Global Trends

A number of studies document a growing trend of U.S. businesses bringing manufacturing operations back to the U.S.— often referred to as onshoring. In 2011, a report by The Boston Consultancy Group revealed that 24 percent of senior manufacturing executives were considering returning production to the U.S. and predicted that changes in China’s wage structure along with increased use of ...

Professor Benoit Montreuil looks at today’s logistics systems and sees inefficiencies and unsustainable practices. Trucks and shipping containers frequently travel empty or only half full. Products sit in warehouses that are poorly utilized, far from the end customers, resulting in unsold or unused merchandise. There is no fast and reliable multi-modal transportation. System-wide automation is not economically feasible because of ...

Look at the list of the top U.S. logistics hubs and little has changed in the last century, except for the reasons why. Where Memphis’s access to the Mississippi River and cotton growth made it a hub early on, FedEx’s presence there has helped it hold onto its position. That’s just one example in what has been a relatively stable ...

Two megatrends are about to collide. And if careful planning isn’t in place, the resulting traffic jam could be felt throughout the logistics world. Trend No. 1: Globally, three in five people will live in urban areas by 2025, according to the United Nations. In the United States, already about 80 percent of the population lives in urban areas, according ...

Pop quiz: A customer in Atlanta orders a tie from a retailer’s e-commerce site. One tie is located in a distribution center (DC) on the outskirts of town. Three more are located in the flagship store in New York. Which tie should get picked to fulfill that order? In today’s world of retail, the simplest answer—choosing the closest tie—may not ...

Supply chain leaders hold the key to success or failure for businesses that want to capitalize on the $30 trillion opportunity presented by emerging markets according to a report by research firm Gartner Inc. The importance of supply chain management in emerging countries is reiterated in the findings of a global survey of business leaders for Deloitte Consulting’s Business Trends ...

Since 1999, the Panama Canal has attracted more and more traffic. Supply chain strategists are all looking at the Panama Canal expansion to see what effect the expanded Panama Canal will have on business. Scheduled to open in 2015, the expanded Canal will have a third set of locks. “The third set of locks will add a third lane, which ...