All Features Entries

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Savvy shippers have found ways to put the nation’s rails back to work—and the railroads have flourished. But while current market conditions are favorable for shippers, questions remain over how the nation’s rail and intermodal network will respond when volume ratchets up past pre-recession levels.

Five leading technology analysts explore the roles ERP, business analytics (BI), RFID, TMS, and social media are playing to help logistics professionals capture and utilize data to improve supply chain visibility—and their careers.

This year’s findings indicate a leveling off from last year’s welcome spike, but also indicate a higher overall investment by those firms that are buying new or upgrading software. For 2012, the market appears to be progressing on a slow-and-steady growth path that isn’t expected to let up anytime soon.

Most enterprises have logistics and transportation risk management protocols that can address localized disruptions. Global supply chain risks, however, can have cascading and unintended consequences that no one organization can mitigate. Here are recommendations for managing the vulnerabilities.

With a few simple prescriptions, lift truck fleet managers can plan for the unplanned, reduce costs, and ramp up productivity and safety measures.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The highest logistics and supply chain salaries continue to be earned by those who concentrate on adapting new technological advances and maintain a life-long commitment to learning. View our latest salary survey.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

The highest logistics and supply chain salaries continue to be earned by those who concentrate on adapting new technological advances and maintain a life-long commitment to learning.

With capacity already tightening and increasing federal regulations threatening to exacerbate the driver shortage, dedicated trucking is going to continue to grow at double-digit percentage rates—and help shippers get a good night’s sleep in the process.

Scores of shippers and their freight intermediaries agree that basic brokerage and forwarding services are keeping pace with demands from new and emerging markets.

Implementation complexities have stood in the way of LMS adoption rates; however, our analysts say that more logistics operations will focus attention on workforce management to balance efficiencies now that the business climate is on the upswing.