The Supply Chainer

Port and distribution yards remain among the highest diesel consumers per operating hour in the supply chain. A single yard spotter on two shifts can burn hundreds of gallons per week, much of it while idling between trailer moves. When fuel prices rise or emission zones tighten, those costs flow directly into landed expenses. Operators are now weighing how fast electric yard trucks can replace diesel units without disrupting tight receiving windows and departure schedules. T

Global manufacturers and retailers are grappling with a deepening crisis in ocean shipping that is undermining supply chain stability and driving up costs across industries. Intensifying geopolitical competition over port control is creating systemic vulnerabilities that directly threaten operational efficiency and profitability. Escalating Costs and Volatility Freight rates swing unpredictably as vessels reroute around conflict zones, adding 10–14 days to Asia-Europe journey

A trailer pulls into the gate at 7 a.m. after a 30 percent spike in inbound volume triggered by port bunching. The appointment calendar is already obsolete. Dock doors sit blocked. Receivers work from outdated spreadsheets. Pallets wait unverified on the yard. By the time the shift ends, detention charges have climbed, cycle counts are postponed again, and OTIF targets are slipping. The problem is no longer visibility. It is the gap between what the systems promised and what

Warehouses are rapidly becoming one of the most important environments for the deployment of video management systems VMS and AI driven analytics. What was historically a passive layer of CCTV recording for loss prevention is now evolving into an operational intelligence platform that connects cameras, analytics engines and warehouse execution systems. Across logistics networks, distribution centers and fulfillment hubs, cameras are no longer installed simply to document inci

After listening to ten major Q1 2026 earnings calls across shipping, trucking, warehousing, retail, and supply chain software, one pattern became difficult to ignore: the industry is stabilizing operationally long before it is recovering financially. Executives are no longer speaking like companies waiting for demand to suddenly return. Instead, they are talking about margin discipline, tighter execution, automation, contract quality, and resilience. The language itself has c

There is a number in Netstock's 2026 Tariff Impact Report that stops you mid-read: 44%. That is the share of SMBs that spent much of 2025 absorbing tariff costs rather than passing them on, betting that protecting customer relationships was worth the margin hit. For a while, it was a defensible call. Then it stopped being one. Today, 82% of SMBs are passing costs on to customers. Of those, 92% are doing it through direct price increases. Not through quiet reformulations or sm

For many importers, the most expensive supply chain disruptions no longer begin in the middle of the ocean. They begin after the container reaches the port. A shipment arrives on schedule, clears discharge, and appears to be moving normally. Then the warehouse receiving window shifts. The drayage carrier cannot secure a new appointment quickly enough. Containers sit at the terminal while warehouse teams, transportation planners, and carriers exchange emails and spreadsheets t

In a special roundtable hosted by Tom Raftery, three supply chain technology leaders examined a core question shaping the industry: are companies truly optimizing operations, or simply coping with growing complexity? The discussion, featuring Gonzalo Benedit (Aera Technology), Keith Moore (AutoScheduler), and Mor Peretz (CaPow), pointed to a clear shift toward decision orchestration as the next frontier. The roundtable exposed a deeper operational reality: most supply chain o

For many large warehouses and distribution centers, some of the most expensive operational failures no longer happen inside the building. They happen outside - in the yard. As inbound freight flows become more volatile and carrier arrival patterns less predictable, supply chain teams are under growing pressure to coordinate hundreds of trailer movements per day across crowded yard environments. Delays of even 20 or 30 minutes can create cascading effects across receiving sche

This article traces the typical path of one finished printed souvenir T-shirt through today’s global supply chain — from the moment it leaves the factory gate in Bangladesh until it reaches the shelf of a Midtown Manhattan souvenir shop. At each stage the focus is on the specific operational challenge that must be solved and the types of companies that routinely address it. From Factory Gate in Gazipur to Export The T-shirt left the production line in a garment factory in Gaz

If you run automation in a distribution center or manufacturing site with a fleet of AGVs or AMRs, you already track utilization numbers that look solid on paper. Yet many operators are discovering that a fundamental operational friction persists once the systems scale: routine battery charging cycles that regularly pull robots out of productive work. The issue manifests as robots diverting to stationary chargers, waiting, and then re-entering the workflow — time during which

I stood yesterday in the vast halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center as ACT Expo 2026 opened its doors. Large booths, electric trucks ready for test drives, oversized screens and hundreds of fleet managers, vehicle buyers and logistics professionals walking around with name tags — the atmosphere was busy and focused. For supply chain professionals, this is not just another conference. It is where the industry confronts its real 2026 challenges: rising fuel and maintenance c