Transplace is closely monitoring the outbreak and the impact the reaction is having on the transportation market. Packaging and CPG supply chains appear to be oversold in many places and transportation demand is strong from those sectors. Letter from the CEO: Coronavirus Market Update. MORE

AI will be able to survey an area or room and create an accurate inventory in seconds, including weights and volumes, and determine damage on items. “The logistics industry is one of the biggest industries that will profit most from the digital revolution in 2019…” From quicker deliveries to more sustainable ways of transportation, harmonizing big data and automation efforts will ensure exponential growth in the industry. MORE

Sarah Boisvert @fablabhub Sarah Boisvert is the author of The New Collar Workforce and founder of Fab Lab Hub that offers Digital Badges for skills such as 3D printing, robotics, CAD design and AI in manufacturing. “Robots have been successfully used in manufacturing for…” …decades and expansion to warehouse applications is a natural extension of their functions. How would this flow down through transportation? MORE

Carmakers and electronic manufacturers in South Korea and Japan are reporting production line shutdowns. The Port of Houston is experiencing equipment shortages. to Asia export bookings, especially in markets with low container inventory. Coronavirus COVID-19 Supply Chain Update. MORE

“Identify your production and supply chain methods first…” For instance, if you’re following the Lean Production Method, it means that you don’t need to stock minor accessories because most of your inventory consists of the finished products. MORE

I went to Home Depot earlier this week to return a purchase, and the customer in front of me wanted to exchange a defective power tool with the same model, but he couldn’t find any on the shelf even though the store’s inventory system said 5 units were in stock. Manhattan Associates Launches 2013 Inventory Optimization Release. Ryder Announces New Transportation Solutions for Oil and Gas Industry. MORE

Consider this: global sourcing, manufacturing, and sales are advancing rapidly, leaving technology providers in the tough position of playing catch up. Imagine you are at your desk in Houston and you need to determine whether a completed order left the warehouse in China. Transportation, consolidation, warehousing, and customs services can be combined with P.O. That means the company never handles the shipments, or has to put them into inventory or reship the freight. MORE

Hurricane Harvey has struck a significant blow to the Houston, Texas metro area, home to the sixth largest import terminal in the world, as well as all of the shipping lanes in the Gulf Coast area. The manufacturing PMI and non-manufacturing NMI summarize supply managers’ reports as to how their organizations fared in the past month with regard to a set of key business metrics. Production, new orders, and inventories of input materials comprised the second group. MORE

Behind the scenes during the tumultuous disaster season of 2017, building materials manufacturers leaned heavily on dynamic digital tools to supply recovery efforts. The urgent phone call to the building materials manufacturer came as yet another hurricane was churning its way toward landfall during the record storm season of 2017. Recent estimates suggest that Hurricane Harvey destroyed a minimum of 100,000 homes in the Houston-Beaumont, Texas, area. MORE

Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast and Houston with driving rains that left many businesses struggling with flooding, with little advance warning. Entire warehouses full of products, as well as significant links in the global supply chain could be affected, as well as transport and other nodes. Houston is a center for plastic resin due to the string of refineries in Texas and Louisiana, and the kind of commodities that are impacted include all plastic parts manufactured in the US. MORE

2017 was a wild year, as freight transportation faced one disruption after another. This period of elevated rates is only the beginning of a "new normal" era in freight transportation. companies also ratcheted up manufacturing of petroleum byproducts, including plastic resins, which typically move in vans. Then the retailers took over, shuttling goods to stores via private or dedicated fleets, to balance inventories in time for Thanksgiving weekend. MORE

The people on the ground–my contacts in the 3PL, freight forwarding and transportation industry–know that the labor strife is only a part of the larger story. There is a need to re-shore where possible, and relocate manufacturing and supplier relationships. With the rise of the global multi-national, Asian flows are essential to today’s manufacturing operations. The flows assume that transportation can move without an interruption. MORE

A transportation management system (TMS) can help shippers weigh the pros and cons of each option. The trade-offs are especially critical for destinations in a “battleground” region that stretches from Detroit in the north to Houston in the south. For example, a higher cost could be part of a strategy to win market share and align product transportation with that mission. If high-value items are being shipped, it’s important to minimize inventory levels. MORE

While the eye of the storms have passed (we hope; the latest news is that Tropical Storm Nate could develop into a hurricane this weekend), their effects will be felt for months to come, particularly as they caused closures at major ports including the Port of San Juan, the Port of Houston, the Port of Miami, Port Everglades and the Port of Savannah. Beyond that, assessing the state of inventory and machinery (What’s unusable? MORE