Manual to Automatic

| Barbara Arnn

RETURNS MEAN TROUBLE and expense at either end of the supply chain, and the larger the business, the larger the potential headache of returns. Just ask

Backed Up

| MCM staff

The holidays are over, and the returns are flooding in. But there are ways to keep those periwinkle turtlenecks from choking your warehouse, says the

Customer Service

| Rama Ramaswami

There’s very little the world can throw at U.S. consumers to keep them from spending money, a reporter for CNN/Money wrote in February 2003. Consumers

Penney Catalog Head Resigns

| MCM staff

Two weeks after being passed over for the position of chairman/CEO of J.C. Penney Corp., Vanessa Castagna, chairman/CEO of the company’s stores, catalog, and Internet, resigned.

Logistics Binge

| MCM staff

Operations may be slender these days, but the conference menu isn’t. Low-carb aficionados will cringe at what attendees consumed at this year’s Council

Weaklings Need Not Apply

| Rama Ramaswami

Stuck with a wimpy logistics manager? Your business is as good as dead if you can’t deliver products properly, warns William Conroy, president of Tyler

Nouveau Niche

| Jeff Siegel

When Barnes & Noble, the national book chain, decided to offer same-day delivery in Manhattan for customers who ordered through its e-commerce site, it

Paradigm Shift

| Barbara Arnn

It’s not a mystery, it’s a sociological fact: Automation engineers have begun to disappear at user companies. According to a new ARC Advisory Group study,

PC Connection Plays Catch Up

| Mark Del Franco

Merrimack, NH-based computer reseller PC Connection suffered a decline in government sales during the past year, but not because of the Iraq war: The