MHI Blog -- Getting products to retailers is increasingly an uphill battle for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Eighty percent of CPG supply chain leaders say transportation is now their greatest worry, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).

The report titled "A Hard Road: Why CPG Companies Need a Strategic Approach to Transportation" found that CPG companies’ freight costs have risen to 14 percent, since 2012, reversing all other supply chain cost-saving efforts.

Industrial Distribution -- Almost 25 years after the rise of warehouse management solutions to drive increased customer service levels, there still remain a significant number of Tier 1 distribution-intensive companies that continue to use manual processes to support a growing demand on the warehouse. 

There are major facilities – with warehouses in excess of 1.0-million sq. ft. – that have not yet taken advantage of productivity and accuracy driven by an integrated, extended supply chain. 

EBN -- Manufacturers say they worry about supply chain risk, but often there's a gap between the level of concern and on-the-ground planning.

For example, Travelers 2015 Business Risk Index found that nearly half (47%) of manufacturers worried about supply chain risks. In fact, at least half were concerned that they might not be able to get materials from suppliers (51%) or might be unable to get products to customers or end users (50%). At the same time, less than a third (32%) reported that they had developed an incident response plan.

The Wall Street Journal -- A handful of companies are betting the days of truck drivers owning their own vehicles is coming to an end. 

Operating primarily in Southern California, the firms are buying trucks and employing drivers full time to haul goods the short distance between ports and nearby rail yards and warehouses, a key link in the national supply chain known as drayage trucking.

Multichannel Merchant -- A new report from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) found that issues around both the tightening of delivery and warehouse capacity, fueled by an improving economy, as well as a chronic trucker shortage, continue to impact supply chain costs, with retail being one of the hardest hit sectors.

CSCMP’s annual State of Logistics Report, done in conjunction with Penske, found that the cost of warehousing rose 4.4% in 2014 as vacancy rates fell, with growing inventory levels filling all available capacity. According to CSCMP, the national warehouse vacancy rate dropped 2.7% in 2014 to 7%.

Technology Review -- Trenton, New Jersey, isn’t the industrial powerhouse it once was, even if the slogan "Trenton Makes, the World Takes," first installed in 1935, still stands in 10-foot-tall letters across a bridge that spans the Delaware River to Pennsylvania. But a few minutes east of town, inside a warehouse belonging to Amazon, there are signs of another industrial transformation.

Amazon’s fulfillment center, located in the township of Robbinsville, is a dizzying hive of activity, with humans and machines working in carefully coordinated harmony. Besides showing the incredible efficiencies of Amazon’s operations, the factory hints at how, over the coming decades, technology may start to assist human workers with many simple manual tasks. How far this change goes, and how quickly it comes about, could make a significant difference to the labor market.

Progressive Railroading -- U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) late last week introduced a new bill that would invest $2 billion each year in multimodal freight infrastructure. 

Known as the National Multimodal Freight Policy and Investment Act (S. 1680), the legislation was created based on recommendations developed by the National Freight Advisory Committee, which is organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).

Supply Chain Brain -- Warehouse personnel are adopting order fulfillment technologies, re-organization techniques, and picking optimization methods to create efficient operations to answer the growing demands of customers.

Warehouse processes are the lifeblood of every business offering products to customers. Yet, growing customer demand is stalling warehouse operations that have not seen an upgrade for several decades. For companies to stay competitive, they must carefully evaluate the areas of their operations that have delayed their order picking and delivery processes. It's time to develop efficient operations to receive orders, find merchandise and increase staff productivity.

MHI is proud to announce the launch of its newest industry resource – MHIview.

 

MHIview is an innovative approach to educating and informing you of the supply chain industry's latest and emerging trends.

 

Watch our video for more details!

CNBC -- American businesses with exposure to Greece are preparing for the worst, after Greek voters on Sunday rejected more cost-cutting measures and an international bailout deal from European leaders. 

In recent weeks, few Greek exports have reached U.S. ports. What used to be a vibrant network of import-export activity among Greek and American business owners has trickled to a near standstill. And all this was unraveling before the weekend vote that could alter Greece's place in Europe.

Enterprise Apps Today -- Supply chain mistakes can cost big bucks. So companies should be aware of these 10 common supply chain errors.

 

The larger an industry grows, the easier it is for participants to make mistakes, and the supply chain industry, estimated by Fortune to be at $1.3 trillion and growing, is no exception.

Here are 10 of the most common supply chain mistakes and advice from experts on how to avoid them.

Time -- The death of the physical store has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, despite the growth of online-only giants, retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence still control between 94% and 97% of the market, according to Harvard Business Review. Half of the e-commerce pie is still squarely on their plates, and many are finding new ways to blend on and offline shopping, deploying technologies that mix and match experiences from both worlds. Below are six innovative displays that hint at how they might start slicing up the other half.

MHI Solutions -- Mobile technologies are improving processes within each step of the supply chain—and expediting real-time communication for better visibility across the entire chain.

An increasing number of manufacturers are outsourcing some or all of their supply chain management to third-party logistics providers, which are leveraging mobile technologies to report performance metrics—as well as potential problems—to their clients in real time, says John Santagate, research manager, supply chain execution at IDC Manufacturing Insights.

Fleet Owner -- Here’s an interesting one: apparently, there’s a growing worry among many businesses located outside the U.S. in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa regarding the "ethics" of their supply chain partners.

Indeed, if a survey conducted by insurance firm ACE Group – a subsidiary of ACE Limited – is to be believed, there’s a greater level of concern regarding issues that can severely harm corporate reputations rather than business "interruptions" caused by natural disasters and the like.

Business 2 Community -- Supply chains provide an efficient method for helping many different companies to run as smoothly as possible. With being unable to control every element of the supply chain within your business, this does bring an element of risk into the process.

Even the sections which are under your control are also open to risk, and this can have a minor or major impact upon the company, depending on its line of business and size. Some risks will be easily reduced or eliminated, while for small businesses they can have a much more devastating effect.