With the current focus on the tens of thousands of containers stuck on ships outside major U.S. ports, it’s easy to forget a maxim of supply chain management: If it’s not on wheels, it’s not moving.Equally important as the big steel boxes that carry virtually every type of consumer

After nearly two years of disruption, supply chains across the globe remain dramatically out of sync, with congestion at seaports marking the latest problem in a long line of pitfalls. Ocean shipping, facilitated by ports, makes up the lion’s share of global trade, exacerbating the scale of th

With all of the supply chain challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — including a shortage of critical parts and workers, and logjams in the movement of product through ports and over the road — there’s no guarantee that anything will arrive in time for the holidays.To get ahea

The concept of the digital twin, in which an organization creates a virtual representation of its business operation, has been around in various forms for decades, but has undergone a tremendous shift in recent years.Previously, digital twins were created using spreadsh

Over the past year and a half, organizations across industries have had to deal with unprecedented change and interruptions through numerous, massively impactful supply chain events. The Suez Canal blockage in March forced companies worldwide to find alternative routes. The semiconductor chip shorta

Just a couple of years ago, supply chains were heralded as the pinnacle of human organizational achievement, with networks of dazzling complexity crisscrossing the world to get goods, components and raw materials where they were needed “just in time.” But in building systems that extract

The pandemic’s impact on the global supply chain means holiday shoppers are getting higher than average “out-of-stock” notifications for items they want to purchase, while also experiencing price hikes and shipping delays. These hurdles make it even more challenging for pure p

Supply chain disruptions are not a new phenomenon. Buyers and suppliers have long been impacted by natural disasters, socioeconimic unrest, transit delays and other events that impact procurement and production. But as supply chains have become increasingly global and complex, these interruptio

If you’re a brand manager looking for reassurance about the 2021 holiday season, Amazon’s recent earnings might not have been comforting. While the e-commerce giant saw a nearly 50% drop in earnings, the more concerning headline was that it acknowledged that supply chain woes would have

The procurement process is composed of symbiotic moving parts. When components don’t communicate efficiently, breaks in the supply chain occur, causing costly errors, lost time and missed opportunities.Upper-level management faces the often-daunting task of streamlining this process from

Christmas is coming, and retailers are already struggling to meet demand due to the lasting impact of the pandemic on supply chains. As we near the end of the year, when holiday sales and shopping reign supreme, companies need to implement proactive strategies that maximize inventory, or else face m

As the holidays approached and supply chains remain strained, businesses and consumers were eager for a return to normalcy in time for end-of-year surges. But with shipping containers stalled at ports and labor shortages reducing available workers, supply chain managers are seeing little improvement

What better way to work off the anxieties of the pandemic than an at-home boxing workout? Yet the company that’s capitalizing on that urge has had to deal with its own set of frustrations in getting product to market.Liteboxer sells a boxing machine for the home, equipped with an array of LED

Retail has never been easy, but the past couple of years have brought incredible disruption to the sector. First it was COVID-19 and the need for contactless transactions. Now, as the pandemic drags on, retailers face serious supply chain problems and labor shortages.While the current challenges wil

To say that the internet of things (IoT) is taking supply chain management by storm is something of an understatement. In a crunch to collect real-time information and improve operational visibility, almost every object imaginable is being embedded with sensors, processors, software and other techno

It’s likely that you’ve spent a lot of time and resources building an all-encompassing routed delivery operation. But as your business has grown, you’ve probably experienced setbacks, especially in recent years: clogged supply chains, increased consumer demand, and a backlog of ord

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a proving ground for innovations across multiple industries. This is not surprising. Throughout history, crises have spawned innovation. Now the world is being invited to innovate once again amid a cataclysmic disruption to our global supply chain.The problem we&rsqu

For retailers and manufacturers, global e-commerce is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. Data suggests the international e-commerce market will total nearly $5 trillion this year, and that figure is estimated to reach more than $6.3 trillion in the next three years.Borderless e-comme

When I first joined the workforce I was given a dongle and used the hotel room phone to access my email at speeds that wouldn’t even power Slack today. I tried to explain this to my 11-year-old and she looked at me like I had a cat on my head. My point wasn’t so much about dial-up Intern

The high-profile but temporary unavailability of semiconductors and other industrial components is getting a lot more coverage these days than the chronic shortage of an even more vital resource: water.The global water crisis was in evidence long before COVID-19 appeared on the scene, and coming out