JUNE 2008
How to Select a Third Party Logistics Provider
John Blanchard contributes heavily to David Blanchard’s article in the June issue of Industry Week:
"
Third-party logistics providers, or 3PLs, which originated on the simple premise of allowing manufacturers the opportunity to let somebody else manage their transportation or warehousing, have become a $122 billion business in the United States, with an overall growth rate estimated at three times the growth of the U.S. gross domestic product. What's more, according to research firm Armstrong & Associates, at current growth rates the U.S. 3PL market will reach $150 billion by 2010. The worldwide market, meanwhile, currently stands at $487 billion, thanks largely to the rapid expansion of Asian economies, particularly China and India.
Some manufacturing verticals are already heavily dependent on 3PLs. For instance, each of the Detroit Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler -- use ...”
MAY 2008
Who Should Care About Returns? - By John M. Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
"Who should care about returns? Turns out, you should, as should everyone else in your organization from the warehouse receiver to the CEO. In most organizations, returns are an afterthought. That’s too bad because if they are properly monitored, returns provide significant insight into your product quality and the efficacy of your marketing programs. How efficiently you handle returns can impact your sales, costs and profit margin as well as your customer service performance.
The challenge is monitoring; that is, measuring the costs of returns processing versus the impact of the program on increased sales, market share or other metrics management deems appropriate.”
Read more at Modern Materials Handling
APRIL 2008
Labor Management: Don't Forget the People
Corinne Kator interviews Larry Parker and others for this article reminding readers about the human portion of the equation with Labor Management Systems. “Even the most sophisticated labor management program requires more than good software. You need the right training, tools and incentives for employee buy-in. Sales of labor management systems are on the rise. In fact, labor management is one of the fastest growing segments of the supply chain software market. According to analysts at ARC Advisory (781-471-1000), pairing labor management software with engineered labor standards can increase picking productivity by 30%. A properly installed system, they say, can pay for itself in less than a year. But amid all the technical challenges of getting a new labor management program up and running, it's easy to forget that “labor” means “people…”
Read more at Modern Materials Handling
MARCH 2008
Would You Buy a Car on Faith, Part 2 - Author, John M. Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
"Last month I talked about five guidelines that will ensure that you get the WMS your company needs and not a “lemon.” I outlined the steps that must not be overlooked during pre-selection, request for proposal (RFP) development and selection. Here, I’ll address the deployment and post-deployment phases of the project. And here is where the rubber meets the road…"
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
FEBRUARY 2008
Would You Buy a Car on Faith - Author, John M. Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
"No one would buy a car without a look under the hood. Industry veteran John Hill says you shouldn't buy a WMS that way either. Buying a warehouse management system (WMS) is a lot like buying a car. You want to kick the tires, get behind the wheel and poke around under the hood—especially if you’re mechanically inclined…”
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
JANUARY 2008
Go On Green
Tom Andel interviews Modern Materials Handling Board of Directors for the first in a new column series on Green and Sustainability (John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC is on Modern’s Board). "Our Editorial Advisory Board offers advice on a hot-button topic for all materials handling professionals in the coming years: the environment. Their overwhelming advice? Find ways to go green now...”
Read more at Modern Materials Handling
JANUARY 2008
Janus and Your Warehouse - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
"Learning from the past is one way to improve your operations in the future. Although New Year’s resolutions can be traced back 4,000 years to the Babylonians, I like the more recent attribution of the tradition to the Romans who, in 153 B.C., named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of change, transitions and new beginnings. Janus had two faces: one looking forward and the other looking backward.
Playing on this theme, before you firm up your list for 2008, don’t bite off more than you can chew!
In other words, ..."
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
DECemBER 2007
Plan Ahead: It’s Important - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
“Plan ahead. As Richard Cardinal Cushing said: “It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”
Multiple trips to the same pick locations, double handling, incorrect equipment selection for order types and sizes, not to mention last-minute orders and emergency replenishments undermine warehouse efficiency and increase costs. The solution (given a layout that supports your requirements) begins with better planning...”
Read more of John Hill's article at Modern Materials Handling
NovemBER 2007
Two Paths for DC Automation? - Supply Chain Digest Readers Respond
Dan Gilmore interviewed several logistics professionals, including Marc Wulfraat, TranSystems | ESYNC, and highlights their thoughts/opinions in their responses to Two Paths for DC Automation? - “... I suggested that two somewhat opposing forces (high and growing labor costs and challenges, need for greater flexibility), are gradually driving companies towards two extremes in distribution center automation: either highly automated facilities, to drive out labor costs and headaches, or those with little automation, to maximize flexibility. Moderate levels of automation would be squeezed – not eliminated, of course, but companies would tend to drift to one of the extremes.
Was I crazed? We’ll let SCDigest readers help sort it out...”
Read more of Dan Gilmore and Marc Wulfraat's thoughts on the topic
OCTOBER 2007
Magic? Or Just Inventory Management at the Push of a Button? - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
“A handful of suppliers are taking RTLS to a new level by coupling it with ultra-wideband sensors that not only piggyback on the user’s existing wireless infrastructure, but also offer considerably larger fields of view than earlier RTLS solutions. Thirty years ago, industry watchers heralded the importance of real-time data capture (AIDC) technologies that tightened the gap between material and data flow, and provided the visibility of work in process so important to effective operations management. Until the mid-1990s, the AIDC workhorse in manufacturing, ware¬housing and distribution was the bar code – and, make no mistake, it still is! However, with the release of the Wal-Mart and DoD compliance mandates a few years ago, the focus shifted to RFID and the advantages it appeared to offer for hands-free, non line-of-sight data capture…"
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
AUGUST 2007
What Would Your Mom Say About Your Warehouse? - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
“Having visited hundreds of warehouses around the globe, it occurs to me that the routine I follow and my initial observations may well be traceable to my childhood. My mother was charming, always a smile on her face. But, she was also fastidious about the way her house and children looked. Our rooms would have passed an inspection by the toughest drill sergeant. Not only do I still scrub behind my ears, it seems like I apply my mother’s standards on an initial warehouse walk-through. Here are some items from the checklist I have used for more than 30 years. Within minutes, it tells me more about the quality of operations and management than an hour in a conference room..."
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
JUNE 2007
Best Practices in Project Management
Not always a top priority, project management is rapidly becoming one of the most important aspects of bringing on a new facility or materials handling system. In fact, project management is beginning to be seen by many as important as system design and performance. Bob Trebilcock interviews Frank Camean, VP of TranSystems|ESYNC and others on project management...
Read more of the article at Modern Materials Handling
MAY 2007
The Problem with RFID and How to Solve It
Many people think RFID is magic—that it just works. Veterans of RFID trials know better. However, those same veterans will also tell you what does make RFID work: a good business case. Logistics Management moderated a panel on this topic at last week’s DC Expo, held at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Panelists included John Hill, Principal of TranSystems | ESYNC, Ken Ehrman, president and COO of I.D. Systems Inc., Hersh Bhargava, founder of RafCore Systems Inc., and William Newcum, vice president of Advanced Software Technology, Inc....
Read more of the article at Logistics Management
MAY 2007
Four Steps to Shipping Accuracy - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
Shipping accuracy counts. Now, everyone says that, of course. But it was driven home to me a few years ago when I was asked to sit in on meetings between one of TranSystems | ESYNC’s clients, a large consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, and a major retailer. Our client thought they were doing a good job. But this customer was tough. They insisted they were being short-shipped, and for the life of them, our client couldn’t prove to the retailer’s satisfaction that their shipments were accurate. The resulting charge backs were costing our client the profit they made on that customer and then some...
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
APR 2007
Accurate Order Picking Counts More Than Ever - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
When it comes to customer service, no one remembers the last order they received that was picked right, but everyone remembers the one that was picked wrong. Industry sources suggest that the typical company invests 55 to 65% of warehouse operating costs in order picking. With U.S. logistics costs reported to be $1.14 trillion, that percentage represents more than $9 billion annually. That’s a whopping amount for anything less than excellent performance. And, generally, it appears we are doing a good job...
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
FEB 2007
Automated Case Storage Maximizes Labor
Changes in the supply chain are driving automation. But some believe that the tight labor supply is also behind the increased demand for automated case handling solutions. Bob Trebilcock interviews TranSystems | ESYNC's Kevin Hume for insight into this topic.....
Read more of the article at Modern Materials Handling
Jan 2007
Investing in Human Capital - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
Without an educated and motivated workforce, labor management systems and tools will take you only so far. During the past year, the potential of labor and workforce management systems using engineered standards for warehouse productivity improvement has been widely heralded. I am excited by these developments, too. But for this column, allow me to approach the subject from a different angle by looking at the difference between labor and human capital......
Read more of John's article at Modern Materials Handling
DEC 2006
Step-By-Step Implementation
Many software implementations fail because companies think vendors are going to lead the project. "That is not going to happen," says John Sidell, principal and co-founder of TranSystems | ESYNC, a Toledo-based systems integrator. In reality, companies do 75% of the work on the project and only 25% is done by vendors. "Most clients don't realize, when they tackle a project like this, they are signing up for that much work. If they get that education early, chances are they will have a better expectation going into the project," Sidell says.... Lisa Kempfer interviews TranSystems | ESYNC's John Sidell, TranSystems | ESYNC client, Bob Adkinson, COO of Archway Marketing Services and others for this analysis of successful software implementations....
Read more from the article at Material Handling Management
DEC 2006
Anatomy of a Recall
Last summer's spinach recall highlighted the vulnerability of the nations' food supply chain, especially in the produce arena. Technology was credited with lessening the blow. Though it is of little comfort to the families of the more than 200 people across 26 states stricken with E. coli from eating tainted spinach, the late summer outbreak could have been much, much worse. It was through fast action—and software—that the contamination didn’t affect more people... Len Klie interviews TranSystems | ESYNC's Kevin Hume and others for this inside look at food recalls.
Read more from the article at Food Logistics
OCT 2006
Leadership, Ownership and Accountability - Author, John Hill, TranSystems | ESYNC
Winning strategies often come down to people and leadership. Here are some of the characteristics from true supply chain winners....
