Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

INBOUND

Food for thought

Supply chain grad students face off in Chick-fil-A “network design” case competition.

First- and second-place contest winners

Any college professor knows it can sometimes be hard to keep students motivated. But with serious prize money at stake, motivation was no problem for a group of supply chain grad students from 18 universities who recently participated in a competition at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth.

Competing for $20,500 in total prize money, the student teams were challenged to design an expanded distribution network for the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A to support growing customer demand in seven Western states. The students were given one day to brainstorm ideas before presenting their recommendations the following day to supply chain executives from major corporations who judged the competition. To help them with their calculations, the teams were provided with geographic information system (GIS) software from event sponsor Esri.


When the dust had settled, the team from Georgia Tech was declared the winner, walking away with $10,000 in prize money and four Apple iPad tablet computers. The second- and third-place finishers,  Brigham Young University and the University of Washington, also took home cash prizes and iPads. “The supply chain executives got to see how they used opportunities to overcome obstacles and pave the way for a successful result,” said Morgan Swink, executive director of the Center for Supply Chain Innovation at the TCU Neeley School of Business, in a release.

The Latest

More Stories

15 candles

When a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 2010, a fledgling humanitarian group knew its day had come—after months of planning, it would finally be able to take its model live and see how well it worked. Formed a year earlier to support humanitarian relief efforts, that group, Airlink, had established a network of airline partners it could call on to provide free or discounted airlift in times of crisis. As it turned out, the model held up in testing. In the weeks following the earthquake, Airlink successfully coordinated the movement of more than 2,000 doctors and nurses and more than 40 shipments of aid totaling more than 500,000 pounds into the disaster zone.

Fifteen years later, the group is still carrying out that mission—but on a much larger scale. Airlink's network today includes over 200 aid organizations and over 50 commercial and charter airlines. Since its inception, the group has flown 13,500 relief workers and transported 18 million pounds of humanitarian cargo, directly helping 60 million people impacted by natural and man-made disasters.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

How risky is your route?

When planning routes for their delivery trucks, fleet managers—or more likely, their route planning software systems—consider factors like mileage, road height and weight restrictions, traffic conditions, and weather. They can now add another variable to the mix, thanks to a new tool that calculates the chances that a load might be stolen along the way.

Developed by New Jersey-based risk assessment firm Verisk Analytics, CargoNet RouteScore API generates a cargo theft "risk score" that provides a relative measure of probability that crime and loss will occur along any given route in the U.S. and Canada. Using a proprietary algorithm, the tool rates routes on a scale from 1 to 100—with 1 representing the lowest likelihood of theft—based on risk factors such as cargo type, value, length of haul, origin, destination, day of the week, and the theft history of specific truck stops.

Keep ReadingShow less

The rise of designer diesel

Drivers typically choose a specific blend of gasoline based on their car's engine, picking high-octane fuel for a sports car and regular gas for the family sedan. Now a company has launched a similar range of products for diesel fuel, saying the offerings are calibrated for vehicles like commercial trucks.

That company, Nevada-based Advanced Refining Concepts LLC (ARC), will launch two new products, GDiesel Lightning and GDiesel Thunder, by mid-year, the company said in January. According to the firm, GDiesel Lightning is a lighter, faster-igniting diesel fuel than the classic mix and is designed specifically for urban start-stop operations—think delivery vehicles, light trucks, city buses, and passenger vehicles. GDiesel Thunder is a heavier, higher energy-content fuel made for steadier and more continuous engine operating modes, making it suitable for long-haul trucking or rail and marine applications.

Keep ReadingShow less
photo of different colored umbrellas

Do you know a Rainmaker?

Know someone who is making a difference in the world of logistics? Then consider nominating that person as one of DC Velocity’s “Rainmakers”—professionals from all facets of the business whose achievements set them apart from the crowd. In the past, they have included practitioners, consultants, academics, vendors, and even military commanders.

To identify these achievers, DC Velocity’s editorial directors work with members of the magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board. The nomination process begins in January and concludes in April with a vote to determine which nominees will be invited to become Rainmakers.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of warehouse vacancy rates

Colliers: warehouse construction rates return to pre-pandemic levels

It’s getting a little easier to find warehouse space in the U.S., as the frantic construction pace of recent years declined to pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2024, in line with rising vacancies, according to a report from real estate firm Colliers.

Those trends played out as the gap between new building supply and tenants’ demand narrowed during 2024, the firm said in its “U.S. Industrial Market Outlook Report / Q4 2024.” By the numbers, developers delivered 400 million square feet for the year, 34% below the record 607 million square feet completed in 2023. And net absorption, a key measure of demand, declined by 27%, to 168 million square feet.

Keep ReadingShow less