This is a topic I think about at least twice a year, so this is not my first pass at it. What motivates me the most is the “speed of change” we find ourselves in and the need to adopt the most useful metrics. 

In the March 2024 issue of my monthly newsletter, “MCA Talk,” I began to address the question of remaining relevant...

Over the past few years, and especially during the COVID-19 era, we all heard so much about every “new normal,” terms such as “transformation,” “re-invention,” “rapid change,” “disruption,” “turbulence,” and the like. And, of course, the lack of new technology adoption by many companies.

If you’re a business owner (actually, you don’t even need to be an owner), the path to profitability includes you. Why?

This column is focused on push vs. pull supply chains.

This past summer, while visiting a wholesale distributor’s distribution center (DC), I watched receiving personnel spend an afternoon unloading boxes from a tractor-trailer in nearly 100 F heat.

In Part 1, I posited that innovation is something completely new or different being introduced that changes the marketplace — it’s one and done. 

Research suggests that people react negatively to the word innovation. Some companies seem to be finding that using other terms helps employees engage more with the process.

The use of robots is quickly evolving, especially in distribution-focused operations. 

In Part 1 of this column we examined the concept of just-in-time inventory management amid major supply-chain disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the devasting effects of last year’s Winter Storm Uri