The economic effects of Hurricane Sandy are reverberating beyond areas hit by the storm as businesses warn customers of delays, try to get merchandise out of closed ports and face canceled orders.
Now that corporations are "persons," I suppose it's no stretch to describe supply chains as "mature" or "immature." In fact, the words are especially useful when it comes to determining a company's level of supply-chain responsibility.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency announced that it has "formalized and expanded" its Air Cargo Advance Screening pilot program, which enables cargo executives to send and receive advance security filing data for their consignments.
Commercial vessels that operate beyond the internal waters of the United States, otherwise known as "beyond the boundary line," are subject to the provisions of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, which requires that they be allowed to rest.
The topic of supply-chain risk management is fraught with agonizing questions. Should global businesses emphasize risk prevention, or steel themselves to respond to whatever disaster might occur? Should they seek to transfer risk, or concentrate on achieving better risk-management up front? Should they attempt to do all of the above? The wrong answer can mean the death of an organization.
Merging of channels is a hot topic, catapulted by the suddenness of mobile popularity. But beyond the buzz, companies need to provide the right mix of services, messages and pricing. So often that isn't the case.
The primary business of a port is serving as a hub for water-borne commerce and all of the logistics that entails, with each port competing for the business of shippers and container operators. Every investment made by a port authority, from a crane to a dredge to a security checkpoint, must be based on how this activity will not only position the port to current customers, but how it will affect the attraction of future customers.