How Santa Is Creating the Most Elf-ficient Supply Chain in the World
It’s that time of year again — Santa Claus and his team of magic elves are getting ready for their Christmas Eve flight to deliver toys to children around the world. But have you ever wondered how they get it all done? All we really…
Visibility: The Foundation of Today’s Resilient Supply Chain
With a 412% year-over-year increase in the mentions of “supply chain issues” by chief executives during the latest company earnings season, it likely comes as no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a painful realization that today’s global supply chains are constantly exposed to a range of…
Three Ways to Increase Demand Forecast Accuracy in a Volatile World
Has there ever been a more volatile global supply chain environment? As new headlines constantly remind us, the world’s supply chains are operating in an increasingly precarious business landscape. The high costs and uncertainty of raw materials, components, labor and transportation have led to some…
Could Supply Chain Automation be the answer to the Great Resignation?
This blog is co-authored by Terence Leung, Senior Product Marketing Director; Bonnie Milam, Product Marketing Director; Michael Orr, Product Marketing Director; and Nina Seth, Product Marketing Director The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt retail. Having experienced demand and supply challenges, survived enforced lockdowns and an…
Business and Technology Insights from the 2021 State of Supply Chain Execution Report, Part 1
Customer centricity, e-commerce, Direct-to-Consumer (D2C), and the risk of financial peril are propelling shippers (manufacturers and retailers) and logistics service providers (LSPs) to digitally transform. 2020 and the first half of 2021 saw an acceleration in many emerging digital trends pre-dating the pandemic. Today we…
The Key to Strategic Workforce Planning for the Warehouse
Manufacturing and warehouse shift work has been standard procedure since the dawn of the industrial revolution. And, shift work remains the standard in many cases today. It’s been about 120 years since this practice began. Does it really make sense today, considering what’s changed in…
How Formal Training Is Better Than Trial and Error
This blog is authored by Sophia Han, Educational Services intern who will be a senior at Arizona State University this fall How much is your time worth to you? We often hear “training is not necessary,” “it costs too much,” or “takes too long.” For…
Retail’s Pandemic Pivot: Fact or Fiction?
Remember in 2020 when we were all told there’d be murder hornets? But alas, no murder hornets arrived. On the other hand, the 17-year cicadas — despite sounding like a biblical plague — are somehow quite real and emerging all across the Midwest. And there’s…
Insights from the 2021 Logistics Executive Survey: The New Normal of Logistics
Our recently launched 2021 Logistics Executive Survey aims to seek out the “New Normal of Logistics.” The survey tracks the pulse of the market as logistics operations are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic to periods of adjustments, redefinition, and eventually a new equilibrium. This is…
Scale for Sale: Digitizing Your Workforce to Delight the Customer
Think about your local store. It is likely to be a microcosm of broader society – multiple generations, each with different lifestyle needs and wants, and different economic drivers. And like any society, open to disruption. Pre-pandemic, many of the tensions in the retail labor…