Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

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The editors of DC VELOCITY magazine bring you weekly updates on logistics, material handling, and supply chain news.

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Top 10 Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY Episodes

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Guest: Kevin Ledversis of Newcastle Systems on employee satisfaction and retention; Logistics companies respond to Mexico's manufacturing boom; Generative AI in sourcing and procurement

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

07/26/24 • 20 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Kevin Ledversis, vice president of sales at Newcastle Systems. Labor continues to be in short supply, which means that it is important for distributors and warehouse operators to hold on to the labor that they do have by keeping warehouse employees engaged and happy. Our guest shares ways to foster an environment of employee contentment.

Mexico recently passed China to become the U.S.’s largest trading partner. We’ve seen Mexico rise very quickly in the business landscape due to tariffs on imports from China to the U.S. as well as global disruptions, such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. As a result, there has been a swift shift toward Mexico as a new manufacturing hub. To move all the freight now being generated south of the border, there has been a rush from leading logistics companies to build supply chain links between the U.S. and Mexico.

The adoption of generative artificial intelligence—or GenAI—for sourcing and procurement is gaining steam, and recent research from Gartner shows that its mainstream application may be just two years away. Gartner said this week that GenAI for procurement is at the “peak of inflated expectations.” Essentially, the data show that use cases are growing and AI capabilities are improving, making GenAI for sourcing and procurement a fast-moving technology within supply chains.

Supply Chain Xchange also offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe and to listen to past and future episodes.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast is sponsored by: Storage Solutions

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Guest: Andrei Quinn-Barabanov of Moody’s on supply chains five years after Covid hit us; Integrating diverse automation; New battery charging and energy solutions

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

03/21/25 • 25 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Andrei Quinn-Barabanov, Supply Chain Industry Practice Lead and Senior Director with Moody’s. It was five years ago this month that our world was rocked with the Covid-19 virus. That is when businesses and schools closed and we were all stuck at home waiting for things to get better. All the while, supply chains kept us fed and happy at home, for the most part. Our supply chains had to adjust and they are still feeling the effects of the pandemic five years later. Our guest reflects on how supply chains reacted then and how they now will never be the same.

Most of our editorial staff was at ProMat 2025 this past week in Chicago – a huge supply chain show and the largest material handling exhibition in North America. And everywhere we looked, there were robotics and automation systems to be seen. Most distribution facilities and factories will eventually end up with a number of different types of automation and robotics within their facilities. So, the big challenge is to integrate all of these disparate systems to play nice with one another. We look at a couple of "orchestration" solutions on display at ProMat.

All of the automation solutions exhibited at ProMat take power. In this episode, we look at some innovative energy solutions that keep those automation systems operating at peak performance. We also discuss an energy management solution that can potentially lower the utility bills of facilities.

Supply Chain Xchange also offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. All episodes are available to stream now. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe and to listen to past and future episodes. The podcast is also available at www.thescxchange.com.

Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast is sponsored by: Zebra Robotics Automation

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Guest: Arun Rajan of C.H. Robinson on Generative AI in transportation; Is India the next big manufacturing hub? An industry ribbon-cutting

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

06/21/24 • 21 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Arun Rajan, chief strategy and innovation officer at transportation provider C.H. Robinson. Artificial intelligence is beginning to make inroads into logistics operations. But beyond all the hype, are there ways that generative AI can benefit transportation companies now?
We’ve all heard about the decline of imports from China and how other countries are benefiting from that decline. Today we learn about one exporting country that is on the rise. It's India.
Norwegian warehouse automation company AutoStore opened its new U.S. headquarters this week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Located in Salem, New Hampshire, the building replaces the company’s previous U.S. headquarters, which officials said they had outgrown. The new facility is twice the size of the old building and is just about 10 miles away. It features a complete AutoStore automated storage system in-house as a way to demonstrate the technology.

Podcast is sponsored by: Equipment Depot

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Guest: Dannie Lynn Fountain on hiring a diverse workforce; Retailers prepare for peak season; A volume swing at U.S. ports

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

10/21/22 • 20 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Dannie Lynn Fountain. She is the author of the new book End Checkbox Diversity: Rewriting the Story of Performative Allyship in Corporate America. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. She shares how hiring people with disabilities can enhance a workforce and bring new skills that might often be overlooked.
Retailers are preparing for peak season and trying to guess how consumers will respond. New research shows that consumers are concerned about rising prices and the overall economy, but they also want to continue with many of the conveniences and retail services they learned to enjoy over the past two-plus years of the pandemic.

While imports overall are slowing, our nation's ports continue to be busy. Volumes, however, seem to be shifting from West Coast ports to those in the East and Gulf regions. What is causing the shifts and which ports are winners and which are seeing declining volumes?
DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). The third season of eight episodes has launched with new episodes delivered each Tuesday. The focus this season is on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast sponsored by: Signode

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Guest: Steve Smith of Airlink on delivering emergency relief to world hotspots; Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern get the go-ahead; Warehouse technologies work in combination for greater productivity

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

03/17/23 • 23 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Steve Smith. He is the president and CEO of Airlink, a non-profit organization that provides logistics coordination for relief organizations reaching the world's trouble spots. Airlink is offering ongoing assistance to war-torn Ukraine as well as recently coordinated transportation of people and supplies to aid victims of the last month's earthquake along the Turkey-Syria border.

It has been a long time in coming, but the U.S. Surface Transportation Board has finally given the green light for the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroads. But there are a few conditions that the STB demands for its blessings. We discuss those conditions and how the newly combined rail network will benefit shippers.
Designing a warehouse can be very complex, with so many technology options available today. There is beauty, however, in seeing a design where these different systems can work together to be even more productive than they could be on their own.
DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The third season of eight episodes has fully launched and focuses on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast is sponsored by: Yale

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Guest: David Correll of MIT on supply chain sustainability; Women truckers head to Washington; What happened to Yellow Corp.?

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

04/19/24 • 27 min

Our guest on this week's episode is David Correll, a research scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Transportation and Logistics. This coming Monday, April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. Begun in 1970, this is a worldwide event designed to recognize the importance of preserving our environment. Due to their basic role of moving goods worldwide, our supply chains are among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. While we can’t totally eliminate our environmental footprints, there are things we can do to lessen their impacts on the environment. Each year, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics produce a State of Supply Chain Sustainability report. Correll is the project lead for this ambitious research. He shares about the progress being made toward sustainability within supply chains.

Members of the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Women in Motion (WIM) group met with federal government leaders in Washington this week to advocate for policies that support women drivers and that will encourage recruitment and retention of more women in the industry. We look at the specific legislation they are promoting to improve the lives of women truckers.

Freight company Yellow Corp. went out of business last year. It was one of the largest trucking companies to declare bankruptcy in history. Yellow blames its demise on contract negotiations with the Teamsters, while the union says the company spent more than it could afford to acquire other companies and expand. Regardless, the bankruptcy court has been selling off the company's remaining assets. We look at those assets and what other trucking firms have been buying them in order to expand their own operations at bargain prices.

Podcast is sponsored by: Travero Logistics

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Guest: Tom Nightingale of AFS Logistics on the UPS labor settlement; Prospects look good for 2024 warehouse projects; Extending the life of robots

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

07/28/23 • 20 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Tom Nightingale, CEO of AFS Logistics. UPS and the Teamsters Union that represents 340,000 UPS drivers and warehouse workers reached a tentative agreement this week on a new labor deal. What will this mean for shippers? Will rates see a rise? And how will other carriers respond? Our guest has some insights on how this and other recent labor negotiations will impact transportation providers and the supply chains they serve.
We saw a slowdown in warehouse construction over the past year following that post-Covid boom when accelerating e-commerce and unprecedented demand for logistics services in general caused a surge in the need for warehousing space. The recent slowdown is due to declining e-commerce activity and rising interest rates over the past year, but it looks like we may hit bottom and see growth heading into 2024, in both warehouse construction and related warehouse automation projects.

Robotics have certainly impacted distribution in recent years, with tens of thousands of units now roaming the world's warehouses. Many of these are provided under a Robots-as-a-Service model, or RaaS, where the manufacturer owns the robots and simply leases them based on run time or products moved. Therefore, it is an advantage to keep the robots in top-notch condition to assure uptime and profitability. We discuss how one company, Locus Robotics, is building a new facility and capability to support that model.
DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The current series features Transportation Tech. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe and to listen to past and future episodes.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast is sponsored by:Travero Logistics

Other links

Guest: Kathy Fulton of the American Logistics Aid Network on recovery efforts for Florida; Walmart buys a robotics company; The latest report on the health of our supply chains

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

10/07/22 • 22 min

Our guest on this week's episode is Kathy Fulton, executive director of the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). Hurricane Ian has brought tremendous devastation to Florida and the Southeast region. It is times like these that the logistics community can rally together to provide logistical services to assist in the recovery. Spearheading those efforts is ALAN. Fulton shares what is being done and how you can help.
Walmart has just bought Alert Innovation, a robotic shuttle company it has been using to support its e-commerce and grocery pick-up orders. This is just the latest in acquisitions and consolidations we are seeing with automation companies. We report on what this move by Walmart may signal to the industry and what other consolidation may be coming.

The latest Logistics Managers' Index is out and it shows that while growth is continuing in the industry, it is not the surge we saw over the past two years. We look behind the numbers to see what they mean for our supply chains and what the outlook might be for the coming year.
DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The third season of eight episodes is launching this Tuesday and focuses on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast sponsored by: Signode

Other links

Guest: Colin Yankee of Tractor Supply on how his company has excelled during the pandemic; Some challenges await Covid-19 vaccine distribution; A new building boom for logistics facilities.

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

11/13/20 • 28 min

In this episode, guest Colin Yankee, chief supply chain officer at Tractor Supply, shares how his company has been able to thrive in the midst of the pandemic. As an essential business, this retailer offers the goods that people need. But beyond that, the company made some strategic changes in its supply chains to meet changing customer requirements and the different ways goods are sold and distributed today.
There is a lot looming for the new Biden administration once the president-elect takes office. A key part of that will be distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine when it is ready. However, there are significant logistical challenges that still have to be worked out. We also discuss tariffs and infrastructure and how those areas will be affected by the new administration.
And there is a building boom with the new logistics facilities. What is driving the increased activity in a down economy, and will it be sustainable through 2021?
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast sponsored by DCV-TV

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Guest: Dr. Yossi Sheffi of MIT discusses The New (Ab)Normal; The growing demand for warehouse automation; Who will work in our supply chains in the future?

Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

10/16/20 • 27 min

In this episode, guest Dr. Yossi Sheffi, a professor of engineering and director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics at MIT, discusses his new book, The New (Ab)Normal. Dr. Sheffi looks at which companies have been successful during the pandemic and which have failed, as well as what the future holds for our supply chains.
We also examine the growing demand for warehouse automation. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated automation projects. What's driving the demand and how are distributors responding?
And we discuss the latest iteration of MHI's Roadmap series. A panel at the MHI virtual conference shared details of the Roadmap 3.0, Transformation Age: Shaping Your Future report and shared how robotics and augmented reality will be commonplace by 2030 and what the workforce of the future will look like.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

Podcast sponsored by DCV-TV

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Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY currently has 258 episodes available.

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The episode title 'Guest: Todd Skiles of Ryder System on transitioning military veterans into the workforce; What kind of services are e-commerce customers willing to pay to receive? Companies struggle to find seasonal workers.' is the most popular.

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The average episode length on Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY is 21 minutes.

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Episodes of Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY are typically released every 7 days.

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The first episode of Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY was released on Mar 20, 2020.

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Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY

AGiLE Business Media

Top 10 Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY Episodes

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What is the most popular episode on Logistics Matters with DC VELOCITY?

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