All Columns Entries

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

As a logistics manager, understanding that oil and fuel prices are a function of supply and demand rather than the rogue actions of “evil speculators” is important.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

New and innovative technology-driven concepts are brought to my attention on nearly a daily basis. When something really lands with us for the first time, that concept is simply comprised of words on a page or vibrations hanging in the air. We nod, say that sounds interesting, and then quickly dive back into our day-to-day grind to practice “business as usual.”

By understanding the markets and how oil prices are set, shippers and carriers will more aggressively look for ways to increase the fuel efficiency of logistics operations. Along these lines, the second part of this series, next month, will dive deeper into how futures markets work and why they are nothing to be feared or loathed.

in 2012, the prudent shipper has to be looking for options to traditional long-haul trucking in an attempt to control costs and ensure that capacity is available to sustain operations.

This month we reflect on the views of the businesspeople, government policy makers, and academics that participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF) study of supply chain risk.

Don’t you just hate it when politicians or activists take a quote out of context and blow it out of proportion to make the other party look bad?

Sunday, April 01, 2012

As is tradition, the cover of the April issue of Logistics Management (LM) is devoted to the findings of our Annual Salary Survey, a research project that not only fuels our best-read editorial feature of the year, but offers us the foundation for the most highly-anticipated webcast that our editorial team produces.

Recently our church choir director retired and a search was immediately undertaken for an interim as well as a full-time replacement. Within a few days, our outgoing director and pastor selected an interim director while a group comprised of choir members and parishioners were sent off to find the full-time replacement—all was well, or so it appeared.

After more than 35 years in the industry, I thought I had seen it all. However, I spent a few days last month with some University of Tennessee (UT) colleagues as well as industry and government leaders discussing the evolution of strategic sourcing and collaborative contracting.

In this first installment of a two-part series, I will look at a variety of risk-focused research efforts. In May, I will offer suggestions for managing supply chain risk—not just responding more effectively but preparing more completely.