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Ben Ames
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Earth day inspires green logistics for trucks, trains, and forklifts
Posted May 8, 2019 at Dispatches
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Sharper Image catalog bucks the e-commerce trend with… Post-it notes?
Posted Jan 15, 2019 at Dispatches
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Birthdays of logistics firms in 2019 show burst of innovation
Posted Jan 4, 2019 at Dispatches
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Dinosaurs, robots, and comic strips fill logistics sector holiday cards
Posted Dec 20, 2018 at Dispatches
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Oracle trolls Infor by sending free Tesla taxis to rival’s software show
Some good-natured heckling has broken out in the usually staid market for enterprise computing products. Tech firms usually ignore each other when their competitors hold conferences, even taking care to refer to other companies with a passing reference to their headquarters’ home state or to the color of their logo. So New York-based business software vendor Infor expected the typical ground rules to hold when it opened the doors for its Inforum user conference in Washington, D.C. this week. However, rival enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human capital management (HCM) vendor Oracle Corp. had other ideas. First, Redwood Shores, Calif.-based... Continue reading
Posted Sep 26, 2018 at Dispatches
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Infor user conference features trumpets, tubas, and trombones
Posted Sep 26, 2018 at Dispatches
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Supply chain superhero Jack Ryan hits the TV screen
Posted Aug 29, 2018 at Dispatches
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Blockchain zoo spawns CryptoKitties and Fishcoins
A basic definition of blockchain isn’t that tough to grasp—it’s like a shared spreadsheet (a “distributed ledger”) that can’t be changed by any individual member without the approval of their trading partners. That distributed design model generates a high level of data security, which means the technology could be a helpful tool for supply chain tasks like tracking goods or making payments. For example, FedEx has launched a pilot project that uses blockchain to improve supply chain visibility by supporting digital data exchange among shippers, carriers, and retailers, company executive Sean Healy, senior vice president of transportation, international, planning, and... Continue reading
Posted Mar 23, 2018 at Dispatches
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Tool tracks evil bunnies on Facebook
The typical e-commerce consumer of 2018 lives online, skipping between smartphone apps and social media feeds with ease. In a world of short attention spans, young shoppers view opening a new web page or dialing a phone number as a boring and onerous distraction. So where is an eager shopper supposed to turn when the item they purchased an entire day or two earlier has still not appeared on their doorstep? HighJump Software Inc. says it has solved that puzzle with an app that embeds a “Where’s my stuff?” function directly within the instant messaging feature of your Facebook profile.... Continue reading
Posted Mar 14, 2018 at Dispatches
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“Ace Ventura” is a highlight reel of parcel delivery errors
Watching “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” with your 12-year-old son is a great way to share some guilty belly laughs and prurient giggles. But the 1994 comedy film starring Jim Carrey also offers a secret benefit to anyone following the fields of parcel delivery and last-mile logistics—it could serve as a reverse training video for customer service. The movie opens with a scene of Carrey impersonating a delivery driver for a well-known, Atlanta-based transportation and logistics firm whose name is a three-letter acronym. Dressed in the familiar brown uniform and ball cap of UPS Inc.—sorry, Carrey’s version is called “HDS”—the actor... Continue reading
Posted Feb 8, 2018 at Dispatches
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Truck traffic towards Minneapolis spikes in prep for Super Bowl 52
Football players for the Eagles and Patriots have been hard at work this week, preparing their pads, plays, and tactics for Sunday’s Super Bowl LII. But the big game has also triggered a flood of logistical preparation, as thousands of trucks roll toward Minneapolis, carrying souvenirs to sell to fans, food to serve a hungry audience, equipment to stock the NFL’s traveling interactive theme park--The NFL Experience--and even the television production equipment needed to host a live broadcast.That job demanded an estimated 300 trucks a day for seven days straight to supply Super Bowl host city San Jose, Calif., in... Continue reading
Posted Jan 30, 2018 at Dispatches
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Retail gets personal with tracking tech at NRF
Attend a large trade show like the National Retail Federation (NRF)'s annual expo in New York City this past week, and it can be easy to feel lost among the tens of thousands of conventioneers. However, technology suppliers at the show are working hard to make sure that no one in a retail environment stays anonymous for long. From the moment you check in and don the required name badge at NRF2018, an RFID chip on the back begins to network with the chips attached to the badges of strangers in the crowd around you, one exhibitor reported. Working together,... Continue reading
Posted Jan 19, 2018 at Dispatches
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Amazon offers BOPIS at Whole Foods
Log on to your favorite online retailer to do a little holiday shopping this week, and you will be wooed at every click with offers of free shipping for your purchase. However, nothing in life is truly free. One of my favorite high school teachers used to write “TANSTAAFL” on the blackboard each morning as an acronym for the phrase “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” So e-commerce companies are getting creative in finding ways to convince consumers to pay for “free” delivery. Now Amazon.com Inc., the 800-pound gorilla of online retailers, is trying a new version... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2017 at Dispatches
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MIT prez issues “call to action” on balancing robotic automation with human work skills
The president of MIT says a wave of industrial automation is about to sweep over society, and it is up to the developers and deployers of that technology to find a way to balance the rise of robots with the preservation of human jobs. “Automation will transform our work, our lives, our society,” L. Rafael Reif, president of Cambridge, Mass.-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), wrote in an editorial today in The Boston Globe. “Whether the outcome is inclusive or exclusive, fair or laissez-faire, is up to us.” Faced with a culture where many Americans are worried that widespread technology... Continue reading
Posted Nov 10, 2017 at Dispatches
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Material handling gets automated; film at 11
Our readers know better than anyone about the rapid flow of pallets and parcels through the nation’s supply chain nodes. But nothing can demonstrate the speed of material handling quite like a movie. Several major logistics players have released film clips in recent weeks that show the amazing potential of automated material handling to accelerate the flow of goods through worksites from ports to warehouses. California’s Port of Los Angeles recently completed a $103 million renovation of its TraPac terminal, helping the busy port increase its imports of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) boxes from 4.1 million in 2015 to 4.5... Continue reading
Posted Sep 18, 2017 at Dispatches
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Star Wars droids inspired Amazon robot fleet
Posted Jul 17, 2017 at Dispatches
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SAP show shines spotlight on women tech leaders
Sit through enough keynote panels led by over-caffeinated executives, and you could be excused for being wary of the boasts and promises often proffered at industry trade shows. So skepticism was warranted when SAP SE CEO Jeff McDermott began to wax eloquent on the German software giant’s achievements in empathy to its customers, reduction of its carbon footprint, hiring of autistic professionals, and gender-neutral promotion practices. But at least one cynical reporter in the audience was chastened when McDermott then called on a succession of high-wattage, tech-industry women to join him on the keynote stage at SAP’s annual user conference,... Continue reading
Posted May 17, 2017 at Dispatches
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Material handling equipment plays starring role in Monsters, Inc.
Any one of the 45,000 people who attended the ProMat trade show in Chicago this month saw a huge variety of material handling equipment on the vast floors of the McCormick Place convention center. From automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) at SencorpWhite and conveyors at Intralox and from the most basic racks, totes, and pallets to the latest augmented reality smart glasses at Zebra and the autonomous robots at Otto Motors and Locus Robotics. It was more warehouse hardware in one room than most people see in a year… that is, unless you have kids who are fans of... Continue reading
Posted Apr 21, 2017 at Dispatches
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Razor warehouse generates chuckles and profits
Running a retail business from a distribution center is a great way to cut overhead costs like supporting and staffing a brick and mortar store, but the strategy has an additional benefit—it can be just plain fun. Hard-working logistics professionals don’t often have a chance to get a chuckle out of warehouse work, but when Dollar Shave Club founders Mark Levine and Michael Dubin launched their company in Venice, Calif., in 2011, they needed a way to recruit new customers to their innovative startup. The video they produced of Dubin pitching the business as he strolled through their warehouse became... Continue reading
Posted Apr 6, 2017 at Dispatches
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Alexa digital puck joins HighJump staff on demo stage
Supply chain technology provider HighJump Software Inc. introduced a lineup of high profile speakers during the keynote events at the firm's "Elevate" user conference in Orlando, Fla., this week. Attendees heard from Olympic gold medalist Dick Fosbury, whose innovative “Fosbury Flop” technique earned him the top height in track & field’s high jump event at the 1968 Mexico City games, and from Lori Jackson, the hard-charging director of operations and fulfillment for Dollar Shave Club, who succeeded in leading the construction of multiple DCs for the fast-expanding online retailer of razors and grooming products. But the speaker that may have... Continue reading
Posted Mar 14, 2017 at Dispatches
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Software startups target truck driver shortage
Ask any transportation professional about challenges facing the trucking industry and you’ll soon hear about the chronic shortage of truck drivers. That specter has been looming over the industry for years, so perhaps it is no surprise that three software startups have offered solutions in the past two weeks: Enlistics matches people to jobs by screening their social media data for keywords, Stay Metrics has developed a research-based predictive model for driver turnover, and WorkHound reduces driver turnover by collecting worker feedback through a smartphone app. Each app approaches the problem from a very different angle. Enlistics: Trucking is a... Continue reading
Posted Mar 3, 2017 at Dispatches
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FedEx looks at self-driving parcel delivery, CIO says
Add FedEx Corp. to the list of carriers looking into self-driving delivery vehicles. The Memphis-based transport and logistics giant is investigating ways to incorporate small vehicles that could drive around neighborhoods and make deliveries without human drivers, FedEx CIO Rob Carter recently told the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Technology Review magazine. The move would follow similar initiatives from Uber Inc., which recently acquired the self-driving truck firm Otto, and from Amazon.com Inc. and UPS Inc., which both recently ran public tests of package delivery using flying drones. Another entrant in the field is the British robotics startup Starship Technologies,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 6, 2017 at Dispatches
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How much booze do Californians drink, anyway? Second firm offers same-hour alcohol delivery
Posted Jan 26, 2017 at Dispatches
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Feds name 10 pilot sites for autonomous vehicle proving grounds
Research into self-driving vehicles has been advancing at high speed in recent months, with American roads already bustling with robo-cars like Alphabet Inc.’s Google autonomous car, Tesla’s Model S in “autopilot” mode, and Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-steering Ford Fusion. The technology is impressive when it works, but one question that still stumps government regulators is how to safely test the machines. Leaders are caught between the need to capture a valuable business opportunity by hosting the nascent industry and the duty to protect local drivers from potential collisions with these unmanned, two-ton, rolling science experiments. For example, while Austin, Texas,... Continue reading
Posted Jan 24, 2017 at Dispatches
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Starbucks offers omnichannel latte
Stop by your local Starbucks coffee shop and you may see a strange phenomenon; there can be a dozen steaming-hot prepared drinks waiting on the counter, but only a scattered handful of people on foot standing in the café to get them. What gives? Is the popular coffee chain going out of business? Are the busy employees just training, learning how to make the latest designer latte and generating a stack of free drinks? No, it turns out that Starbucks is doing just fine. In fact, the unclaimed drinks are a sign that its latest e-commerce fulfillment effort is a... Continue reading
Posted Oct 28, 2016 at Dispatches
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