As we approach this year’s Presidential election, as supply chain managers, once again we find ourselves concerned about much needed infrastructure improvement or lack thereof. In short, we are just about where we were years ago at this time. We were facing a contentious election, Congress was arguing about a Supreme Court nominee, and […]
Every fall, for the past 25 years, Dr. John Langley of Penn State, has published the “Annual Third-Party Logistics Study”. I have been following this report since its inception, and have always found it to be a comprehensive summary of current relationships between logistics service providers (LSP) and their customers. This year’s study, sponsored […]
“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise.” ……Mark Twain When the $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal was completed in 2016, its capacity was doubled, making it possible for more ships, as well as larger ships to transit the canal and call […]
Before the pandemic changed our lives, I was doing some work with Epicenter, a business start-up accelerator program based in Memphis. Founded to encourage and support entrepreneurship, its expressed purpose is to “ensure that entrepreneurs have equitable access to the networks, ideas, people, capital, and customers they need to launch and thrive.” Through my […]
In November, we will either elect a new president or grant a reprieve to the current one. While the pandemic has come to influence almost everything in our lives and will no doubt play some part in the election, supply chain managers still will have a lingering concern about the country’s deteriorating infrastructure. For […]
The number of cases of Corona Virus has continued to escalate, and it is now affecting almost every country in the world. (The majority of those not affected are isolated islands in the South Pacific.) Currently, the U.S. seems to be the epicenter. The number of cases and deaths is widely reported daily and […]
On June 23, the Council of Logistics Management Professionals (CSCMP) released the “31st Annual State of Logistics “report. This year’s report was entitled “Resilience Tested”, a reflection on the current conditions surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic The SOL report was launched in 1988, by the late Bob Delaney, one of the leading supply chain experts […]
It is difficult for supply chain managers to focus on anything but meeting their firms’ human resource and distribution challenges under the current stressful circumstances. While Covid-19 restrictions have been lessened somewhat, it appears that this relaxing of preventive measures may have been a little premature, possibly extending the logistics difficulties. In any event, […]
With the introduction of omnichannel into the supply chain, many firms have found that their distribution systems lack the flexibility necessary to accommodate the increasing number of smaller, on-line orders. While E-Commerce has increased dramatically over the past few years, the impact of Covid-19 has pushed it to a new level. The virus has […]
Right now, it is difficult for most of us to focus on anything but the impact the virus is having on our personal and professional lives; but in many respects, it is business as usual. For those supply chain managers working for firms that engage in foreign trade, one of the major concerns is […]