We hope you enjoy the April 2004 issue of Supply Chain Directions, our bi-monthly e-newsletter linking you to a short list of leading, timely and relevant white papers and articles in the areas of Supply Chain Strategy,
Transportation Planning, and
Inventory Planning.

Inventory Deployment Planning - A new approach to optimizing where, how much, and in what form
Multi-channel business models are a fact of life - this leaves companies scrambling to re-evaluate whether traditional inventory planning approaches will allow them to compete in multiple markets while maintaining common pools of inventory. Every firm is being forced to consider opportunities to employ multi-level and multi-site inventory strategies.
By Jeff Metersky, Vice President, Supply Chain Strategy, Chainalytics LLC

HEAVY LIFTING
Overhauling your supply chain can be a Herculean task. Here are some strategies for tackling the challenge.
By Erik Sherman, Chief Executive

Squeezing Out Costs
As retailers push more responsibility up the supply chain and demand more from their suppliers, logistics costs in the food and consumer packaged goods industries continue to rise, at a rate of 12 percent in the last five years alone.
By Leonard Klie, Food Logistics

Retail distribution strategies to watch
Retailers and their suppliers are making tough decisions to centralize, regionalize, outsource and collaborate to ensure future success. Retailers and their suppliers are making tough decisions to centralize, regionalize, outsource and collaborate to ensure future success.
By David Maloney, Senior Editor, Modern Materials Handling

The power to ask "What if?"
A growing breed of technology solutions allows sourcing organizations to ask complex questions and obtain mathematically rigorous answers with unprecedented speed. A growing breed of technology solutions allows sourcing organizations to ask complex questions and obtain mathematically rigorous answers with unprecedented speed.
By Anne Millen Porter, Purchasing

Stop the waste and start the savings
Buyers and supply chain planners look to the trucking spend to streamline operations while cutting costs.
By David Hannon, Purchasing

Time to abandon the core carrier concept?
Maxims tend to lose their relevancy with time. What army commander today, for example, would shout, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!" to troops that rely on laser gun scopes and night-vision goggles?
By James Aaron Cooke, Executive Editor, Logistics Management

Shippers foresee tighter truck capacity for 2004
Truckload capacity will continue to tighten this year as it did in 2003, while LTL capacity will hold steady. That's the opinion of almost three-quarters of the respondents to a recent shipper survey conducted by New York-based stock analyst Bear, Stearns & Co.
By Staff, Logistics Management

Small package shippers face hours of service crunch
Carrier reaction to new regulations can add costs to your transportation budget.
By Roger Morton, Logistics Today

Inventory Optimization: The Last Frontier
Two opposing forces are at work in business today: the need to reduce costs and the need to improve service levels. Bolstering one almost certainly causes the other to suffer.
By David Simchi-Levi and Edith Simchi-Levi, Inbound Logistics

Inventory Optimization - A Delicate Balance
Manufacturers and retailers juggle inventory and customer service to achieve the right balance.
By Emily Kay, Frontline Solutions

Get ready for more inventory
Inventory management is going to be more challenging and mistakes more costly in 2004.
By Jim Haughey, Ph.D., Director of Economics, Reed Business Research Group, Modern Materials Handling

How to Manage Inv. In An End-To-End Supply Chain Network
Companies have long recognized the value of differentiating raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods, and consigned inventory types. But when inventory is considered in the context of a whole supply chain, the picture is different.
By William T. Walker, Inventory Management Report