especially as distribution channels proliferate and customer service demands increase. And while there’s no “silver bullet” solution to getting the right amount of goods to the right place at the right time, supply chain managers can take steps now to improve their inventory deployment.
New supply-chain planning tools bring manufacturing costs into view.
The number of supply chain network and optimization deals has increased 19% over the past three years. We are in the eye of a perfect storm for network planning and strategic optimization. Supply chain costs and complexity are increasing as the power of U.S. manufacturers is decreasing.
Web-based transportation procurement gains a foothold in ocean shipping.
The Internet is all it's cracked up to be - and more - for shippers, carriers and intermediaries.
The Bottom Line: Supply chain leaders apply logistics know-how, strategic sourcing principles, and specialized optimization tools to drop freight costs by 10% and rightsize their carrier base.
United States manufacturing continues to decline. Since 1970, manufacturing employment has dropped 22 percent - nearly nine percent of that drop in the last 10 years alone.
A year after the Pacific Maritime Association's lockout of West Coast longshoremen during a contract-bargaining dispute, there's still disagreement over the economic impact of the port shutdown. A PMA-funded study pegs the economic cost of the lockout and its after-effects at $15.6 billion.
Rich-country manufacturing has supposedly been in decline for so long that it is surprising that the politicians, unions and journalists who leap so nobly to its defence find much left to save.
This paper presents the concept of optimization-based procurement for transportation
services. The approach allows both the shipper and carriers to benefit through the use of a
collaborative approach to securing and managing a strategic relationship.
To maximize return on their transportation solutions firms' plans must include guideposts for strategy, process, people, and technology. The starting point will depend on project and company profile.
All too often, companies are discovering that their total costs do not drop when they move production offshore.
Logistics requires a balance of technology skills and business knowledge.
There is a new supply-chain trend: outsourcing optimization and planning. Many companies are finding it too expensive to maintain the people and skills needed to run supply-chain planning systems in-house, said J. Michael Kilgore, president and CEO of Chainalytics, a new consulting company specializing in such services.
Hearing on Ridge nomination suggests Democrats will be sharp critics of Bush's security strategy.
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