Parcel - June 2008 - (Page 6)

editor’s note Dan O’Rourke | Editor Ya Better Keep Up! It’s no secret that businesses are hurting. Sales have slowed and costs are up. If you manufacture a petroleumbased product and/or ship via anything that uses fuel (and that pretty much includes us all), costs are going through the roof. To survive you must cut operational costs. Many companies make the mistake of ﬁrst cutting training budgets. This is a huge mistake. If you want your operation to lag and falter, cutting training will do it faster than anything. This is especially true of travelbased training. Interacting with your peers is one of the best methods of discovering cost-saving methods used in business (and by your competitors). You must keep abreast of industry developments and learn what’s effective for increasing production and containing costs. Hunkering down with a bunker mentality, you’re going to fail. As the leading parcel industry supplier of information, we at PARCEL aim to make it our business to assist you in staying abreast — or better yet, ahead — of your competitors. We’ll present information and training, online, in print and face-to-face that will assist you in succeeding. As for the face-to-face, we’ve got a great event planned for this fall — the 6th Annual PARCEL Forum, October 6-8, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago. It’s a real opportunity for parcel industry professionals who share common bonds to come together and get a ﬁrst-hand look at cost containment, where the industry is going and, more importantly, how to get there ﬁrst. This is the only event focused on covering the entire parcel shipment supply chain from Order Entry, Fulﬁllment, Warehousing, Material Handling, Picking, Packing, Manifesting, Scheduling, Third-Party Logistics, Transportation and Final Delivery. Log on to www.parcelforum.com for details. And I will guarantee you an ROI — that you will learn cost-saving measures that you can take back to your operation and implement that far exceed the cost of training. We also need your assistance to assist you! It’s our annual Best Practices Survey time again. The results, presented in our September and November issues, is your view into the parcel industry — your “where do we stand” look at your operation. The key to keeping the results of this survey the best and most comprehensive in the parcel industry is your input. When we all contribute, we all beneﬁt. So, again, I ask for your input to our (your) annual Best Practices Survey. Please contribute by visiting www.PARCELindustry.com and completing the survey. We’ll crunch the numbers and let you know where you — and your operation — stand. The more input, the better the results. Please plan to join us, and your peers, at the Forum this October and, as always, thanks for reading PARCEL. 6 May 2008 www.PARCELindustry.com http://www.parcelforum.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Parcel - June 2008

Parcel - June 2008 Contents Editor's Note What Would Augello Say? Success Means Never Being Satisfied Moving from Manual to Automated Fulfillment Regional Carriers Move to the Forefront Understanding Warehouse Management Systems Negotiating Carrier Contracts It’s All About the Data! How Long Will The East-West Trade Imbalance Last? Educate the Shipper, or Fix the Software? Product Profile On the Mark New Products & Services Advertiser Index Wrap Up

Parcel - June 2008

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