In early May, I participated in one of the supply chain industry’s premier events, which attracted more than 3,500 logistics professionals. I attend this conference every year, but this time, strolling the exhibition floor and surveying the 110+ technology providers’ latest wares, I was struck by a dichotomy. On the one hand, technology has undeniably […]
Imagine you’ve just received the job offer of your dreams. The company is willing to relocate you thousands of miles away from home and your family is in full support. The interview process is over, but more challenges are ahead. Which school are your children going to attend? Are you going to rent a house […]
I have written about drones a lot here in the past, and all the practical (and often times impractical) applications they have been used for. I saw an interesting story earlier this week about how a police department in a small Maryland city is using drones in its effort to thwart illegal dirt bike riding […]
Warehouse performance continues to evolve into a more complex, multi-faceted measure. Performance today embodies not only the traditional measures of accuracy and cost-efficiency, but also responsiveness and agility. The importance of these capabilities has increased due to some interesting competitive pressures in the market. And the stimuli continue to change, gradually shifting the relative importance of these capabilities. There were a range of reasons given as to “why” a given performance objective increased in importance. But there were two common threads. The reasons boiled down […]
Steve Lewis, the president of GXO Direct, the shared services division of GXO Logistics, spoke at Blue Yonder’s ICON user conference. Blue Yonder is one of the world’s largest providers of supply chain software solutions. GXO is the world’s largest contract warehousing provider. Afterwards, Mr. Lewis spoke in more detail to industry analysts. Mr. Lewis […]
I’ve often wondered what happens to clothes that can’t be sold. And I’ve covered this before when thinking about the “Championship” clothing of a team that lost. But it turns out, unfortunately, that there is so much more material waste in this world that we never think about. A mountain of discarded clothing, including Christmas […]
The concept of digital twins has emerged as a powerful foundational tool to drive improvements in warehouse productivity and efficiency. To define what exactly it is, a digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical asset, process, or system. In the warehouse context, a digital twin can be created to represent the physical layout, […]
I spent the better part of last week in Las Vegas, NV attending the Blue Yonder ICON customer conference. This was the first time I have attended a Blue Yonder conference in person since 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago. The conference certainly did not disappoint, as there were hundreds of sessions, interesting keynotes, […]
Traditionally, planning processes are designed to serve specific time horizons – sales & operations execution (S&OE) is used for short term horizon, sales & operations planning (S&OP) for the mid-term horizon, and integrated business planning (IBP) for long term strategic horizon. In its ideal form, supply chain planning should help leaders balance customer service with […]
Call me out of touch, but yesterday, May 4th, was the first I had heard of Star Wars Day – better known as “May The 4th Be With You!” As I read further, I learned that May 25, 1977 was the release date of the original Star Wars movie. And it is celebrated by some […]