Supporting the many different channels through which today's consumers shop for, purchase and return products presents tremendous challenges and opportunities for retailers, says Annibal Sodero, assistant professor at the Sam Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.
A world where consumers want the freedom to shop and buy through a variety of channels while receiving the same brand experience and rapid, no-cost delivery, challenges retailers and logistics providers to come up with new and cost-effective solutions.
Many companies are looking beyond China to less developed nations for sourcing, says Mark Michaels, chief commercial officer at Damco. Michaels discusses supply chain risks around the expansion into less developed areas and the pressure on providers to deliver service comparable to that in mature markets.
Recognized by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals as an emerging supply chain leader, Keiko Arai talks about the supply chain leadership development program she recently completed at Bell Helicopter Textron and why she chose SCM as a career.
Supply chain and logistics play key roles in responding to both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. Whether the cause is a natural disaster, armed conflict or simply undeveloped infrastructure, Jarrod Goentzel says the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab is working to improve supply chain response.
Before attempting to enter a long-term relationship with a 3PL, shippers first need to be clear internally about the goals and objectives they hope to achieve and about cultural guard rails that might thwart necessary information sharing, says Sean Coakley, senior vice president at Kenco Logistics Group.
The boom in e-commerce and the rising use of the internet will bring boom-time conditions to the industrial property sector in Australia in the coming year, according to logistics leasing experts.
Today's shippers are done talking about collaborative freight solutions and are ready to allocate resources to design and implement programs that can scale, says Ben Cubitt, senior vice president for consulting and engineering of Transplace. He describes the role that 3PLs can play in such projects.
The past year was a good one for the third-party logistics industry, according to the14th annual 3PL Study. Shanton Wilcox, principal at Capgemini Consulting, a co-sponsor of the study, highlights year-over-year changes and responses to "deep dive" questions.