I recently had a conversation with the Director of Logistics at a US-headquartered industrial manufacturing company that has several plants in Mexico, the US, and Canada. He had several interesting things to say about his company’s regional supply chain.
First, let’s talk about the basics of this integrated, regional supply chain that includes Mexico. Near-shoring in Mexico offers real labor arbitrage opportunities. In the case of this manufacturer… Continue reading
Kichler Lighting is a family-owned company that designs, engineers, markets and distributes lighting solutions. Kichler does not sell directly to consumers. While the company does sell products through the large home improvement retailers, the bulk of its products are distributed to other retail customers, such as showrooms, electrical distributors, landscape lighting distributors, and catalogue and online retailers. In the US and Canada, the company fulfills orders out of… Continue reading
If you import goods, bonded warehouses can save you money. When you exports goods to Europe, you usually have to pay a tariff on those goods. By storing goods in a bonded warehouse, you can delay payments of the duties until the goods are released from the warehouse. In other words, bonded warehouses improve a company’s cash flow.
For example, consider an American company with a bonded warehouse in… Continue reading
Supply chain risk management solutions must encompass process, content, and connectivity. Even before the economic downturn, large enterprise software vendors like SAP and Oracle had begun to introduce Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions in response to a growing customer requirement: the ability to respond to risks more efficiently.
Initially, these solutions were largely process based—i.e., they created process flows for dealing with specific compliance requirements. Companies… Continue reading
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Guest Commentary: Easing the Burden of Air Cargo Security Compliance and Reporting
While governments around the world have become increasingly vigilant about air cargo security and compliance, freight forwarders and air carriers have always understood that these are critical areas of concern. Increased demands in terms of visibility and reporting requirements have led to far more complex processes and, without the right technologies and tools in place, these processes can become alarmingly inefficient.
Today, freight forwarders are grappling with a number… Continue reading
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