HOW TO BE EVERYWHERE

OMNICHANNEL LOGISTICS IS HELPING RETAILERS MEET CONSTANT DEMAND FROM ALL DIRECTIONS

[By Keri Forsythe-Stephens]

Nail Rock’s failure to meet deadlines for shipping nail polish to Walmart, its biggest U.S. account, led to a lot of hand-wringing. Neil Jerzak, operations manager for Rock Beauty, London—U.K. retailer for the popular beauty product—reveals that Nail Rock hit only 30 percent to 35 percent of Walmart’s order deadlines….Read More…

SIZABLE EXPECTATIONS

TRENDS AND OPTIMISM IN THE PROJECT CARGO MARKET [By Paul Scott Abbott]

Air Products and Chemicals Inc. serves more than 30 industries in 50-plus countries, supplying “industrial gases, performance materials, equipment and technology.” When the world’s largest supplier of hydrogen and helium needed a site to manufacture its liquefied natural…Read More…

SEA CHANGE

HOW HILCO MOVED ITS ASIA-BOUND EXPEDITED EYEWEAR EXPORTS FROM THE SKY TO THE SURF

[ By Keri Forsythe-Stephens ]

Since 1956, the Hilsinger Co. (Hilco) has prided itself on supplying eyewear and eye-care vendors with functional and stylish products. Getting the products to market, however, has been an ongoing challenge for the Plainville, Mass.-based organization. With the majority of Hilco’s suppliers located in… Read More…

DON’T GET LOST IN TRANSLATIONS

SHOULD FOREIGN-LANGUAGE PACKAGING BE HANDLED BY YOURSELF, YOUR DISTRIBUTORS OR YOUR 3PL?

[ By Patrick Dooley ]

As Miss Jenny’s Pickles readied to export into China, co-owners Jenny Fulton and Ashlee Furr found that their global trade knowledge base still needed a bit of fermenting. After connecting with a Chinese distributor through an inbound trade mission sponsored by the state of North Carolina, then the ensuing… Read More…

TERMINAL CAPACITY

WILL EAST AND GULF COAST PORTS BE READY TO ACCOMMODATE POST-PANAMAX SHIPS?

[ By Paul Scott Abbott ]

Preparing for an expanded Panama Canal means far more for U.S. ports than having 50-foot-deep channels at a handful of maritime facilities. Read More…

DRILL DOWN ON YOUR LOGISTICS CONTRACT

5 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR YOUR 3PL

[By Mary Shacklett]

Writing requests for proposals (RFP), evaluating responses, meeting with third-party logistics providers (3PL) and interviewing customer references are standard practice when it comes to selecting your organization’s 3PL. But what other questions should you ask before signing on the dotted line? Read more…

THE LAND OF RISING REGULATION

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JAPAN’S NEW 24-HOUR RULE [by Julie Ritzer Ross]

While the expansion of the G6 Alliance should bode well for trade with Asia, another development may soon pose challenges to U.S. manufacturers shipping cargo to Japan. Read More…

ORIENT EXPRESS

HOW THE G6 ALLIANCE OF OCEAN CARRIERS IS SAVING SHIPPERS TIME AND MONEY  [ By Julie Ritzer Ross ]

Shipping to Asia is getting faster and easier thanks to the formation of the G6 Alliance, a cooperation of two existing partnerships of ocean liners—the Grand Alliance (Hapag Lloyd, NYK Line, Orient Overseas Container Line) and the New World Alliance (APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, better known as MOL). Read more…

GET YOUR EXPORTS ON THE FAST TRACK

SHIPPERS ARE INCREASINGLY OPTING TO MOVE FREIGHT VIA RAIL OVER TRUCK, SAVING TIME, MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT [By Paul Scott Abbott]

The future of freight transportation—for everything from Quaker Oats and Gatorade to Sears washers and dryers to just about anything U.S. consumers might find on the Walmart shelf—is moving on the rails. Read More…

GLOBAL GATEWAYS

MULTIMODAL DISTRIBUTION FACILITIES ARE PROLIFERATING. BACKED BY LOGISTICS PARTNERSHIPS AND WORLD ACCESS, THEY’RE ENCOURAGING DOMESTIC MANUFACTURERS TO GO GLOBAL.  [ By Jerry DeMuth ]

What can your logistics center do for you? If you’re Randy Redmer, director of Global Business Development, the answer is, “Open up new markets.” Working with Port Lansing Global Logistics Centre, the maker and supplier of components for special vehicles and equipment decided to leap into the global marketplace. Read more…

SUPPLY CHAIN AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ARE HELPING SHIPPERS DATA MINE THEIR SUPPLY CHAIN AND SAVE BIG BUCKS [By Patrick Dooley]

Levi Strauss & Co. has its supply chain all buttoned up. Well, it does now. The blue-jean giant that once popularized the slogan “Button Your Fly” was, for a time, running its warehousing on the fly, counting on Asian suppliers at the other end of its supply chain for periodic freight-location updates—a far cry from true visibility. Read more…

GO EAST, YOUNG MAN

VIETNAM’S BOOMING ECONOMY OFFERS PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY—IF YOU CAN NAVIGATE THE GRAFT               [ By Warren Strugatch ]

Back in 2001, Lafarge Concrete opened its first plant, a joint venture cement-grinding facility in Ho Chi Minh City—formerly Saigon—barely a year after the U.S. and Vietnam signed their bilateral trade agreement. Like many companies, the building-materials giant saw Vietnam’s potential as an echo boom Read more…