As I conduct research on the global warehouse automation market, I hear statements such as “warehouse automation demand from Amazon and other e-commerce behemoths is draining automation providers of available resources and capacity.” Furthermore, Amazon purchased Kiva to capture essentially all of Kiva’s output capacity for its own use. So when I signed up for a tour of Amazon’s fulfillment center in Fall River, MA, I expected to witness large amounts of advanced automation. This […]
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Robotic process automation (RPA) has gotten a good deal of attention. RPA is process automation software that is used to automate high volume, repeatable tasks. The process automation Dow is investigating and developing extends to higher level decisions for which robotic process automation is not well suited. What Dow is doing, however, is RPA taken to a whole other level.
Read More →For the last few months, Patriots fans have been wondering what Rob Gronkowski’s “next chapter” will be. As a fan, my obvious hope was that after some down time and the chance to heal his body, he would decide to rejoin the team. Earlier this week, Gronkowski held a press conference to finally announce his next chapter. And while he did not rule out a return to the field (nor did he in any way […]
Read More →One area of interest in today’s end-to-end supply chain is machine learning. And this is certainly a topic that we have written about quite often. Over the last few months, Steve Banker, Clint Reiser, and I have written about artificial intelligence and machine learning in a number of contexts and how it impacts the supply chain. These topics have included transportation management, warehouse management, and supply chain planning, among others. This technology continues to be […]
Read More →You know the drill. The order comes in at 3:59pm and company policy says anything ordered by 4:00 gets shipped the same day. You immediately assign it to your workforce to fulfill. But it’s not like the workforce you had when you became a manager 5 or 10 years ago. Whether you call them Millennials or Generation X, Y or Z, they’re just different. They have different lifestyles, different motivations and different attitudes about work. […]
Read More →Bonds had a yield curve inversion on August 14th. This often often signals a recession within about 14 months. Demand planning is difficult in these circumstances. This article discusses how supply chain teams can do better in these circumstances.
Read More →What is this inverted yield curve talk all about? Well, I know a little about it. A little bit. Does it mean that a recession is coming? No. Does it indicate that a recession might be coming? Maybe. A yield curve is an XY plot of the annualized yields of US Treasury securities at different maturities. Typically, the longer the maturity, the higher the yield. An inverted yield curve is the terminology for the reversal […]
Read More →Note: Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Choice” series where we highlight recent posts published by our sponsors that provide supply chain insights and advice. When driving by a busy seaport, I’m always awed at the hulking towers of shipping containers stacked eight to ten high in the yards surrounding the terminals. Every ocean container full of goods has a starting point well before products become freight. In fact, a product’s journey begins before […]
Read More →Fulfillment repsonsiveness is the warehouse capability most expected to increase in importance over the next five years, according to the results from our best practices survey of logistics executives. A full 77 percent of respondents expect it to become even more important than it is in today’s fast-paced environment. I attribute this increasing importance to consumer expectations for next day delivery, driven the new “Amazon Effect.”
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Supply Chain Brief
How The Modern Retail Store Is Wreaking Havoc on Wholesalers
Connected commerce has affected change at every echelon of inventory asset management. Retailer requirements now demand that wholesalers offer a new set of capabilities to fulfill their role in delivering on the customer value chain. As a result, wholesalers must implement a strategic inventory management solution to facilitate replenishment for their tier-one customers.
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