MHI Newswire

The U.S. Third Party Logistics market gross revenue grew 3.2% from 2012-2013 according to Armstrong & Associates, Inc. The research and consulting firm also estimates that growth will be 5.2% for 2014 bringing the U.S. market size to $154 billion.

Net revenues are expected to increase by 4.3% from $64.6 billion in 2013 to $67.4 billion in 2014. Domestic Transportation Management (DTM) should increase 7.5%.

The year is 2017. Nearly every one of the US's 120 million households has its own multicolor 3DC3 printer with a C3 bath (a C3H6O finishing tank). The President of the US officially announces a total end to consumer imports of plastic goods. We are not buying iPhone 9 cases from Asia. Instead, Americans buy a one-time license of their favorite Starck design from the AppStore, and customize it further, as needed.

Admittedly this vision for 2017 takes some leaps of optimism. Anybody familiar with 3D printing has hoped for a version of such a future. Yet in 2014 we are not thinking seriously enough of how 3D printing, otherwise known as additive manufacturing, can bring such change to our economy -- because it can! If we are not thinking of ways to bring about US manufacturing independence with the aid of additive manufacturing, we are not thinking big enough.

Throughout history, the North Star has served as a guiding light that points travelers in the right direction. It’s a reliable marker that anyone north of the Equator can use for accurate navigation.

Pick-to-light technology brings the concept down to earth. Lights installed above product bins direct warehouse or distribution center (DC) workers to the items they need to pull to fulfill an order — always directing them where they need to go next.

The latest incarnations of the technology, which has been around for about 30 years, improve picking accuracy to 99.9 percent and increase speed anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent over traditional paper methods. 

Amazon has sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration requesting the ability to test drones. This would require the FAA to change its current stance where drones can only be used by hobbyists for non-commercial operation.

 

With Amazon’s request, many other companies are expressing interest in the drone space, including some manufacturers and logistics service providers. Unfortunately for these companies, pushing ahead into the space may be a case of following of panning for fool’s gold.

Declining in value by 3.3 percent from 2012, the freight forwarding market is facing major challenges as it fights to stay viable in a changing global environment. This is one of the main conclusions of the latest report from Transport Intelligence, Global Freight Forwarding 2014.

Troubling capacity concerns within the air and sea freight markets combined with manufacturers focusing away from globalization and towards regionalization are resulting in changes to freight forwarding strategies and product solutions, according to the report.

According to a new report recently released by Sandler Research, an online market research store for research reports on multiple industries, and conducted by TechNavio, large retailers are shifting to block pallets over stringer pallets.

"Large retailers are shifting to block pallets over stringer pallets, consequently manufacturers are expected to focus on manufacturing block pallets," an analyst from TechNavio’s team said in a release. "Block pallets are expected to account for a large proportion of the market by 2018. Costco and Walmart, two leading retailers in the U.S., recently announced their preference for block pallets. This trend is aiding the growth of large pallet poolers such as CHEP and PECO, which only deal in block pallets, and puts small, family-owned, or independent producers who only manufacture stringer pallets at a disadvantage."

Mickey North Rizza, of BravoSolution, explains the top 5 risks and regulations affecting the supply chain and how companies can mitigate them

Supply chain risk is a major issue, and new sources continue to pop up. Adverse weather, natural disasters and factory fires have historically grabbed the attention of CPOs, but there are other risks procurement leaders must be aware of that are just as hazardous. The world of procurement is constantly changing, and supply chain managers must be on top of their game. Here are 5 new threats that you might not be ready for.

According to a new report from Nielsen, 55% of global consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainable products and services. This is up from 45% in 2011. The percentages of consumers willing to pay more for products and services from "companies committed to positive social and environmental impact" were higher in Asia/Pacific (64%), Latin America (63%), and Africa/Middle East (63%) than in North America (42%) and Europe (40%). 

While sustainability has less of an impact on purchasing decisions in the United States and other large markets in the United States and Europe, it has a much larger impact in the regions that are home to most of the world’s emerging markets.

Supply chain visibility for many manufacturers has gotten worse, according to KPMG’s latest Global Manufacturing Outlook titled "Performance in the Crosshairs."  Forty percent of respondents to the researchers’ survey admitted they lack visibility across their extended supply chain, with 33 percent saying it was due to either inadequate IT systems or a lack of skills. The report suggests that many of the gains in supply chain visibility have resulted from stronger relationships between manufacturers and their top-tier suppliers and the willingness to share more real-time.

That 40 percent is twice the number reporting poor visibility as the number reporting the same in 2013.

To adapt to changing customer demands and tastes, retailers are looking at all parts of their operations to find the best way to ensure this happens consistently. One key area that can add significant value is managing suppliers as efficiently as possible to better guarantee availability of stock.

The role of supply chain partners should be to proactively encourage and implement the flow of information (and products) throughout their own supply network. But making this work is about more than just paying lip service – to properly support the sector, suppliers must ensure that regular operational meetings are held with their retail partners to anticipate issues early and to address them quickly and efficiently. To ensure proposed solutions are relevant and fully embedded suppliers also need to have a strong stakeholder network within the retailer and be fully integrated in their culture and processes.

The top company initiative among retail supply chain executives is "to enable a seamless customer experience online and in the store." 

According to the new 2014 Supply Chain Benchmark Survey from Boston Retail Partners (BRP), this "unified commerce" initiative as the evolution of both multichannel and omnichannel retailing to provide a seamless shopping experience whether in the store, on the Web or anywhere customers choose to shop on their mobile devices.

Global value chains (GVCs) offer opportunities for growth and jobs but more needs to done to harness their potential for developing countries, according to a report.

Global Value Chains: Challenges, Opportunities and Implications for Policy said more than 70 per cent of international trade is in intermediate goods and services and economic success "depends as much on the capacity to import high-quality inputs as the capacity to export".

If you have been following the Amazon story of late then you have probably heard about the recent buildup of the company's new distribution center network of sortation centers. It has been happening quickly, and as always it has been shrouded in a veil of secrecy. 

The so-called Amazon experts out there have been predicting a rollout of 40-plus food distribution facilities nationwide by the end of 2014-2015 but they were completely off the mark. Pardon the pun but there are more important fish to fry right now.

To understand Amazon's distribution network strategy, it is important to understand its supply chain weaknesses which are two-fold.

Supply chain risk remains one of the most significant threats to businesses in many industries, but the majority of executives are still not developing strategies to mitigate the problem, according to a report released Friday by UPS Capital and the Global Supply Chain Insitute.

 

Instead, most companies consider their corporate insurance policies their first and primary line of defense.

 

In fact, of the 150 firms that were surveyed as part of the study, 90% said they "did not formally quantify supply chain risk when outsourcing production," and a full 0% said they have reached out to experts to help assess their risk exposure in this area.