2012 Supply Chain Innovation Awards

2012 Supply Chain Innovation Awards Innovation of the Year: Reduced Transportation Costs Through Railcar Co-Loading.

Note the techniques used to reduce cost and improve service by supply chain managers.

The Price of Mis-aligning Supply-Chain and Plant Performance

The Price of Mis-aligning Supply-Chain and Plant Performance.

This discussion and video from Supplychainbrain indicates that as complexity of supply chains increases, it is more necessary than ever to synchronize the goals of the partners with common measurements, and a common understanding of the measures!  I think many companies, especially smaller ones, fail to look at the relation between manufacturing and distribution closely enough. It’s hard, because it needs cooperation between departments that often don’t talk, and between the company and suppliers of transport and other services that don’t talk. There can also be mixed signals sent from within the same company. I saw this frequently when I was in the manufacturing and distribution businesses years ago in Silicon Valley.  I’m not sure it is much better today.

There’s a video, but you may not be able to see it without registering (free).

2013 Freight Rail Outlook

2013 Freight Rail Outlook: The challenge of change | Railway Age.

Rail is positioned for growth in 2013, according to Railway Age. However there are some problems.

There is an interesting discussion of the problems facing Canadian Pacific, the worst performing Class I railroad from an operations standpoint.   A new CEO has a lot of work to do.