Martha Spizziri has been a writer and editor for more than 30 years. She spent 11 years at Logistics Management and was web editor at Modern Materials Handling magazine for five years, starting with the website's launch in 1996. She has long experience in developing and managing Web-based products.
"Off and Running," a song by Lesley Gore, shares a title with our case study on Puma, which begins on p. 34 of our April issue. The second song was "Everything Is Cool," by John Prine—also the title of our case study on craft beer maker Ritual Brewing on p. 50. Steve Davison of Liftec spotted the Prine song for the win this month, so he'll be enjoying some cool iced coffee this summer.
(born Lesley Sue Goldstein) hit number one on the charts right out of the gate with her first single, 1963's Quincy Jones-produced "It's My Party," released when she was only 17 years old. The song set the mold for future hits with a poppy, girl-group sound. She had several more Jones-produced hits throughout the decade, including "Judy's Turn to Cry" (an answer record to "It's My Party"), "You Don't Own Me," and "Maybe I Know." "Off and Running," another Jones production, was a bit more of a rocker than Gore's usual fare. (The British Invasion rock group The Mindbenders played it in the 1967 hit movie To Sir with Love.) Gore's version first appeared as a single in '66 and was included on the 1967 LP California Nights. Around this time, she also ventured into television, making a couple of appearances on the camp classic TV series Batman as Catwoman's sidekick, Pussycat.
But by 1969 her record sales were down and she lost her recording contract. She then started writing songs, both for herself and for others. She and her brother Michael composed music for the 1980 movie Fame, including "Out Here on My Own," which was nominated for an Oscar. (The title song, composed by Michael, won.) Gore played the oldies circuit and did musical theater, including the Broadway show Smokey Joe's Cafe.
In 2004, she guest hosted on a PBS television series about LGBT issues, In the Life. In 2005, she publicly came out on the After Ellen show. That same year, she released her first album in almost 25 years, Ever Since. Songs from the album were used on TV shows such as C.S.I. and The L Word. In 2011, she was a headliner in a Lincoln Center concert called "She's Got the Power." Not long after, she began working on a Broadway show about her life. However, she died in 2015, of lung cancer, before it could be finished.
Singer/songwriter John Prine is known for country/folk songs that often tell wryly humorous stories. He was born in Illinois in 1946. Country music ran in his family; his grandfather played guitar for country star Merle Travis. Prine learned guitar at age 14 from his brother and later took classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. After graduating from high school, he worked as a mailman, then did a stint in the Army, where he sometimes played his guitar to entertain fellow soldiers.
When he got out of the Army, he moved to Chicago and took another job at the U.S. Postal Service. He kept playing music, and writing it too. It wasn't long before friends talked him into performing at an open-mike night at a local club called the Fifth Peg. He began playing at the club regularly, and that's where Sun-Times reporter Roger Ebert saw him and wrote an enthusiastic review. Soon, a friend of Prine's played his music for Kris Kristofferson, which led to the recording of Prine's first, self-titled album.
Prine's songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as
Johnny Cash, Bette Midler, and Paul Westerberg of the Replacements, but up through the 1980s he had no big hits of his own, and his record label dropped him. In response, he went on to form his own label and enjoy increasing success. His 1991 album The Missing Years featured appearances by Tom Petty, Patti Smith, and Bruce Springsteen. It became his most commercially successful album at the time and won a Grammy. It's also the album on which "Everything Is Cool" first appeared.
The following year, Prine branched out into movies. He acted in and wrote music for the film Falling from Grace, directed by fellow musician John Mellencamp. He released three more albums. Then in 1998, he was diagnosed with cancer. The treatment was successful, but it changed his voice, making it lower and more gravelly. That didn't hurt his career, though. The album he released next, In Spite of Ourselves, was a critical success, and he later went on to win two more Grammys, among other awards. Another bout of cancer followed in 2013, also successfully treated. His most recent album is this year's The Tree of Forgiveness.
Get your May-issue responses in by July 1
Answers to our May-issue rock contest are due to dcvrocks@dcvelocity.com by midnight Pacific time on Sunday, July 1. For a hint, turn to page 9 of that issue or the table of contents in our mobile version. If you guess correctly, you'll be entered into our drawing for a three-pack sampler of Joey Kramer's Rockin' & Roastin' Organic Coffee. (Please note: Previous contest winners may not enter for the next three months.)
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.