Articles Index

US Export Regulations

Companies that want to export items from the United States need to understand that their exports fully comply with all statutory and regulatory requirements. Compliance involves the no-export of controlled goods and technologies and the restrictions on shipping to certain countries, companies, organizations, and individuals. This article exaplains some of the regulations that apply.

Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT)

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency implemented a partnership with private companies after the events of 9/11 to help protect the global supply chain. Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) was launched in November 2001, with just seven major importing companies and now includes over 7400 members. This article examines the basics of the C-TPAT program

Exporting And The Global Supply Chain

The supply chain incorporates all aspects of moving material from the vendor through the manufacturing process to the final customer. The supply chain focuses on vendors, manufacturers, intermediaries, logistical services and the customer. The supply chain is no longer contained within countries borders, but encompasses all nations, whether they are vendors, manufacturers or customers. This article will examine the ways in which companies can export their products to new markets.

Calculating Safety Stock

Safety stock is required by businesses to ensure that they have sufficient quantities of material in stock. The safety stock provides coverage for unexpected customer demand, damage in the warehouse or quality issues found in production. However, there are situations where firms do not require inventory to be in stock. This article looks at the methods that can be used to calculate safety stock

Measuring Purchasing Performance

Measuring purchasing performance is important as the purchasing department plays an ever increasingly important role in the supply chain in an economic downturn. A reduction in the cost of raw material and services can allow companies to competitively market the price of their finished goods in order to win business. This article examines how companies are measuring purchasing performance.

Hazardous Materials In The Warehouse

Hazardous materials are often found in a warehouse. These materials can be either raw materials or finished goods depending on the nature of your company’s products. However, a hazardous material is one that is capable of producing harmful physical effects . This article examines the subject od hazardous materials in your warehouse and the regulations in place for their safe use.

Order Picking In The Warehouse

Order picking can be defined as the activity by which a small number of goods are extracted from a warehousing system, to satisfy a number of independent customer orders. Picking processes have become an important part of the supply chain process. Picking is seen as the most labor-intensive activity for almost every warehouse and this article examines order picking solutions that are available.

Cycle Counting In The Warehouse

Cycle counting is a popular inventory counting method that allows businesses to count a number of items in a number of areas within the warehouse without having to count the entire inventory. Cycle counting is a sampling technique where count of a certain number of items infers the count for the whole warehouse. This article shows different cycle counting methods that can used in a warehouse.

Forecasting In The Supply Chain

In the supply chain, forecasting is necessary for manufacturers. Companies use material forecasting to ensure that they produce the level of material that satisfies their customers without producing an overcapacity situation where too much inventory is produced and remains on the shelf. This article examines the use of forecasts in the supply chain with statistical and non-statistical methods.

Public Warehousing In The Supply Chain

A company’s supply chain will include warehousing functions. It can be company-owned, owned by a third party logistics (3PL) firm or a public warehouse. Extra warehouse space is sometimes required due to any number of factors including; seasonal inventory, warehouse re-organization or warehouse damage. This article examines public warehousing and the criteria used in selecting a public warehouse.

Benchmarking In The Supply Chain

Supply chain operations within an organization should be constantly reviewed to identify where improvements can be made or deficiencies eliminated. One method to help do this is to perform a series of benchmarking tests on their supply chain processes. This article reviews the methods involved in benchmarking supply chain processes.

Using Recycled Packaging In Your Supply Chain

Packaging materials are used every day in almost every company that manufactures and sells products. Packaging is used to move raw material to a manufacturer, bulk finished material to a distributor and then the final product to the consumer. As the public's perception about the environment changes, companies must look at greener packaging alternatives in their supply chain to satisfy consumers.

Manugistics - Profile of Manugistics Software for Supply Chain Management

Manugistics began life as a company called Scientific Time Sharing Corporation (STSC), formed in 1969. Initially STSC was geared towards writing programs using the APL computer language for IBM. After a number of years of developing APL programming for the personal computer and developing operational decision-support software, STSC changed its name to Manugistics in 1992. This article looks the rise and fall of Manugistics and its purchase by JDA Software in 2006.

Selecting A Third Party Logistics (3PL) Provider

Third party logistics (3PL) companies are a becoming an important part of today’s supply chain. These companies offer services that can allow businesses to outsource part of all of their supply chain management function. This article examines the rise of the 3PL providers and the mechanism that should be used in the selection of a third party logistics provider.

Origins and Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing has grown out of the production system developed by the Japanese automaker, Toyota. After WWII, Japanese manufacturers adopted production and quality procedures from US industry and expanded the principles to reduce waste in the manufacturing process. This article looks at the origins and principles of Lean Manufacturing.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations. TQM looks at the overall quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality assurance. This article looks at the history and implementation of TQM.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

When your company communicates with your customers the process can involve many different people within both organizations using a variety of different methods. To ensure that your company can provide the best customer service experience possible the use of customer relationship management (CRM) software should be considered. This article examines the elements that are found in customer relationship management software.

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)

Vendor Managed Inventory or VMI is a process where the vendor creates orders for their customers based on demand information that they receive from the customer. The vendor and customer are bound by an agreement which determines inventory levels, fill rates and costs. This article describes the VMI process.

Warehouse Safety

Safety in American warehouses is regulated by a series of standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, commonly known as OHSA. The main focus of OSHA is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths. This article examines the most frequent citations given by OSHA and some of the practical solutions that can be employed in the warehouse.

International Commercial Terms (INCOTERMS)

International commercial terms or Incoterms are a series of sales terms that are used by businesses throughout the world. Incoterms are used to make international trade easier. They are used to divide transaction costs and responsibilities between buyer and seller. This article describes in detail the thirteen incoterms that can be used.

Introduction to Lawson Software

When companies are considering an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the short list usually includes SAP and Oracle. However, Lawson Software offers an ERP system that has been ranked as the number one ERP software product for cost per user by the Aberdeen Group. This article examines the the history of Lawson Software and their current ERP applications.

Introduction To Vendor Evaluation

Companies are constantly looking at their supply chain to reduce costs while improving the quality of the items they purchase. To select the appropriate vendor for a particular item, a purchasing department can use a vendor evaluation tool. The evaluation of vendors can be determined by using a number of criteria that are either derived from transaction data or observations. The article is an introduction into the vendor evaluation process.

Introduction to Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP)

Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are followed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to ensure that their items are manufactured to specific requirements. This article is an introduction to the regulations that govern the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and bioligicals in the US.

Pallet Storage Methods In The Warehouse

Many companies store their products on pallets in the warehouse. There are a number of pallet storage methods that allow the warehouse staff to store pallets efficiently. This article will examine a number of the pallet storage methods that are commonly used.

Six Sigma Terminology

Six Sigma is a business management strategy that was initially developed by Motorola in the 1980’s, and now is used in many Fortune 500 companies. It is used primarily to identify and rectify errors and defect in a manufacturing or business process. Six Sigma uses a number of quality methods and tools that are used by professionals within the organization who have been trained on Six Sigma techniques. This articles explains some of the common terms used in Six Sigma projects.