RAILROADS

Railroads, to varying degrees, have always had an amount of monopolistic position.  Was deregulation of RRs a viable economic effort or wishful thinking?

ARTICLES

We have more than 70 articles on logistics / supply chain management at our website.  These have appeared in print and at websites world wide.  Please visit   www.ltdmgmt.com

BUYERS KNOWING WHAT THEY BUY? OR NOT?

How many buyers of logistics services that chase cheap prices really know what they are buying?

INVENTORY

The purpose of inventory is to buffer uncertainty. That said, why do companies carry more inventory beyond what is needed for uncertainty?  Do they like being inventory rich and cash poor?

YRC

YRC (Yellow-Roadway) has many financial and operating problems.  What do you think the short-term and long-term future is for YRC?

CONFERENCE SPEAKER

LTD people speak at conferences worldwide. Whatever the logistics or supply chain topic.  Our presentations are well received because we know logistics / SCM from real-world experience.  We know what we are talking about.

OMNICHANNEL AND GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Both require effective, working processes and great technology in order to be successfully managed.

LTD Management

Have Laptop, Will Travel.

 

How Do You Price Long Term Ocean Contracts?

Does the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index have any value in ocean service contracts?  How do SCFI's spot rates have meaning to pricing for a long term contract?  Is there an index that is useful for rate contracts?

We work with 3PLs who want to provide a 4PL service.

Transportation

There has been much written over the years about a driver shortage in trucking.  But it has not translated into significant rate increases.  Why?

Pending Container Shipping Chaos?

Look at what has and is happening.  Three largest container lines are in an alliance.  How will they fill ships?  Now mega-ships with 18,000 TEU capacity.  How will they fill ships?  Despite announcements of rate increases, little sticks beyond some spot rates.  Selling ships and leasing them back is a balance sheet accounting trick that looks good but does not change market dynamics. Supply of capacity exceeds demand.  Are we looking at another round of laying up significant tonnage to bring stability and to increase rates, similar to 2009?  Will the banks give them any choice but to do it?

IMPACT OF CONTAINER LINES ON SUPPLY CHAINS

Go to https://plus.google.com/b/112459437102478926629/+Ltdmgmt/posts#+Ltdmgmt/posts to read an overview of my article, GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN EROSION. 

Warehouses

How many logistics executives manage warehouses that were never meant to be warehouses?  The buildings were not designed for that function or they were designed for some other function?  Tip of the hat to the managers who have to work with that kind of impediment.

Global SCM

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE EROSION, by Tom Craig, CEO, LTD Management. As trade has grown into a global business, ocean transport has grown in importance. At the same time, the shipping landscape has continued to change. The result is that performance and service levels are inconsistent, unpredictable, and eroding. Despite this, there are corrective actions shippers can take to ensure smoother sailing and a more consistent delivery of their product. To read more, click on http://www.scmr.com/article/global_supply_chain_performance_erosion.

Meeting C-level Expectations

Supply chain segmentation is required to deal with product portfolio, brand and private labels, product assortment, inventory yield, and short shelf life--issues important to C-levels. This is much more than omnichannel. Tiered supply chain approaches are required.

Read the November issue of Supply Chain Management Review for my article, "Global Supply Chain Performance Erosion".

Where I hear supply chain "optimization" I feel I am hearing someone who is a software salesman or someone else who never worked in supply chain management.

How many logistics / supply chain people wish they could make significant changes in their organization and operations?  And that speaks volumes about the difference between what "they" say and the real world.

Lean Logistics

The real impact for lean logistics is with the international activity.  That is where the wastes of time and inventory are most significant.  Instead too much lean is about the "four walls".

 

Supply Chain / Logistics Collaboration

Too often what is called collaboration is the 800 pound gorilla bullying others to do it is way.  http://www.ltdmgmt.com

Outsourcing Logistics

Outsourcing selection is based off low price bids for RFPs.  Using price instead of value for bid decision often creates the underlying reason that outsourcing is not successful.