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Supply Chain

How to Build a Cross-Functional S&OP Process That Actually Works

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) sits at the center of modern supply chain and logistics businesses, as a critical tool that aligns demand, supply and financial goals into a single, disciplined process, and turns strategy into action.“I would really advise virtually every supply chain organization to implement S&OP,” says Lori Gipp, the vice president of product management for logistics software provider TransImpact.The first step on ...

David Brown in Supply Chain 2026-07-01 11:49

AstraZeneca Cuts Inventory 30% with Constraint-Based Supply Chain Planning

AstraZeneca says it has trimmed surplus inventory and unlocked working capital after scrapping its old forecast-driven planning model and installing a capacity-aware engine built on OMP software, a switch executives call “a big leap” in supply-chain clarity.AstraZeneca Replaced Unconstrained Forecasts With Capacity-Limited PlansBefore 2023, planners at the $45 billion drug maker relied on demand projections that ignored factory speed limits and r...

Jennifer Davis in Supply Chain 2026-06-30 11:43

Super Bowl Freight Surge: How Inbound Truckload Volumes and Rates Shift Before Major Events

San Jose truckload volumes jumped 22 percent in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl LX, with flatbed postings soaring 30 percent in the final seven days and reefer spot rates clearing $2.70 per mile as staging crews rushed modular stages, fencing, and broadcast gear into the Bay Area.San Jose Freight Surge Peaks Days Before KickoffInbound tender volumes rose for three straight weeks, then spiked in the last seven days, load-board data through ...

Alexander Lewis in Supply Chain 2026-06-28 11:13

Supply Chain Automation: Strategic Growth Driver Beyond Cost Savings

Automation now tops every short-term fix list for warehouse labor shortages, demand spikes, and faster delivery promises, executives from retail, manufacturing, and third-party logistics told industry panels this year. From Cost-Cutter to Revenue Driver Fifteen years ago a conveyor belt was booked as a payroll trimmer; today the same line sits under “revenue enablement.” Modern goods-to-person systems slice pick times 55 % while feeding SKU-level...

Michael Jones in Supply Chain 2026-06-27 18:02

Cold-Chain Warehousing Costs and Automation: Hy-Tek Expert Guide

Cold-Chain Warehousing Costs Four-Five Times More Than Dry Space, Forcing Operators to Squeeze Every Chilled Cubic Foot Cold-chain warehousing runs four to five times the capital cost of a conventional distribution center, forcing operators to squeeze revenue from every chilled cubic foot, according to Ray DeMelfi, senior vice president of strategic services at material-handling integrator Hy-Tek Intralogistics. Higher Build Costs Demand Maximum ...

David Johnson in Supply Chain 2026-06-27 11:23

OMP REAL Conference 2025 Recap: Key Supply Chain Insights from Fort Lauderdale

OMP REAL Conference 2025 Recap: 500 Supply-Chain Leaders Meet in Fort LauderdaleBelgian supply-chain software vendor OMP welcomed 500 customers, partners and prospects to the Broward County Convention Center on 18–19 November for its annual REAL Conference, mixing live factory simulations, customer case studies and product-road-map briefings.Record Attendance From 26 CountriesDelegates from 26 countries registered for the two-day event, the large...

Jane Jones in Supply Chain 2026-06-26 18:48

Supply Chain Automation: Cut Hidden Costs and Build Resilient Growth

Automation has moved from a cost-cutting tactic to a growth lever that lets supply chains add volume without adding people, executives told industry webinars through late 2025. Labor Shortages Push Warehouses Toward Robotics Hiring for warehouse jobs keeps getting harder.Turnover in transportation and storage averaged 46 % last year, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show—double the private-sector mean.Instead of refilling the same physically ...

Robert Miller in Supply Chain 2026-06-26 18:56

AI Growth Drives Women Supply Chain Careers: 40% Workforce Share

AI-Driven Supply Chains Add New Career Tracks for Women Robots and machine-learning dashboards are rewriting daily tasks inside factories, warehouses and purchasing offices. Analysts say the shake-up is nudging more women into senior roles once tilted toward men. Female Share Reaches 50% in Digitized Plants Companies that finished full AI rollouts last year now staff warehouses and planning hubs with teams that are half female, according to inter...

Willow Wallace in Supply Chain 2026-06-23 11:11

Scale Warehouse Automation Gradually to Cut Costs and Boost Flexibility

Incremental Automation Cuts Supply-Chain Risk and Cost, Kardex Executive Says Companies that treat automation as a stack of small upgrades—rather than a single disruptive overhaul—halve project risk and reach payback up to 18 months sooner, according to Fred Fox, president of Kardex Solutions Americas. Speaking to Supply Chain Management Review on March 1, Fox urged operators to replace the traditional “big-bang” mindset with a phased plan that l...

Emily Miller in Supply Chain 2026-06-21 11:51

FSMA Section 204 Food Traceability Requirements for Grocery Retailers

Grocery chains and their suppliers have 24 months to build a digital paper trail that can pinpoint every pallet of sprouts, wheel of brie, and crate of tomatoes within a day of an FDA request, a requirement that will cost mid-size retailers upwards of seven figures and force thousands of small vendors to log data for the first time.FDA Traceability Rule Sets 24-Hour Data DeadlineThe January 20, 2026 deadline anchors the Food and Drug Administrati...

Chloe Warner in Supply Chain 2026-06-20 18:58

8 Supply Chain Technology Trends Driving Faster Disruption Response

Only one in six supply chains can react to a disruption within a day, yet buyers are now demanding software that can shrink that window to hours and push recovery time below the industry-average five-day mark. Performance Gap Drives 24-Hour Recovery Mandate A fresh industry benchmark shows that 83 percent of global networks still need longer than a full business day to detect, diagnose, and begin correcting an exception. Regional freight data sha...

Ava Mitchell in Supply Chain 2026-06-19 18:00

Watch: Private Equity Investment in Supply Chain Companies

As supply chain companies become ever more integral to the economy, private equity investors are putting more and more funding into them, says Jay Koh, managing director and co-founder of The Lightsmith Group.Private investors are interested in putting money into highly productive parts of the economy, and it goes without saying that the supply chain is critical to all products, services and trade flows, Koh says.“Whether you're a multinational c...

Sarah Jones in Supply Chain 2026-06-19 11:15

Amazon Pharmacy Same-Day Expansion: 4,500 Cities, Kiosks, Rural Ferries

Amazon Pharmacy to Reach 4,500 Towns by End-2026, Adding Ferries, E-Bikes, and Horse-Drawn Wagons Amazon Pharmacy will expand same-day prescription delivery to about 4,500 U.S. towns by the close of 2026, adding almost 2,000 new ZIP codes and entering its first sites in Idaho and Massachusetts. The build-out relies on cargo ferries, e-bikes, horse-drawn rigs, and a fleet of electric vans to reach pharmacy deserts where the nearest drugstore can s...

Aubrey Ford in Supply Chain 2026-06-15 11:47

Fabletics RFID Inventory System Boosts Store Accuracy and Sales

Fabletics stitches RFID tag into every sports bra and legging, pushing inventory accuracy to 99% and cutting store labor hours across 114 U.S. locations, executives said two days before the brand receives the inaugural Masters of Innovation Award at Manifest 2026.RFID Fleet-Wide in Six MonthsKatherine Dela Cruz, vice-president of retail operations and training, told SupplyChainBrain that once tag standards were locked, the chain-wide install took...

Robert Smith in Supply Chain 2026-06-11 18:04