The SupplyChainBrain Podcast

Five years from now, the global work environment will look a lot different than it does today. But many companies aren't prepared to deal with the change. Jettison those full-time employees who have spent their entire working lives with the same company. Bring in the independent contractors and contingent employees who are making up an increasing share of the workforce. That's the pictur...

The nationwide driver shortage just won't go away. And shippers are paying the price. It seems as though nobody wants to drive a truck anymore. So much for the romantic image of the long-haul trucker: the job has lost any appeal that it might once have had. The hours are long and grueling, and the compensation inadequate. That, at least, appears to be the main reasons behind the persistent sh...

Traditional retailers aren't taking the challenge from pure e-tailers lying down. They can deliver on same-day orders, too. Amazon.com, Google, eBay and others have been ramping up their same-day delivery capability in select cities. Now brick-and-mortar retailers have a way to match that service. Deliv is a provider of same-day delivery on behalf of major retailers. Drawing on a pool of inde...

Face it: There's no such thing as a supply-chain information-technology system that’s completely invulnerable to cyber attack. Hackers are growing more sophisticated every day, and the best ones manage to stay one step ahead of most companies' I.T. security departments. Still, there are some basic steps that companies can take to protect themselves against most kinds of incursions. On th...

Tired of dealing with slow ships and congested ports to get your product out of China? Why not take the train? That's what Hewlett-Packard Co. did. In fact, the consumer-electronics giant forged a whole new path for getting manufactured goods from its Chinese factories to markets in Western Europe. The move followed a shift by the company of factory capacity into inland and western China, a r...

The Ebola crisis has given rise to the usual epidemic of misinformation, overreaction and lack of preparedness by individuals and business. Will we ever learn? The situation is undeniably serious, especially in the African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Now that the disease has reached American shores, however, we're seeing a public response that doesn't always match up wit...

Manufacturing and distribution executives love the idea of slashing inventories. But it's distribution-center managers who must deal with the consequences. Lean is the watchword in supply-chain management today, and inventory isn't immune. All that merchandise sitting around on warehouse racks seems like a prime candidate for cost-cutting. And most of the time, the practice makes sense....

Coming soon to a city near you – an Amazon.com store? Don't look now, but the king of e-tailing is inching into the land of brick-and-mortar retailing. Amazon has confirmed plans to open two or three small physical stores in San Francisco, New York and possibly Sacramento in time for the 2014 holiday shopping season. They won't all be performing the same role – New York will host a kind...

By now, all manufacturers are fully up to speed on the Securities Exchange Commission's new rule about disclosing the presence of conflict minerals in their products … aren't they? Not exactly. A lot of companies have yet to determine their use of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from gang-controlled mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring regions. The complexity of...

Just how unified is the European Union, anyway? Disunified enough to cause an unemployment crisis that won't go away. The average unemployment rate across the 28-country EU is around 10 percent. It's as bad as 56 percent among the youth of Spain. What's more, a hidden army of part-time workers, and the existence of a massive ''gray economy'' region-wide, is makin...

The nation's infrastructure crisis is crying out for a long-term solution. For years, transportation funding has been falling far short of what's needed to repair, construct and maintain highways, roads, bridges, tunnels and canals. But congressional deadlock has continued to starve the Highway Trust Fund, without devising an alternative means of funding. The federal gas tax hasn't...

3D printing is one of the hottest technology developments in supply chain today. Is it for real? The answer is a qualified yes, according to Shashank Narain, vice president of account development with The Smart Cube, a professional services firm. He has seen a 3D printer create a component with 20 moving parts, all on different axes. Today, 3D printers are being touted for everything from food to...

Delivery drones are on their way to your doorstep. And regulators are right on their tail. Amazon and other e-commerce retailers are preparing a fleet of drones that can rush product to the consumer. The craft are already in the testing stage, but the legal ramifications of their use are far from clear. Issues to be addressed include privacy, security, safety and environmental impact. The Federal...

Time to scrap your legacy I.T. systems. But how exactly should you go about it? Old and outdated applications lie at the heart of many global supply chains. There's a pressing need to bring them up to date, but companies risk undermining their operations if they attempt a wholesale change. How, then, should they make the decision about which systems to tackle first? What are the criteria for...

For international traders who are sick of filing documents with multiple regulatory agencies, help is on the way. Get ready for the Single Window. The term describes a means by which importers, exporters, carriers and third parties can submit standardized information and documentation via a single entry point. In other words, one filing satisfies the requirements of multiple agencies – 48 in the U...

Avnet, Inc. just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a Lean company. But the company's search for waste and inefficiency is far from over. Avnet is a leading distributor of electronic components, semiconductors and computer products. It's been ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the ''world's most admired companies'' for eight straight years. Avnet's strateg...

It might seem like a throwback to the dirigibles of the 1930s, but a new type of airship is another animal entirely. The Aeroscraft is a fixed-wing, rigid-structure vehicle that's designed to carry up to 250 tons of cargo. It's the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, chief executive officer of Aeros. The Ukrainian-born entrepreneur joins us on this episode to talk about his plans for a fleet o...

Should foreign-flag vessels and crews be allowed into the U.S. domestic maritime trades? They've been barred entry for nearly a century, thanks to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act. The law states that all goods moving by water between U.S. ports must be carried by ships that are built, flagged and crewed in this country. It has been subjected to repeated attacks...

There's a new method for benchmarking the resiliency of your supply chain. It's called the Global Resilience Index, created by commercial and industrial property insurer FM Global. More than a year in development, the index ranks the business resilience of 130 countries. It was designed to help executives assess and manage supply-chain risk in those regions, as well as identify weaknesse...

Fraud can happen anywhere in your supply chain. Are you doing enough to stop it? As companies extend their supply chains through partnerships with distant suppliers and manufacturers, the risk of fraud increases. So, too, does the possibility of misbehavior within the organization. Adding to the complexity is a sea of data that can be tough to sort through and utilize in an effective manner. One s...

When it comes to assessing supply-chain risk and opportunity in emerging markets, the landscape never stops changing. Today, China is the go-to country for cheap manufacturing. Tomorrow, it's somewhere in Southeast Asia, or even Latin America. Shifting political, economic, legal, environmental and labor conditions make it tough for businesses to decide the best places for sourcing and selling...

The shift is happening. Baby Boomers are beginning to retire, and Millennials are on the rise. But how to entice them into a career in supply chain? One way is to recognize excellence in those younger individuals who are already on the job. ThomasNet.com has joined with the Institute for Supply Management to create a ''30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars'' recognition program...

There's a new tool for ranking the world's best supply chains. The Supply Chain Index was developed by Lora Cecere, founder of Supply Chain Insights, in partnership with Arizona State University. The idea, she says, was to come up with a way to benchmark global supply chains based on hard financial data. Thousands of publicly traded companies are rated on the basis of economic strength,...

Is the use of nanotechnology in manufacturing and poisoning workers? A recent report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine discusses the case of a 26-year-old American factory worker who developed symptoms of throat irritation, nasal congestion and skin rash from exposure to nanoparticles used in the making of ink fluids. It's the first published case in North America of serious heal...

Without question, creating sustainable global supply chains is a daunting challenge. But the biggest roadblock might be at the retail shelf. For all the progress that's been made, there remains a ''huge discrepancy'' between the supposed willingness of consumers to support sustainable products, and their actual buying habits. Until that gap is closed, items carrying the fa...