Unemployment fell by 782,000 to 8.7 million in July, the largest month-over-month decline since August 2020. But labor shortages persist and employers are exploring options like increased wages, tuition reimbursement and healthcare benefits to attract workers. However, these enticements may not

Industries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic included airlines, leisure, restaurants, oil and gas, auto parts and equipment. In retrospect, many would have benefited from a focus on organizational resilience, from their supply chains to corporate boardrooms.More often than not, the reason that co

Black Friday through Cyber Monday, 2020, was the first stress test of the capabilities that retailers had put into place to address last year's anticipated crush of online orders and the corresponding avalanche of fulfillment challenges. As e-commerce order-fulfillment provider PFS discovered in

Compounded with the economic effects brought on by the global pandemic, Brexit has made a lasting impact on the U.K. economy and will continue to create a sense of prolonged uncertainty with trade between the U.K. and the EU. As global trade recovers amid the worldwide vaccination rollout and slow e

Perhaps one of the most dangerous assumptions a business can make right now is that the pandemic is to blame for the supply chain crisis.Of course, the pandemic exacerbated issues. But even before COVID-19 struck, the conditions for capacity constraints were starting to build, fueled in large part b

The front-end of e-commerce has never been easier, thanks to platforms like Amazon.com Inc. and Shopify Inc. Merchants can start an online store, process payments and advertise their products to millions in a matter of days. The process of getting these products to a customer’s front door, how

There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to the promise of 5G. Still in its infancy, the fifth generation of networks has already proven to be faster and more reliable than its predecessors, and from a business perspective, the opportunities for increased connectivity and performance ar

Tracking and tracing are the foundations all great food and beverage manufacturers rely on to create and strengthen trust with their distribution networks and consumers. But today’s consumer has set the bar increasingly high for companies as they think about the broader repercussions of their

People are shying away from factory work because they don’t realize what a great career opportunity it offers.So says Ethan Karp. He is president and chief executive officer of the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET), an organization dedicating to drumming up manufacturing jobs

Supply chain counterfeiting is a universal problem that plagues almost every industry. There are counterfeit electronic components, car parts, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals — even counterfeit wines. While manufacturers and distributors lose billions of dollars annually to counterfeit goods,

Has there ever been a more challenging time to be a chief procurement officer? Or a more exciting one? Changes in the business world at large have been accelerating for decades, leading to a fundamental transformation of the procurement function.The role of the procurement professional has historica

Procurement teams and their organizations learned a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. But one of the most critical lessons that procurement experts have taken away from the past two years is just how important it is to have a mature commodity risk management strategy in place.Organizations that reac

Retailers and logistics companies are facing significant labor challenges, and are under pressure to deliver more value in less time. Many have embraced automation and have seen success with robot deployments within warehouses and distribution centers, whether to help fulfill e-commerce orders, or w

The coronavirus pandemic has kept everyone at home. Additionally, a reduction in commuting expenses and an injection of large sums of money into bank accounts (thanks to the federal government) has led to more disposable income.The result? More shoppers, spending the majority of their time quarantin

As sustainability comes into sharper focus for businesses, industries across every sector are analyzing ways to mitigate the impact of their carbon footprint, the amount of greenhouse gases (specifically carbon dioxide) that their activities emit directly or indirectly. With experts singling out the

How in the world are retailers and suppliers supposed to come up with accurate demand forecasts if they aren’t sharing the same data in the same manner at the same time?COVID-19 is rightly blamed for many of the problems that plagued consumer products supply chains throughout 2020. But shortag

One of the earliest references to “supply chain” as a job or discipline appeared in a 1992 article in Harvard Business Review. Before then, we talked of the various roles within it: logistics, procurement, scheduling, inventory management, etc. These important functions were th

Mobile technology permeates all aspects of our lives, both personal and professional. Workers accustomed to their devices at home are more engaged at work when familiar technology is implemented, prompting businesses across industries to prioritize a mobile-first approach in supply chain management.

As the race to shorten delivery times continues to escalate, micro-fulfillment strategies have grown in popularity. Ranging from highly automated small warehouses to retail storefronts, micro-fulfillment centers enable delivery times in hours or even minutes, rather than days.Last-mile delivery is,

The last 15 months have demonstrated to the world the importance of having a well-run global supply chain to succeed in today’s volatile and complex operating environment. The semiconductor shortage, Suez Canal blockage, COVID-19 hot spots and variants, and the Biden Administration’s eff