Attendees registered in record numbers for the MODEX 2014 expo held March 17-20 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.

The expo is sponsored by MHI and designed to showcase equipment and systems solutions as well as learning opportunities that span the entire supply chain, from material handling to logistics across manufacturing, assembly and distribution.

To help with effective distribution in a variety of regional markets, retailers as well as manufacturers increasingly rely on third-party logistics (3PL) providers to handle international transport of their products. According to a recent supply chain survey conducted by IDC, 58 percent of consumer products manufacturers and 65 percent of high-tech companies outsourced some portion of their products, and both percentages are expected to increase as companies expand into new countries.

 

These outsourcing strategies enable companies to both reduce distribution costs and mitigate risk of damage or spoilage, and thereby contribute to their primary business objectives.

The recent occurrence of faulty ignition switches in General Motors cars should serve as a wakeup call to companies that lack good visibility into their global supply chains. But most have failed to implement adequate supply-chain risk-management programs that could head off such problems.

That’s the view of Yves Leclerc, managing director with business consultancy West Monroe Partners. Despite a raft of natural disasters and quality failures over the years, he said, many companies have yet to step up to the requirements of an effective risk-management effort.

Sixty-five percent of the CFOs surveyed by Prime Advantage, a buying consortium for midsized manufacturers, said they were more optimistic about their financial prospects in 2014. And for the second year in a row, 72 percent reported that they are planning capital expenditures in computer hardware and software, indicating a strong and sustained commitment to technology investments by small and midsized manufacturers. 

As the eyes of the world turn to Russia and the Ukraine through a level of tension reminiscent of the Cold War era, the business world should pay extra close attention to the Crimean crisis especially in regard to impact on supply chains.

This crisis has led to a drop in Russian stock prices and ruble value. The tension in the region is especially problematic because over 90% of Russia’s oil is purchased in Europe and 70% of the oil that flows into Europe from Russia flows through the Ukraine.

eBay Now is a same-day delivery service, but not for items offered on eBay.com by its millions of sellers - at least not yet. Instead, the eBay Now service is exclusively for local brick-and-mortar retailers in certain cities: San Francisco and the Peninsula, San Jose, parts of New York City, Chicago and Dallas. 

While Best Buy, AutoZone and ToysRUs were among the first retailers to participate in eBay Now, the list of retailers now participating include the following featured stores: The Home Depot; Office Depot; Walgreens; GNC; Radio Shack; Macys; Microsoft; Guitar Center, Bloomingdale's and Urban Outfitters. 

Continued sluggish demand, a growing mountain of debt and a radically changing global marketplace has the ocean container shipping industry reeling, say financial analysts.

According to a new AlixPartners study, many of the major international players face more distress and even possible bankruptcy.

Being stuck in the middle is often a bad thing. But what if you’re not stuck? What if, instead, you’re entrenched? An entrenched distributor, for example, would likely be in the driver’s seat, capable of straddling manufacturers and customers and calling the shots to their strategic benefit. The stuck distributor, on the other hand, probably has fewer options and is at risk of being marginalized or, even worse, being squeezed out of the supply chain altogether.

IBM’s Guy Blissett, author of the tenth edition of Facing the Forces of Change (a publication of the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence), recently told an audience of distributors that they must innovate now or risk becoming obsolete.

s more analytics gets introduced into supply chain management, the need to shift distribution bases to keep pace with the rapid shifts in business and customer bases also comes into play.

From the analytics standpoint, the process is easy. Companies can now see shifts in their customer base, changes required in their business models, and even shifts in demand in near real-time. But getting the physical realities of the supply chain aligned with the realities that appear in digital reports is another matter.

Supply chain analytics is one of the top two strategic priorities among senior executives, according to a recent study conducted by Deloitte Consulting and MHI, a supply chain trade organization, a situation that has emerged as global supply chains become even more complex and expansive. 

Seventy-nine percent of respondents to the study say that supply chain analytics is either moderately important or very important, notes Scott Sopher, a principal with Deloitte Consulting. "Executives are keen to leverage analytics to derive new insights from the vast amounts of data being generated in their organizations," he explains, "and to use those insights to improve performance and streamline operations."

The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in February as exports hit a five-month low, suggesting first-quarter growth could be much weaker than initially anticipated.

Despite the trade setback, the economy remains on track to regain momentum as the year progresses. Other data on Thursday showed activity in the services sector accelerating in March after being hampered by unusually cold weather.

If you’re looking to save costs on shipping, take a look at inbound shipping. Depending on the industry and size of the company, a business can spend more than 40 percent of its annual freight budget on inbound shipping, according to the Aberdeen Group, a research firm in Boston. A more efficient inbound freight program can minimize delays, save money, and even reduce confusion.

Seventy-five percent of companies surveyed by the Aberdeen Group report that inbound freight management is a key focus point. In one example, a company with over $18M per year in inbound freight costs reported paying invoices from over 100 carriers – despite having negotiated preferred terms with five carriers and stipulating their use on each order.

Drewry’s latest Multipurpose Shipping Market Review and Forecaster report anticipates better times ahead for the sector following a tough 2013. Last year cargo demand for multipurpose and heavylift vessels was adversely impacted by determined competition from other shipping sectors.

While cargo demand has risen steadily since the crash of 2009, the multipurpose sector share of those volumes has eroded. Drewry reckons that 2013 was in fact a worse year for ship owners than recession blighted 2009, as its market share dropped to just 8% of dry cargo, although tonnage was actually higher.

In a move that gives an entire supply chain recognition equivalent to "trusted trader" status, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched its Secure Supply Chain Pilot Program (SSCPP), selecting 13 companies to participate for two years until February 2016.

 

The program extends C-TPAT-like benefits to importers’ secure supply chains relative to FDA product safety and quality enforcement in addition to anti-terror enforcement.