short takes
Plug and Play? Not yet, although retailers wish they could. Ideally, a customer would be able to buy anything from anywhere – a brick-and-mortar store,
Run for Cover
Everyone knows that customer service stinks. The press gleefully offers up statistics about the thousands of e-mails that go unanswered, the multitudes
short takes
Steppin’ Out You can never be too rich or too thin – or, it seems, outsource too much. For those who believed the fad would pass, a new report, “Outsourcing
MANUAL LABOR
In most distribution facilities, `hands-on’ means just that, and labor retention is more urgent than technology upgrades. The results of our comprehensive
short takes
When Worlds Collide If you’re at all involved in e-commerce, chances are that you’ll need to negotiate with foreign customers or set up operations abroad
The Inner Child
As I began writing what was going to be an editorial on management style, I came across an article in The Industry Standard (Oct. 30) reporting that dot.com
MICHAEL B. BARRETT
What got you started in distribution?My family ran cut-and-sew factories, and I started working there when I was 15, cleaning toilets and working summers.
Outward Bound
Every April, it’s travel time for the editors of Operations & Fulfillment. That’s when we scurry around the country visiting five trade shows in four
introduction
Then and Now As we enter the second millennium, it is fitting to dust off an old classic: Fenvessy on Fulfillment: The Catalog Executive’s Guide, a manual
short takes
Customers First Like just about every other industry today, the third-party logistics (3PL) business has become keenly aware of the importance of keeping