Following e-commerce’s 32.4% growth surge in 2020, businesses are realizing a digital supply chain is essential to their future success.
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Rethinking Retail Stores’ Footprint in the Age of Curbside Pickup
By Christian Dow The wall separating the front of a retail store from the back of the building is the line of scrimmage, and due to the pandemic, the back of the store is marching downfield with momentum while the front of the store gives up ground. That’s the message from supply chain experts who are helping retailers adjust to ...
Read More »The End Is Nigh: Approaching Economic Escape Velocity After COVID
By Jason Schenker United States and global growth prospects have improved greatly since the start of the year. The rollout of COVID vaccinations has proven to be the logical antidote to the economic woes engendered by the pandemic. Yes, there are still some sectors that lag and some regions experiencing sluggish recoveries. But the labor market, the economy and the ...
Read More »MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Automation Can Alleviate Growing Pains in E-Grocery Segment
By Christian Dow For high-end grocery chains seeking to provide a premium customer experience, it’s always a bad thing when customers are outnumbered in the aisles by fast-moving order pickers who often outcompete them for the same product inventory. Whether those order pickers are representing third parties such as Instacart or Shipt or are store employees hired during the pandemic ...
Read More »ECONOMIC MARKET ANALYSIS: Economic Improvements Against a Backdrop of Base Effects and Tax Policy Risks
By Jason Schenker Despite major challenges at the start of the year, 2021 is poised to build economic momentum in the months and quarters ahead. This is true for manufacturing and material handling, but service industries are also poised to gain ground and experience significant year-on-year growth in the months ahead as vaccinations reach scale domestically and abroad. On the ...
Read More »‘The Sky Is the Limit’
Companies look to innovative solutions as pressure intensifies in the last mile of deliveries. Automation and robotics are receiving heavy investment and research, and offer some of the most promising possibilities. By Tom Gresham Increasing efficiency in the final mile of delivery has become an obsession in the supply chain logistics field as companies explore an array of solutions to ...
Read More »The Year Ahead: Picking up the Pieces After COVID
By Jason Schenker The outlook for 2021 is solid—especially compared to 2020. In general, the year should be one of positive growth and improvements in economic activity, even if the trend of improvements is occasionally punctuated by intermittent COVID-19 outbreaks and systemic aftershocks in industries that have experienced asymmetric negative impacts in the wake of the COVID pandemic outbreak. Buttressing ...
Read More »Moving Through the Middle Mile
To truly understand e-commerce’s impact on supply chains, follow the movement of goods through the middle mile, e.g. from port to warehouse/DC, between warehouse and from warehouse to e-commerce storage areas. * By Mary Lou Jay * Last mile delivery is often the focus of discussions about e-commerce’s impact on supply chains. But movement of goods through the middle mile—from ...
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