What Are The Major Supply Chain Issues?

The supply chain plays a major and vital role in the global economy as it is the network between businesses and suppliers to produce and distribute products to end-users. The supply chain is made up of people, entities, resources, as well as information Supply chain issues can drastically affect how businesses and consumers operate around the world. While every business will always have some sort of supply chain challenge, the Covid-19 pandemic created a plethora of new supply chain issues. Let’s take a look at some of the major issues supply chain leaders are facing today!

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What is Cross-Docking for Ecommerce?

In the supply chain model, goods from a manufacturer or producer are sent for storage from where the goods are delivered to resellers or the end-user. Cross-docking is a supply chain model where businesses remove the storage link. By removing this link, cross-docking allows for the manufacturers of goods to deliver products straight to the customer without having to go to a storage facility or warehouse first. This practice is beneficial cost and time-wise for both buyers and sellers.

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What is Flow of Goods?

The flow of goods is an important cycle of how goods and services flow from start to finish within the economy. At each stage of the flow, there is a movement of goods as well as a change in the monetary value of the products. It is a basic understanding of the movement of goods and how it contributes to the economy overall. To explain this process, we can divide it into three stages that simplify the movement of goods and what occurs during these different points of exchange.

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How Do Fuel Prices Affect Logistics?

In the late 1900s, logistics companies were able to benefit from the low cost and high supply of fuel. As more drivers have hit the road, an increase in the demand for fuel has put pressure on the supply of fuel. When supply is in high demand, the price of fuel will increase. In turn, rising fuel prices can have a domino effect on logistics all around the world.

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What Is Nearshoring in Supply Chain Management?

Nearshoring refers to companies moving their manufacturing to countries nearby. As a result, nearshoring allows companies to benefit from geographic, time zone, linguistic, political, cultural, and historical proximities usually at a lower cost. Most companies view nearshoring as more advantageous than outsourcing to suppliers around the globe. Supply is quicker and there are more opportunities to implement and manage controls. An example of nearshoring would be a US company switching production from China to Mexico or Canada.

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Calculating Shipping Costs for Small Business

The most important thing to remember about shipping is that every time someone touches the package, they will add a fee. This is true whether it’s a bike messenger delivering around the corner, or all the links in international, multimodal logistics. Shipping costs aren’t just transport costs. Small businesses must identify all of the costs before calculating the total shipping costs.

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How Does Santa Deliver Presents in One Night?

It’s an incredible feat to grasp when thinking about how Santa Claus delivers gifts all around the world in one night. How does he do it? Logistics and Supply Chain experts know it involves a little bit of magic and a whole lot of careful planning. Santa’s workshop is based at the North Pole for a very good reason: It is at the top of the world. That means that Santa can get to any side of the world very fast. The North Pole is in the northern hemisphere. That means Christmas starts in the north when the days are shorter and the nights are longer. This gives Santa more time to get ready. Part of what helps Santa Claus deliver toys to millions of homes all over the world in one night is that he knows who the good children are. There are two other parts to how Santa manages to get around so quickly. One is international time zones. The other part is speed.

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Tips to Avoid Out-Of-Stock Situations

Keeping an optimum level of inventory can be a juggling act. Demand can be seasonal, sporadic, and sometimes unpredictable. While being overstocked ties up the cash flow, being understocked means missing out on sales. Here are some proactive measures to guard against out-of-stock situations.

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Why Is Forecasting Important in Supply Chain?

Manufacturers and retailers are interdependent like the links in a chain. Manufacturers are similarly linked with their suppliers who provide raw materials for the goods they produce. Hence the name: supply chain. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so is a supply chain. Supply chain forecasting (SFC) is the use of historical data to predict future requirements. It requires analytical skills and experience. SFC is important to the global supply chain for a number of reasons.

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What is Supply Chain Resilience?

Managing or operating a supply chain is an extremely complex process that has many moving parts. Be it local or global, supply chains have a lot of moving parts that allow for timely deliveries, manufacturing, and more. Due to the sheer number of factors involved in a supply chain, the threat of disruption is immense. These vulnerabilities include such things as trade wars, natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and even theft. This means building something called supply chain resilience into your operation is critical.

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