Supply Chain People: What Makes Us Tick Happily

Came across this fascinating article; its focus is that there’s a peak time of day for everything we do. Who knew? Thought those things were nature-nurture propagated rather than bio-clocked…  Either way, this piece identifies and justifies many why-we-do’s throughout the day, offering optimization tips (practicality individually-based). A fun read with good-to-knows.

Italian Business Confidence Rises More Than Expected – Everybody Smile!

Encouraging to see those engrossed in the EU economic situation are optimistic. Enthusiasm – especially in the business economics realm – often spreads… Here’s the good news…

Manufacturing in America Equals Economic and Innovation Success

See this enlightening engagement of U.S. manufacturing’s substantial impact on current/future economic growth, and its influence on development of goods and services benefiting B2B and consumer users the world over. If this importance is ever doubted, these stats will dispel and convince the validity of innovative development’s necessity in U.S. economics, and ultimately the world’s.

iPhone 5 Sellout Tests Apple Supply Chain

The dream-nightmare of every company: immediate, substantial demand boost, challenging to the existing supply chain. Just how much flexibility can be factored into yours? With fiscal good fortune, you may experience an ‘iPhone 5’ moment… See this story…

Will Ongoing High Oil Prices In Your Supply Chain Cap Your Company’s Growth?

From the looks of these figures from Bloomberg, they just might. Plan ahead by saving money now: control the transportation spend you can with Data2Logistics.

Brazilian Middle Class Moves R$ 1 trillion in ’12 – Economic Growth Guide for All Nations

If Brazil's middle class were the population of a single country, it would rank 18th on a ranking of the top 20 consumer countries in the world - the "consumption G20," according to World Bank data.

Brazil’s economic growth is tied to the establishment of a full-spectrum middle class – people with jobs and whose currency circulates throughout all business and governmental sectors, impacting sustainability of their society. How the nation has manifested its middle class provides a guide for all to review, and many to prosper.

Chinese Manufacturing Index Falls to Nine-Month Low: (Renewed) Age of Regional-Specialized Manufacturing upon Us?

The numbers are chronicled here…

How much of this is foretelling of further distribution of manufacturing, moving to increased regional specializations concentrated on local labor’s strengths…  For a globe of countries in need of fiscal boosts based on localized gross domestic product gains, and the growing roster of governmental entities providing incentives, it appears distributed manufacturing and varietal import-export supply chain derivatives are up-and-trenders.

Construct Your Own Innovation Pipeline (Warning: This May Inspire You to Do Something You’ll Be Proud Of)

See this excellent article – it’s action and satisfaction inducing.

(A Useful) Top 10 List: Reasons to Outsource Supply Chain Aspects

As outsourcing continues to evolve, so do the reasons to consider it. While cutting costs is still a main driver for many organizations, the reasons companies decide to outsource today widely vary, going beyond dollar signs.

Included below is a breakdown of the Top 10 reasons companies should consider (and already are) outsourcing based upon what we’re seeing from our work worldwide with clients as diverse as Nokia Siemens and Hilti Corporation.

Data2Logistics’ freight bill auditing and payment is ideal: a cost-saver…

Cloud Computing in the Supply Chain – A Cost Saving Option

Utilizing a cloud-based service has an extremely rapid deployment time because it requires no hardware purchases and no on-premises software deployments. Core integration capabilities (e.g., data and message transformation, flow management, routing, data aggregation, data quality, security, community management) and the governance features are performed in the provider's cloud data center. IT operations, monitoring, management, maintenance and upgrade of the platform are performed by the cloud provider, so the user organization must take care of only the monitoring, management and maintenance of its own integration flows, but not of the underlying platform. Data2Logistics’ cloud logistics planning and freight bill auditing is a cost-saving ideal…

Novation Predicts 2.9 Percent Hike in Supply Chain Costs in 2013

In light of financial demands, respondents are focusing their efforts to reduce costs in specific areas: 80 percent of respondents are focusing on standardization, 77 percent on process improvement, and 69 percent indicate they are reducing costs. You’ll save substantially on shipping costs with Data2Logistics…

Big News from Big Brains: PwC Seeing US Manufacturing Resurgence Leading to Job Growth

Consensus views on a U.S. manufacturing resurgence have largely centered on rising labor costs in markets such as China as the key driver of re-shoring back to the U.S. However, a new PwC US report, A Homecoming for U.S. Manufacturing?, reveals that while rising labor costs are part of the story, a range of factors—including transportation and energy costs and protecting the supply chain—could drive a sustained manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. beyond any cyclical recovery, potentially improving investment, employment, production output and research & development (R&D).

PwC’s new report identifies seven factors—including transportation and energy costs; currency fluctuations; U.S. market demand; labor costs; U.S. talent; availability of capital; and the tax and regulatory climate—as the primary catalysts influencing manufacturers’ decisions to establish production facilities domestically and produce products closer to their major customer bases.  PwC’s report also notes that localizing production can mitigate supply chain disruptions, which totaled $2.2 billion in financial impact for U.S. industrial products companies in 2011.

They’re bright, hope they’re right…

Supply Chain Managers Facing Yet another Diesel Price Spike

This is the fourth consecutive week prices have been north of the $4 per gallon mark. And shippers continue to take steps to minimize the impact of fluctuating fuel costs. Over the years, they have maintained that this is imperative as higher diesel prices have the potential to hinder their growth and increase operating costs, which will, in turn, force them to raise prices to consumers. Find your shipping savings and control the costs you can with Data2Logistics…

(Unexpectedly) Toughest Challenge Facing Manufacturing

Jobs without employees – is this the manufacturing growth impetus we weren’t looking for, but will ultimately appreciate? This article highlights the problems, broaches solutions…

Britain Rebuilding Manufacturing Industry with Government Loans – Economic Stimulus That Works!

Royal Bank of Scotland announced last week, that it would use the government’s new flagship lending program to offer cheap loans to UK manufacturing companies, in an attempt to stimulate economic growth.

RBS’s manufacturing fund is said to target medium sized businesses with annual sales of between 25 million pounds and 500 million pounds ($770 million) which are seen as a key source of growth for the British economy, Reuters reported.

“Mid-sized manufacturers are key in helping the UK grow and export out of recession. Through Funding for Lending, these are the most competitive terms that we have been able to offer manufacturers for several years,” said Peter Russell, RBS’s head of manufacturing. Hope the movement's mobile!

Data2Logistics Infuses Both Information and Action for Freight Transportation Savings

Global freight bill processor, auditor and cost reduction advisor Data2Logistics announces coupled efforts to infuse up-to-date, marketplace-based information with cost-saving freight bill auditing actions. Combined, these services are combined to benefit both inbound and outbound shippers operating domestically and internationally with a multifaceted, ongoing approach to optimize freight transportation and related cost savings. Benefit from it…

Evolving Wholesale Distribution in the E-Commerce Era

Retail Technology Review: It seems then that savvy wholesale & distribution business leaders are already exploring multi-channel sales strategies in pursuit of growth. The challenge will be to do this in a way that evolves their business model, streamlines and automates their workflow and delivers profits alongside that growth. Whilst their retail counterparts have been leading the way in e-commerce and m-commerce, the WD industry is starting to wake up to their potential. With the potential boost from these channels worth up to £16 billion, it's urgent that the wholesale distribution industry evolves its approach.

Supply chain conservation a component; transportation savings via Data2Logistics.

IDC Study: Reducing Transportation and Logistics Costs Supply Chain’s Top Initiative...

Here’s more on the supply chain cost-cutting trend; in Data2Logistics’ wheelhouse…

Cutting Supply Chain Costs Is Top Priority

LogisticsManager.com - Supply chain managers regard pressure to reduce costs as the top trend over the next five years, according to a European logistics occupier survey by Jones Lang LaSalle. Cut-away the ‘Ship Smarter and Save’ way with Data2Logistics!

Carmakers Revisit Supply Chain Strategies after Costly Disruptions

A new management report from just-auto.com, written by Interchange Europe, considers how fragile the supply chains of international manufacturing firms have become and the strategic responses now being formulated in response.

The report adds that production losses related to the disasters in Japan and Thailand hit company profits, particularly those of the Japanese manufacturers, already struggling with a surge in the yen which has risen 15% against the dollar in the past three years.

Manufacturers in all categories are planning cost-saving rout options with Data2Logistics.

Ensuring Routing Guide Compliance – A Handy How-To for Freight Shipping Savings

As featured in Inbound Logistics magazine:

When vendors fail to comply with shippers' routing guide instructions, all parties involved experience frustration. To improve compliance, shippers must provide clear and concise instructions about how they want their freight to move. Here is advice on ensuring routing guide compliance from Harold B. Friedman, senior vice president of global corporate development at freight payment and auditing service provider Data2Logistics. See here to save…

Supply Chain Improvement Research for SMB Retailers

RSR Research‘s March 2012 study, Retail Supply Chain 2012: Globalization, Localization, and Cross-Channel, highlighted retailers’ main operational challenge to realigning their supply chains to meet the challenges created by consumers’ omni-channel shopping behaviors: that past sales are no longer enough to predict future demand. That concern, however, is largely driven by retailers with annual top line revenues of more than $500 million. Retailers whose top lines are less than $500 million (SMB retailers) are much more challenged by an internal issue: organizational friction between the merchants and supply chain operators. Given this friction, perhaps it is not surprising that “too much inventory” and “lost sales from out of stocks” are also top challenges for these retailers.

One fix: save logistics spend $’s with Data2Logistics.