With warehousing and logistics operations in numerous countries, Greg McKinley of InComm shares his experience and advice on how to select a reliable in-country vendor.
As businesses increasingly become more mobile, integrating different devices, applications and data into a single, seamless network is a significant challenge. In this Power Lunch roundtable, conducted at the annual user conference sponsored by Barcoding Inc., three experts discuss the keys to a successful integration project and identify common mistakes to avoid. They are: Martin Jack, chief technology officer at Barcoding Inc.; Kerry Kulp, network systems consultant at Cumulus Consulting Group; and Kelly Harris, director of program management at Barcoding Inc.
The conversation is facilitated by SupplyChainBrain Editor Emeritus Jean Murphy.
With RFID, return on investment derives from automated, accurate, real-time inventory tracking, says McLeod Williamson, RFID business development manager at Zebra Technologies. He provides an update on RFID applications in retail supply chains and describes how other industries are starting to leverage the technology.
In a survey of supply chain executives across industries, Motorola Solutions found that more than a third are planning to either expand existing warehouses or add new warehouses to their networks. Mark Wheeler, director of industry solutions, discusses technological and consumer issues driving this and other trends.
Use of RFID tags at the item level is upstaging case and pallet tagging among many retailers, says Tom O'Boyle, director of RFID at Barcoding Inc. O'Boyle explains the benefits derived from item-level tagging and looks at other innovative applications for RFID, including hybrid systems that mix active and passive tags.
The most important benefit of supply chain visibility is enabling management by exception, says Sean Riley of Software AG. He explains what is driving renewed interest in this area and outlines steps to achieving real-time alerts and automated responses.
As head of IT for Global Supply Chain Solutions at Ryder, a major third-party logistics provider, Gregory Knott well understands the issues surrounding technology integration between third parties and customers. Here he offers useful advice to outsourcing partners on both sides of a contract.
Amazon will open eight new U.S. distribution centers between now and the holiday selling season, bringing the total to 54. The result of the ferocious building spree is that Amazon will then have a DC within five miles of most major U.S. cities. That means Amazon will very likely have a DC closer to your customers than many of your stores.
One of the most constant staples of science fiction is its view of the automated world of the future. Whether it was the giants of the genre (H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne), animated movies or the Tomorrowland section at the Disney properties, all envisioned a world where manual labor was largely replaced by intelligent machines rapidly performing dull, repetitive tasks.
There are three different types of distribution centers - conventional, mechanized and automated - and it is important to keep their functions in mind when designing them, according to Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International, a supply chain and logistics services consulting firm.