At lunchtime on Friday, George Cheah, or George Junior as he is known, doesn’t really have the time to talk. "Honestly we are so busy, it’s gone absolutely mad. People have gone chicken crazy," he says over the phone, while people shout orders in the background.

The availability of labor (or lack thereof) is requiring us to think differently about network strategy and site selection. Distribution network strategy is no longer just about optimizing traditional costs (transportation, operating expense, fixed costs and capital). Today, when evaluating different network strategies, total supply chain cost, including availability, cost and quality of labor, real estate occupancy costs, inventory working capital and possible economic incentives must be considered alongside service level improvements that drive revenue growth. -Chirag Modi, Director, Global Strategy, Fortna Inc., and Tray Anderson, Vice President, Strategy, Fortna Inc.

Freight middlemen are seeing a surge in business as growing economic demand and tight capacity sends companies rushing to find shipping space.

Even the seemingly most aligned and value-enhancing 3PL relationships can falter badly if the parties fail to “keep up” with each other over the course of their agreement. I call this problem “strategic drift.” It’s a question of good governance, which includes regular communication and meeting cadences throughout the involved organizations. -Kate Vitasek, faculty member, University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Administration; author of six books on the Vested business model

They call what they are building Puertopia. But then someone told them, apparently in all seriousness, that it translates to “eternal boy playground” in Latin. So they are changing the name: They will call it Sol.

A number of U.S. companies told investors that rising shipping costs in recent months have cut into earnings.