The SupplyChainBrain Podcast

The new era of retail isn't just about the internet. Welcome to the world of the pop-up store. Turns out that highlighting products on a website isn't always the most effective way to get your brand in front of the consumer. Buyers want to see, touch and smell the merchandise. And retailers want to promote the notion of constant innovation. Hence the growing popularity of the pop-up, a p...

The U.K. is making a clean split from the European Union. How will its economy and trading relationships fare in a post-Brexit world? All signs point to a ''hard Brexit,'' a complete severing of ties with the European single market. Opponents of the move say it will lead to economic disaster for the U.K. It all depends, of course, on how one views the situation. Is the U.K. lea...

Forget about trade friction between the U.S. and China. Now it's a global trade war. As more and more aggrieved countries jump into the game, we find ourselves in a world of retributive duties and other government actions against the ''dumping'' of goods in export markets. It's not just the U.S. fighting with China. South Africa, India, Malaysia and Taiwan have also f...

You can't optimize your logistics network if you don't know how much you're spending on it. That was the challenge confronting Blount International, Inc., a global maker and marketer of equipment and replacement parts for the forestry, lawn and garden, farm, ranch and concrete-cutting industries. On this episode, we speak with Alfredo Camacho, Blount's director of global logist...

It takes a big port to handle a big ship. Can East Coast ports meet the challenge of handling the new generation of mega-container vessels? Container lines are engaged in a frantic race to build ever-larger ships, which promise to have a ripple effect throughout the global transportation network. For their part, ports must invest billions of dollars in new and expanded facilities in order to accom...

The U.S. Department of Transportation is applying a surprisingly light hand to the regulation of driverless vehicles. Not that DOT intends to cede its authority to oversee the new technology. On the contrary. But a new proposed policy, replacing one from three years ago, allows automakers and designers some wiggle room in how they meet the agency's strict safety standards. For example, DOT ha...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, and free trade generally, are political poison these days. But what's the cost of rejecting the 12-nation treaty? In the presidential election season, the TPP has come under fire from both major political parties, a state of affairs that threatens to reverse years of progress toward free trade. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is pushing the...

There's just too much data out there for a human to make sense of. Can artificial intelligence save the day? The question is especially relevant for logistics providers. One study finds that ocean carriers will lose at least $5bn this year, in large part due to a glut of unneeded capacity. Clearly they need to do a better job of matching supply and demand, and the age of Big Data offers a tem...

Global companies today live or die by the effectiveness of their social compliance programs. The term ''social compliance'' embraces virtually every stage of the supply chain, covering concerns such as workplace safety, slavery and forced labor, child labor and banned materials. So it's not surprising that many companies have experienced failures in that area. At the same...

Recent months have seen major car recalls by GM and Ford Motor Co. They're just the latest in a seemingly endless series of failures. Can this trend be stopped? Automotive recalls are serious business. Past component and system failures have resulted in multiple injuries and deaths. Even when the problem doesn't threaten passenger safety, it can have huge ramifications for manufacturers...

Everyone agrees about the importance of adjusting to change. So why do so many companies fail in that effort? We're in the Age of Disruption, notwithstanding the tendency of modern-day marketers to overuse that word to the point where it becomes meaningless. Real disruption is roiling companies and industries everywhere, and executives and employees need a plan to cope with it. On this episod...

There's not an aspect of modern life that won't be affected by advances in robotics and artificial intelligence in the coming years. But the impact will be especially felt in transportation and distribution. The science of robotics has made huge leaps in recent years, to the point where robots are taking over an increasing number of tasks that once were the exclusive province of humans....

The platforms of both major political parties are based on the belief that the actions of presidents have a direct impact on the U.S. and global economy. But is that really so? Of all the issues to be discussed during presidential campaigns, none dominates the debate more than the economy. Presidents and would-be presidents insist that they have the power to create jobs, drive growth and spur inve...

The boom in e-commerce is a global phenomenon, but each country has its own unique requirements for ensuring the smooth flow of shipments to the buyer. Canada is no exception. Given its proximity to the U.S., American companies might tend to underestimate the need for intimate knowledge of the Canadian e-commerce landscape. There are issues of currency, language, packaging requirements, units of m...

The ''sharing economy'' is supposed to empower workers and usher in a new era of job satisfaction. Can it deliver? The answer lies in understanding just what this new work regime is replacing. And the answer to that can be found in the title of a new book called The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy. Author Jerry Davis, Professor of Managem...

The aerospace giant Pratt and Whitney plans to double production of a new and innovative jet engine by 2020. Proper supply-chain management will play a huge role in the success of the venture. Pratt and Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., has orders for more than 7,000 of the new engines, which are more powerful, more fuel-efficient, quieter and result in fewer emissions. The model...

The U.S. trade deficit is continuing to decline – but don't blame imports for the widening gap. In fact, in trade figures published by the U.S. Census Bureau for the month of June 2016, imports were actually down by 2.9 percent from a year earlier. The problem is that exports dropped by an even greater margin of 5.2 percent. Blame a strong dollar and weak commodity sales, among other factors....

The age of the driverless commercial truck is coming. It's just a question of when. Someday you'll look in your rear-view mirror and see an 18-wheeler bearing down on you with no one in the cab. But there's nothing to fear, according to Gary Girotti, executive vice president of Chainalytics. He believes the technology already exists to make self-driving trucks safe and viable for ev...

When it comes to assessing the impact of business practices on the environment, the bar is being raised. Mere sustainability is no longer enough: now it’s all about becoming ''net positive.'' The idea isn't new, but has recently taken off with establishment of the Net Positive Project. It's the product of a collaboration among Business and Social Responsibility (BSR),...

The long-term impact of Brexit on European supply chains is yet to be determined, but some early results are in. Just days after the U.K.'s controversial vote to leave the European Union, the Institute for Supply Management polled procurement executives to learn how they felt about the move. According to ISM, it was the first publicly available analysis of the impact of Brexit on U.S. compani...

What stands in the way of a solution to the nation's crumbling, outdated and inadequate transportation infrastructure? Judging from the decades of debate surrounding the issue, the obstacles are immense. Legislators can't seem to agree on a way to fix crumbling roads, bridges and highways, let alone built new infrastructure. The sticking point, as usual, is the argument over how we'...

Employment rules and regulations have failed to keep pace with innovation in the American workforce – especially with regard to the growing number of independent workers. There are approximately 40 million independent workers in the country today, but uncertainties surrounding their status make them vulnerable to exploitation, and hinder employers' efforts to hire them. An outdated regulatory...

The recall of a single food ingredient can have massive implications for manufacturers and retailers, ranging over multiple supply chains. Take the May 2016 recall of sunflower seeds, triggered by the discovery of Listeria, a bacteria that can cause multiple serious medical issues, especially for pregnant women, children and the elderly. That one action affected dozens of retailers and more than 1...

The new set of locks at the Panama Canal is open for business. How will it affect North American shipping patterns? A year and a half late, hugely over budget and bearing serious questions about its design and construction, the widening of the Panama Canal is finally complete. When first announced a decade ago, the project promised to alter the way in which ocean cargoes moved in and out of North...

U.S. businesses have been given another legal recourse, in their never-ending battle against trade-secret theft. The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 was signed into law by President Obama in May. It provides companies with a civil cause of action, in addition to the federal criminal statutes that are already on the books. The measure is especially important because it allows business to act more...