DC Velocity - IdeaBook 2014

W elcome to our 2014 special digital issue featuring the best, most popular “how-to” and best-practice articles from CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly and DC VELOCITY. In today’s volatile economy, supply chain and logistics managers confront a range of problems on a daily basis. To help them address those challenges, both publications have often featured articles that provide real-life examples and ideas for improving logistics and supply chain operations. We have selected the most popular of these articles from the 2012 and 2013 print editions of CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly and DC VELOCITY to create this compendium—aptly named IdeaBook 2014.

There’s something for everyone in this unique collection. For example, from the pages of DC VELOCITY, we chose an article that explains how to match the right lift truck with the job at hand, and another about how to prevent damage to pallets in the warehouse and in transit. We’ve included handy tips for ensuring bar-code compliance, as well as suggestions on how to get the best performance from lift truck batteries. The final selection from DC VELOCITY explains the differences between “traditional” reverse logistics and the handling of e-commerce returns.

From CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly, we chose some of the best-read articles from the past two years, including a story on how to segment the supply chain to serve different customers— one of the most popular articles we’ve ever published. Another article provides practical advice on implementing a supplier collaboration program. We’ve also included a story about how to identify the hidden costs of outsourcing. Other timely Supply Chain Quarterly articles offer prescriptions for addressing the human resources issues affecting the third-party logistics industry as well as for identifying and mitigating supply chain risk.

IdeaBook 2014 contains a treasure trove of practical advice. We’re confident you’ll keep this special issue so you can refer to these articles again and again. And because we’ve created it in digital format, you can access it anytime, anywhere on your desktop or via mobile device, including our very popular tablet version for iPad and Android. (Don’t have the tablet version yet? To download the free apps, go to www.dcvelocity.com/mobile and www.supplychainquarterly. com/mobile.)