Ongoing innovation at Men's Wearhouse has led to the launch of its omni-channel inventory program, which gives customers visibility and access to all merchandise within the company's distribution center and its 900-plus retail locations from one location. Now, regardless of whether a customer is shopping in a single store or online, they can see all merchandise available to them throughout the company and pick up any item at the store of their choosing.
W&H Systems, an integrator of material-handling systems, has developed a version of its Shiraz warehouse-control system (WCS) that works on a smartwatch.
Research conducted by IDTechEx, and published in RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2014-2024, finds that the RFID market – including tags, readers, software and services for passive and active RFID – will grow from $7.88bn in 2013 to $9.2bn in 2014. IDTechEx expects that the RFID market will reach $30.2bn in 2024. Most growth is due to active RFID/RTLS systems, interrogators, and then tags, in terms of total money spent.
It looks as though we're in for a year of continued economic recovery and job growth, however gradual. That should be good news for ocean carriers - assuming they don't undermine their own success by flooding the market with capacity, then engaging in rampant discounting to fill it.
I'd like to propose a symbol for those huge new vessel-sharing alliances that will dominate the global container trades this year and beyond: a great big question mark.
Analyst Insight: Retailers are starting to use brick-and-mortar stores as distribution nodes, to connect demand with inventory in the most flexible and cost-effective way. Ship-from-store enables them to leverage their entire inventory for higher sales, better margins and improved service. It allows them to offer omnichannel customers access to a broader array of products, and helps to offset the impact of an imperfect forecast. - Adam Mullen, Apparel Industry Leader, Fortna Inc.
The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the apparel industry — which consists of companies that manufacture clothing, accessories and footwear. Learn how apparel companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.
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