January, 2019

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Reinventing Retail in a Multichannel World

MIT Supply Chain

The liquidation woes of Sears Holdings, owner of iconic retailer Sears and Kmart, underscore the dramatic decline in bricks-and-mortar retailing in the face of booming e-commerce sales and shifting consumer buying patterns. But as attendees of the recent MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) Future of Retail roundtable heard, high street retailing is […].

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Tackling Item Complexity

Supply Chain Shaman

Personalization. Market microsegmentation. New product launch. There are many good reasons to add items to product portfolios, but companies are better at adding than eliminating items. Discontinuing products is a struggle with tension between supply chain and marketing functions. Why is this an important topic? The lack of product rationalization results in the long tail of the supply chain with increasing complexity.

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4 Tips To Cut Costs In A Warehouse

GlobalTranz

Maximizing profits is the main point of running a business. If you’re running a warehouse, this will probably be your main goal, too. Competition is plentiful, and you’re always on the lookout for a way to get ahead. But how do you make bank without harming productivity or the quality of your work? It’s as difficult as it sounds. But, with a well-planned strategy, you too can reduce expenses in your workplace.

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Modeling brewing capacity to drive cost savings at HEINEKEN

AIMMS

Heineken is one of the world’s best-known beers. But for HEINEKEN International, the famed lager is only one of its products. The company owns more than 165 breweries around the world. It operates in 70 countries with a workforce of 80,000, producing over 300 specialty beers and ciders at international, regional and local levels. Planning such a large operation efficiently is no doubt a challenge, but HEINEKEN’s quest for efficiency started in the company’s early years.

Modeling 293
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Your Workforce: Is Remote-Insourcing the Key to Logistics Efficiency?

In today's rapidly evolving logistics industry, companies consistently strive for efficiency and competitiveness. However, the most significant factor driving business success isn't just technology or infrastructure—it's the people behind your processes. Employees aren't merely resources; they're your most strategic asset. High turnover rates and constant retraining costs severely impact logistics companies, draining productivity and profitability.

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To do: Prepare supply chain for natural disaster

Kinaxis

by Mike McAllister “It will never happen to my supply chain,” said the first planner. “We’ll sort it out when the time comes,” said the second planner. Perhaps these fictional quotes resonate a familiar refrain. After all, on the list of things to do when managing your supply chain on a daily basis, ‘prepare for natural disaster’ likely sits far down the list, somewhere between ‘submit expenses’ and ‘organize file folders.

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The State of Digital Freight: The 4×4 Blueprint for Freight 2020

Freightos

As we enter a new year, it’s a great time to look back at how far we’ve come as an industry, set our next goalposts, and map out where we should be as an industry by 2020. The journey to digitize freight, while initially off to a slow start, has gained momentum in the last two or three years. But the road to true digitization is long and winding. We have a ways to go and the world won’t necessarily wait for us to catch up, especially with external entrants to the industry that will certainly try

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Where Would We Be Without All of the BullS&%T?

Supply Chain Shaman

It is 1:00 AM in Antwerp. I cannot sleep. As I stare at t he keyboard sitting on my desk, my view is the train station draped in darkness. The quiet streets await the coming of the soft snow. It seldom snows in Belgium: the city sits in anticipation. I hate jet lag. There is nothing worse than trying to sleep when you cannot, and you know that you should.

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Trucking & Freight Management Trends to Know in 2019

GlobalTranz

Freight management is crucial for companies around the globe. Effective freight management reduces delays for consumers, helps companies offer Amazonesque shipping benefits and much more. Shippers that wish to succeed in 2019 need to know the top trucking and freight management trends for 2019 and how they will affect shipping practices, global trade, last-mile , and even drivers.

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Tata Steel Makes Strides Towards an Autonomous Supply Chain Powered by Optimization Technology

AIMMS

Tata Steel is one of the world’s largest steel producers. In fact, it’s very likely that Tata Steel plays a role in your life today, by providing raw material for the car you drive, the house you live in and the roads you drive through. The company was established in India as Asia’s first integrated private steel company in 1907. Today, the steel manufacturing leader has an ambitious digital transformation agenda and is leveraging AIMMS technology to optimize operations in its home country.

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Speeding Robotics Automation with AI

The $53 trillion manufacturing economy in the US is undergoing a major automation paradigm shift due to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Thanks to new practical frameworks, automation projects that were once impossible or inefficient to implement are now being fast-tracked, and robotics automation is becoming increasingly relevant to a growing number of users and scenarios.

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Unilever and Kinaxis initiate engagement to manage planning

Kinaxis

by Jay Muelhoefer. To stay ahead of rapidly changing customer needs within the consumer packaged goods industry, companies are turning to supply chain solutions to better balance changes in demand distribution complexity, while increasing turnarounds. With the ability to plan for exceptions and run multiple scenarios, planners can immediately see, understand, and proactively react to how changes affect the supply chain from one end to the other.

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IVALUA NOW 2019 reveals innovations that will transform The Art of Procurement

ivalua

Premier event for Procurement & Supply Chain practitioners will showcase latest innovations in Artificial Intelligence and extensive line-up of industry leaders. Ivalua, a leading provider of global Spend Management Cloud solutions, today announced the agenda for its marquee annual event series, Ivalua NOW 2019. The event will bring over 1000 procurement, supply chain and finance leaders together at 2 locations, April 10-12 at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris and April 29 – May 1 at the Ren

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Transforming the Construction Materials Supply Chain

Talking Logistics

If you stop to think about it, the construction industry supply chain is all around us — it’s the roads we drive on, our houses and commercial buildings, and all sorts of other infrastructure. But when you take a closer look at how this supply chain works, you realize that there is a lot of waste and inefficiency. Simply put, there’s probably no other supply chain that is in more dire need of transformation than the construction industry supply chain.

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Where Would We Be Without All of the BullS&%T?

Supply Chain Shaman

It is 1:00 AM in Antwerp. I cannot sleep. As I stare at my keyboard sitting on my desk, my view is the train station draped in darkness. The quiet st reets await the coming of the soft snow. It seldom snows in Belgium: the city sits in anticipation. I hate jet lag. There is nothing worse than trying to sleep when you cannot, and you know that you should.

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Supply Chain Resilience Checklist

Strengthen your operations with the Supply Chain Resilience Checklist. This practical, easy-to-use tool helps your organization prepare for disruptions and ensure long-term continuity in an unpredictable world. Why Download: Identify and assess critical supply chain risks Ask the right questions to evaluate vendor preparedness Implement effective strategies to reduce vulnerabilities Improve communication, transparency, and coordination across your network What You’ll Learn: How to evaluate and m

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The Top 10 Supply Chain Blogs of 2018

GlobalTranz

Today, we continue our series highlighting our top blog posts of the year! We always enjoy the end of the year as it allows us to see what our readers really love. That then allows us to create more of that kind of content for our award-winning blog This year we will feature the top blog posts by page views in the following categories: Manufacturing , Logistics , Freight , and the Supply Chain.

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What are supply chain professionals using to make network decisions? 

AIMMS

Part I in our series on assessing your network design’s maturity . How does you r network design compare to others ? We recently created a quiz to help supply chain professionals answer this question. Our goal was to help you identify potential improvement opportunities by answering a few questions and get a temperature check on the current landscape of network design solutions.

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Technology alone isn’t the answer to your supply chain future

Kinaxis

by Alison Crawford. Do you get the feeling you’re surrounded by conflict and uncertainty lately? You’re not alone if you do. If we had to label 2018, it would be the year of “us versus them.” Political parties, men and women, humans and robots, line of business and supply chain operations, Red Sox and Yankees. If the 2018 climate was about conflict, the supply chain equivalent would be about the uncertainty created from increasing complexity and volatility.

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"Recreating the environment in which historical demand occurred"

ToolsGroup

Editor's Note: Starting today we will begin publishing this blog once every two weeks. At last year’s Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference analyst Tom Enright summarized the essence of successful demand forecasting with the following statement: “ Demand forecast accuracy depends on your ability to recreate the environment in which historical demand occurred.”.

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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Ivalua and Axbility Consulting partner to help companies create value through successful procurement transformation

ivalua

Axbility Consulting, a subsidiary of Ivalua European partner Axys Consultants, reinforces Ivalua’s capabilities to empower today’s Procurement & Supply Chain Leaders. NYC, NY – January 23, 2019 – Ivalua, a leading provider of global Spend Management Cloud solutions, and Axbility Consulting announced today that they have signed a partnership agreement welcoming Axbility Consulting to the Ivalua Alliance Partner Program.

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CPG Brands: The Growing Importance of Agile Customization

Talking Logistics

There is a lot of discussion in the marketplace about disruption, transformation and the rapid pace of change in supply chain management, but if you’re in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) or contract packaging and manufacturing industries, you know this all too well. Simply put, yesterday’s rules for success are no longer valid in today’s market. So, what are the new rules for success?

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What Are Dark Warehouses and What Do I Need to Know?

GlobalTranz

Demand to increase efficiency in warehouse management is at an all-time high. Warehouse managers also face challenges with finding and retaining the right talent, as well as added pressure from customers and shareholders alike. One of the possible ways warehouse managers can improve efficiency is through the implementation of dark warehouses. Let’s take a closer look at dark warehouses and what they mean for the future of warehouse management.

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What are supply chain professionals using to make network decisions? 

AIMMS

Part I in our series on assessing your supply chain network’s maturity . How does you r supply chain network design compare to others ? We recently created a quiz to help professionals answer this question. Our goal was to help you identify potential improvement opportunities by answering a few questions and get a temperature check on the current landscape of network design solutions.

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The AI Race Isn’t Just About Tech Superiority – Its the Supply Chain, Stupid!

The race to dominate AI is no longer about who has the smartest algorithms — it's about who can build and scale faster. Behind every AI breakthrough lies a battle for resources: data centers, compute hardware, power, and telecom infrastructure. And right now, even tech giants are hitting a wall. Our latest white paper reveals the six critical supply chain elements that are increasingly separating AI leaders from the rest.

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Supply Chain Planning Predictions for 2019 and Beyond

Logility

It is that time of year once again when many of us pontificate on what 2019 and beyond will bring. Personally I hope for World peace, the end to hunger, a cleaner/greener Earth, and lower taxes. Well, maybe someday, but I doubt many would buy into those as predictions for 2019. The field of supply chain planning is changing quickly with the need to reduce costs to meet corporate objections, increase speed to meet customer expectations, plan for changing regulations and trade tariffs, while strug

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The Dispatch Report + Full Product Launch | January 2019, Issue No. 10

Shipchain

Dear Community, If you care about our company and/or the freight and logistics industry (which we really hope you do!), then this is the email you’ve been waiting for. Because today, we have something extra special for you. No, it’s not some announcement of an announcement about an announcement or any blockchain hype. It’s better. Much, much better– Approximately two weeks ago, we fully launched our platform and have begun selling!

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What You Need for an Unbeatable Inbound Freight Management Strategy

Kuebix

Managing inbound freight is one of the most crucial parts of running a successful supply chain, but the fact is… it’s hard! Each supplier is likely to have different characteristics and the receiving company can be negatively affected by suppliers’ inefficiencies such as low levels of visibility, lack of standardization and poor communication. When companies […].

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The Digitization of Freight

Talking Logistics

The digitization of freight is one topic that has generated a lot of industry buzz and animated discussion over the past couple of years, but also a lot of confusion and questions. What exactly is freight digitization? Is it a disruptive force in the industry or a transformational one? And what actions should companies take to leverage the opportunities inherent in the digitization revolution?

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Top Supply Chain and Logistics Automation Trends to Watch for in 2019

GlobalTranz

The concept of automating processes and activities is a major sticking point for supply chain and logistics. Supply chain and logistics automation allow companies to refocus their efforts on tasks requiring human hands, and redundant tasks can be automated through robotics , as well as technologies designed to assist human workers. Shippers need to understand the top supply chain and logistics automation trends to watch for in 2019.

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Modeling brewing capacity to drive cost savings at HEINEKEN

AIMMS

Heineken is one of the world’s best-known beers. But for HEINEKEN International, the famed lager is only one of its products. The company owns more than 165 breweries around the world. It operates in 70 countries with a workforce of 80,000, producing over 300 specialty beers and ciders at international, regional and local levels. Planning such a large operation efficiently is no doubt a challenge, but HEINEKEN’s quest for efficiency started in the company’s early years.

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What challenges must today’s automotive manufacturers overcome?

DELMIA Quintiq

Some of the most innovative developments currently being delivered by automotive manufacturers include new drive technologies, autonomous driving and connected cars. Fulfilling the demand for innovative models relies on a flexible network of internal and external partners. Even though these networks are already well established, the potential for optimization is still significant.