LFS is proud to be Certified™ by Great Place to Work®! This prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at LFS. We consider employee experience a top priority every day and this year, 93% of LFS employees said LFS is a great place to work – 34% points higher than the average U.S. company. We celebrate and thank our employees for all they do to earn this incredible recognition.
Great Place to Work® Certification™ is the most definitive “employer-of-choice” recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience – specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work-Certified.
By: LFS Marketing
August 30, 2021
Navigating the world of shipping can be hugely complex. From finding the right carriers to ensuring that packages are delivered promptly, there are plenty of moving parts that can go wrong. Understanding common shipping pitfalls can significantly aid your company’s shipping strategy and catapult you toward lasting success.
Here are some of this year’s top shipping mistakes to avoid.
A limited number of carriers. There’s no denying that large national carriers can help increase a retailer’s operational efficiency. But when was the last time you evaluated your carrier mix to see which options exist? You’re likely tapping into national carriers for around 80% of your freight volume, but you might have difficulty with the remaining 20%. With 97% of U.S. truckload carriers operating with 20 or fewer trucks, it can be difficult for large carriers to deliver to niche locations.
Companies should evaluate their parcel programs regularly to ensure they’re maximizing capacity, speed, and cost. Carrier diversification and the use of smaller, regional carriers can help you deliver efficiently to remote locations, in addition to ironing out issues surrounding inconsistent demand and short lead times.
Use of a third-party logistics (3PL) provider is an ideal way to begin incorporating multiple carriers into the mix, increasing shipping elasticity and transportation options. You’ll be able to maintain a single relationship with the 3PL while it works directly with national and regional carriers on your behalf.
On-premise or outdated technologies. Advanced technology has infiltrated every industry imaginable, and the shipping industry is no exception. Modern inventory management systems, application programming interfaces (APIs) and other cloud-based systems offer long-term benefits in the logistics and shipping space. Companies today have no choice but to keep up with the pace by leaning on this technology.
If you’re currently using outdated technology or technological systems that don’t communicate with one another, the result could be miscalculated shipping times, inconsistent consumer demand, and automation issues. Such problems ultimately taint consumers’ experience with your brand, potentially discouraging them from placing future orders.
Modern shipping technology can lay a strong foundation in harnessing data, leading to optimized routes, external systems integrations, faster fulfillment, more automated tasks and overall reduced inefficiencies.
Lack of shipping data. From finance to healthcare, big data is an ever-growing part of industry operations. As ships and trucks make deliveries, they provide data that’s aggregated into cloud technology and can be utilized to help shippers adapt quickly to new environments.
Big data in the shipping industry can:
Inaccurate weight or classification. If you classify a single package incorrectly, it isn’t a huge financial loss. But multiply inaccuracies across hundreds of thousands of packages and you’ll quickly realize how expensive this problem can be. Shippers want to send packages as cheaply as possible, but forcing packages into inappropriate weight ranges or classifications will only cost more in the long run.
The choice of the correct weight and speed can also impact the safety of each shipment, as it helps ensure that trucks are properly loaded, with weight evenly distributed throughout. Take the time to accurately weigh shipments and classify them properly for consistent and affordable deliveries.
Wrong shipping addresses. This also results in out-of-pocket costs to the shipper. Even the smallest change in the package’s zip code, state code and the like can have a huge impact on cost, especially if the package is being shipped internationally.
Triple-check that each package is properly addressed, to save money and uphold your brand’s hard-earned reputation.
Peak shipping season is right around the corner. By addressing current weak points in your shipping approach now, you can make for your most successful shipping season yet.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Supply Chain Brain
August 24, 2021
We are proud to announce that LFS has made the prestigious Inc 5000! After a challenging year with the Pandemic and lots of industry changes, we are part of the Inc 5000 list for 2021. The Inc. 5000 is a list of privately held American companies that have recorded immense growth over any given year. Our CEO, Andres Lopera, was interviewed about this achievement and we would like to share some of his thoughts:
How does it feel to be in the Inc. 5000, as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.?
Andres Lopera, LFS´ CEO - “I am extremely grateful since this achievement took place thanks to the great talent we have in our company. I feel that our logistics experts have reached a maturity level, providing great customer service while being detail-oriented. This sets us apart and has allowed us to achieve significant growth”
How have you managed such quick growth in the last few years?
Andres Lopera, LFS´ CEO - “You always feel there is something else to be done, mainly with the multiple technological improvements that are feasible and necessary nowadays. So, I think that having clear blue ocean strategies that improve our process and lead our growth is the key. That along with our focus and persistence are what has helped us reach this great achievement. There is something we are 100% sure of and it is that we don’t want to follow, we want to lead, and each strategic step is to get us closer to this dream.”
What has been the most rewarding part of your journey as a business owner?
Andres Lopera, LFS´ CEO – “I have seen how everyone in the company has overcome and managed big challenges, providing positive results and smiling while sharing learnings with others. I think this is one of the most rewarding feelings a company and a company leader could have. It is not a secret that the logistics industry is very competitive and nowadays there are worldwide limitations, so having a team that looks for solutions with the best attitude is rewarding.”
Now that LFS is part of the Inc 5000 list, what’s next for the company?
Andres Lopera, LFS´ CEO - “The company is investing in digital improvements that will provide a big improvement for shippers and freight forwarders, evolving their logistics process with an easy and friendly platform. They will be able to make better decisions thanks to the insightful information they could get of their shipments and the industry.”
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: LFS Marketing
August 20, 2021
According to Freightwaves:
The National Retail Federation is calling for the start of peak season to kick off with a bang. The group sees imports to the nation’s largest retail container ports increasing 12.6% year-over-year in August to 2.37 million twenty-foot equivalent units, ahead of the recent monthly record established in May of 2.33 million.
“August is the beginning of the ‘peak season,’ when retailers stock up on holiday merchandise each year,” the report stated. “Many retailers are moving up their shipments this year as part of their risk-mitigation strategies to ensure that sufficient inventory will be available during the holidays.”
What happens when the boxes get here remains an issue.
The freight will land on U.S. shores as freight markets enter a second year of unprecedented disruption brought on by record consumer demand and a transportation network suffering from a lack of labor and equipment to fill the need.
“The strain of the continuing economic expansion is putting considerable pressure on the logistics supply chain,” said Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, which works with the NRF to produce the monthly container forecasts. “We’re seeing a lack of shipping capacity combined with port congestion as vessels line up to discharge goods from both Asia and Europe.”
Numbers from the NRF show first-half 2021 imports increased 35.6% year-over-year to 12.8 million TEUs. The first half of 2020 included the peak of demand destruction that was caused by the pandemic, which closed many sectors of the economy for months.
The NRF is calling for a new record in 2021 with full-year imports up 17.5% year-over-year to 25.9 million TEUs. Even with the COVID overhang last year, container imports came in at a record pace, 1.9% ahead of 2019 at 22 million TEUs.
July numbers haven’t been finalized but the expectation is imports increased 15.7% year-over-year to 2.22 million TEUs. September is expected to see a 4.9% year-over-year increase to 2.21 million TEUs. But the tough comps created by last year’s record container landings will be evident during the fourth quarter as imports are expected to decline 3% in October, 1.5% in November and 4.1% in December.
“Delays are stretching to landside as port terminals struggle with space shortages, and labor challenges are affecting ports, railroads and trucking companies alike. This part of the recovery is not a pretty sight,” Hackett added.
Ships waiting longer for berths at ports and delays unloading freight once it’s there are just part of the supply chain headwinds. Once routed inland, container shortages are being exacerbated by slow rail service and labor challenges at shipper facilities, which has resulted in delayed equipment turn times, further pressuring rail service.
“The continuing lack of labor, equipment and capacity has highlighted systemic issues and the need to create a truly 21st century supply chain to ensure resiliency against the next major disruption. Passage of infrastructure legislation currently pending in Congress is a key step in that direction. We need continued focus by the administration to help address these issues as well,” Gold stated.
The recent spate of records set for imported containers have been the highest recorded since the NRF started the dataset in 2002.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Freghtwaves
August 16, 2021
Southern California, presents a very tight availability of Hazmat and Tanker endorsement trucks in Q3 2021, according to DAT Freight analytics. Considering the total number of trucks available in Los Angeles, there are 9.6 loads requests per truck available. Thus, the availability is already limited to consider only the Hazmat and Tanker Endorsement Trucks which are close to 25% of the trucks available. This is the current situation and several reasons support this limited truck availably and price increase in the trucking industry.
1.California has become a key entry point for freight entering the U.S. in the post-COVID-19 market. There is a notable shift in shippers moving freight in through the eastern ports in late 2019, so, they have scrambled to recover lost time and manage inventories in what has become the new normal. According to the Freightos Baltic Index, Maritime spot rates have grown 84% from China to North America’s West Coast over the previous year as maritime carriers have cut capacity in anticipation of a decline in demand. Truckload volumes have grown 19% out of the Los Angeles market year-over-year (y/y), while domestic intermodal volumes have also increased 10% over the previous year.
2.The high increase in the Spot Market Loads and Van Rates (Spot) from Jun 2021 vs June 2020, when the rise of the Spot Market Loads was 101.5% and for Van Rate (Spot) was 47.1% showing a saturated market with new loads that were out of the radar and change the behavior of the market, impacting the pricing.
3.The rise of Fuel Prices in the US, especially in California. Comparing Aug 2021 vs Aug 2020, the fuel price has increased by $0.943 per gallon, reaching a price of $4.271 per gallon. This price is highly superior to the average fuel price in the U.S. which is $3.367 per gallon. This means that there was a general fuel price increase in The U.S. but specifically, California is one of the States with the highest fuel price increase, making more expensive the transportation services from this State
4.The truck availability is affected by the double brokering. Double brokering is the unauthorized re-brokering of a load to another trucking company and this situation has taken place in California reducing hundreds of possible carrier companies that can work for LFS. Here at LFS, we request specific information to verify the carrier company and provide qualified carriers for our customers. However, this impacts our truck availability and may affect the pricing as well.
More detailed information can be found in Freightwaves as a source of global freight news.
This California Freight Market Analysis: Q3, 2021 is built considering two sources: DAT Freight & Analytics and Freightwaves to keep you updated about the latest news and market trends. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: LFS Marketing
August 16, 2021
According to Freightwaves:
A bipartisan group of senators negotiating with President Joe Biden boosted new funding for highway and port infrastructure each by $1 billion from an initial framework announced in June, according to a new fact sheet released by the White House.
The “Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal” announced on Wednesday increases new funds for roads, bridges and major projects from $109 to $110 billion, with port infrastructure investment increasing from $16 billion to $17 billion.
The $550 billion in total new funding in the package dropped by $29 billion from the $579 billion June framework, with $10 billion of the decrease shaved off public transit, which was cut from $49 billion to $39 billion.
The $110 billion in surface investments included in the package, which would reauthorize the surface transportation program for the next five years, includes $40 billion of new funding for bridge repair, replacement and rehabilitation — “the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system,” according to the fact sheet. It also includes $17.5 billion for major projects “too large or complex for traditional funding programs.”
The deal invests $66 billion in rail to eliminate the Amtrak maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor, and bring world-class rail service to areas outside the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Within these totals, $22 billion would be provided as grants to Amtrak, $24 billion as federal-state partnership grants for Northeast Corridor modernization, $12 billion for partnership grants for intercity rail service, including high-speed rail, $5 billion for rail improvement and safety grants, and $3 billion for grade crossing safety improvements.
The bipartisan bill also invests $7.5 billion to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers to help accelerate the adoption of EVs.
“The bill will provide funding for deployment of EV chargers along highway corridors to facilitate long-distance travel and within communities to provide convenient charging where people live, work, and shop,” according to the plan. “Federal funding will have a particular focus on rural, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach communities.”
Biden proposes to pay for the deal through a combination of corporate user fees, tax enforcement on crypto currencies and redirection of unspent emergency relief funds, but those funding measures have yet to be agreed on. Shortly after the deal was announced, Senate lawmakers voted to begin considering the bill.
A prominent safety group said the bipartisan package falls short of the Democrats’ INVEST in America Act, which passed the House earlier this month along party lines and included $343 billion for roads, bridges and highway safety programs.
“In its current form, the bill not only falls short, it also disrupts the historical precedent of substantial safety strides being incorporated in major infrastructure bills,” said Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“Without a course correction, an estimated 183,000 people will be needlessly killed and 14 million more injured over the next five years. The comprehensive costs of motor vehicle crashes during the same period is expected to be more than $5 trillion.”
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Freightwaves
August 4, 2021
According to Freightwaves:
Canada is beginning to reopen its borders for nonessential travel after a 16-month shutdown in response to COVID-19. Starting Aug. 9, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents can enter the country.
Even though trade has been exempt from the restrictions — allowing trucks to move freely between Canada and the U.S. — the reopening of the border still has significant implications for freight. And not just because more congestion and wait times will undoubtedly accompany the return of passenger traffic.
It stands to be a big driver for freight demand.
“The opening of the border will be a boon for the transportation and logistics industries as a whole,” said Peter Stefanovich, managing partner at Left Lane Associates, a Toronto transportation mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.
It will come from an expected influx of visitors from the U.S. Ahead of the pandemic, in 2019, 25 million U.S. residents visited Canada, including 15 million tourists, according to Statistics Canada.
Just how fast they’ll return remains to be seen. But they will be spending money at restaurants, hotels and events. And that spending will drive demand for freight, Stefanovich said.
Visitors from other countries will be allowed to come to Canada in September, adding to the momentum.
In short, it will drive demand in the hospitality sector, which has struggled from the absence of foreign visitors. The only challenge may be to secure capacity in big markets like Toronto, particularly for temperature-controlled freight.
For now, the United States is keeping its land border closed for nonessential travel. But when it does open, U.S. border communities will undoubtedly see the welcome return of Canadians and their penchant for cross-border shopping, in search of deals on everything from milk to shoes.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Freightwaves
February 8, 2021
According to Safety+Health:
Law enforcement officers will target speeding and other unsafe driving behaviors during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week, slated for July 11-17.
They’ll be on the lookout for passenger and commercial motor vehicle drivers following too closely, driving distracted, making improper lane changes, failing to use a seat belt and driving while impaired.
Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council show that, in 2020, the rate of motor vehicle deaths in the United States climbed 24% compared with the previous year, even as the estimated total number of miles driven fell 13%.
During last year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, citations and warnings related to speeding were most common among both groups of drivers: CMV drivers were given 2,339 citations and 3,423 warnings, while passenger vehicle drivers received 14,378 citations and 11,456 warnings.
“Data shows that traffic stops and interactions with law enforcement help reduce problematic driving behaviors,” CVSA President John Samis said in a press release. “By making contact with drivers during Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement personnel aim to make our roadways safer by targeting high-risk driving behaviors.”
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Safety+Health
December 7, 2021
According to TTnews:
Trucking and oil industry experts are warning of possible delays in fuel deliveries during the peak of the summer driving season as the pinch from the driver shortage — particularly among tanker truck drivers — could slow down service to fueling stations.
“We’ve been worried since May that the one issue that will rear its head in July and August would be the difficulty of getting the fuel from the petroleum terminals the last miles — the last 60 miles to the stations,” Oil Price Information Service Founder and industry analyst Tom Kloza told Transport Topics. “We’ve only had cases — where there have been outages — where it’s been, maybe, someone is out of unleaded for six or 12 hours, but the driver shortage is real.”
Kloza said tank truck companies have enough equipment to move fuel to fueling stations, but industry officials tell him the sector is short about 16% of the drivers it needs on a day-to-day basis to keep stations supplied.
Kloza said he worries that if a station is without fuel for just a few hours, the news could spread through social media and lead to panic buying like that seen in the aftermath of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. After suspected Russian hackers on May 7 took control of the computer network that ran that company’s pipeline — which supplies gasoline and diesel shipments along the East Coast — panic buying of fuel set in.
“I see a huge swath of the American public that’s prone to apoplexy this year,” Kloza said. “I’m not predicting widespread outages — it’s transitory — but what will the reaction be? Predicting human behavior is impossible.”
A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said gasoline demand is virtually identical to what it was during the same period of 2019, but is up 16% from the end of 2020 when many Americans were still staying home amid the pandemic.
The increased demand for fuel is coming at a time when the price of both gasoline and diesel continues going up. According to the EIA, gasoline averages $3.06 a gallon nationwide, up 93 cents from a year ago. Diesel averaged $3.29 per gallon on June 21, 86 cents higher than a year ago.
American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello noted that many tanker companies laid off drivers last year as the economy plunged into recession and fuel demand plummeted. Now demand is picking up and those companies are hiring again.
“Gas stations weren’t taking nearly as much fuel, and tank truck companies laid off drivers a year ago. Now, you don’t just flip a switch and say, ‘Hey we’re back.’ They have to rehire and train these drivers,” Costello said. “It takes a lot of training. It’s one thing to drive a truck, but it’s another thing to put the fuel in the tank.”
Ryan Streblow, the new president and CEO of the National Tank Truck Carriers, said his group is facing several challenges with getting new drivers into the industry. He cites the COVID-19 pandemic and an associated rash of retirements, pandemic-related closures of state departments of motor vehicles that slowed the flow of new drivers, restrictions on driving schools and additional hazmat qualifications that tank truck drivers need before being allowed to deliver fuel or chemicals.
“Families going on vacation, volleyball tournaments, camping, baseball tournaments — the demand is there. We just don’t have the available resources to move that commodity from point A to point B,” Streblow said. “It extends well beyond fuel. Our chemical haulers, our food grade, our dry bulk aggregate — they’re all in the same boat, searching for qualified drivers. We do believe this is an issue we are going to be battling for some time.”
Streblow said between 10% and 25% of tanker trucks are idled because of the driver shortage.
Wharton, N.J.-based Carbon Express is a liquid bulk carrier that transports fuel and other commodities. CEO Steve Rush told TT the driver shortage in the tanker industry is a very difficult challenge, and noted his company has raised driver pay numerous times recently to keep and attract drivers. Rush said his company pays drivers by the hour plus bonuses — instead of by mileage — and this has boosted their overall pay and kept his driver turnover rate in single digits. He said many of his drivers are making more than $95,000 a year.
“Pay them by the hour. It’s not what you pay, it’s how you pay,” Rush said. “The driver shortage is awful. The competition for drivers is intense. We know what’s going on.”
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: TTnews
December 7, 2021
According to Frobes:
2020 exposed the cybersecurity industry’s fundamental data problem. For years, cybersecurity was thought of as a problem only for the technology sector. However, as industries spanning education to government accelerated digital transformation with a focus on remote workforces, the data these organizations generated increased — and thus, so did the opportunity for cyberattacks.
In the last few weeks, we saw hackers target everything from a computer system at a Tampa, Florida, water facility and an entire county’s public school system in Baltimore, Maryland, to a medical center in Burlington, Vermont.
While there are certainly many lessons we can learn from these recent examples, one thing is clear: the way we think about cybersecurity must change.
Prioritizing The Security Of Our Supply Chains
When adding a new piece of software to an organization's network, very often we overlook the risk and security maturity that software carries. This may not seem like a huge oversight, but keep in mind most software vendors still view security as a liability, and they will do the bare minimum to be secure. In today’s cybersecurity landscape, are you comfortable only having the bare minimum protection? We didn’t think so.
To keep your organization secure, it’s imperative to take the security of your supply chain into your own hands. Ask yourself the following: Do you know every Chrome extension your employees download on their laptops that could possibly be opening your network up to unwanted exposure? To keep your supply chains secure, it’s important to embrace a “zero trust” security philosophy in which device, cloud and identity layers are closely controlled. Ensuring devices are protected with predictive and AI-powered technologies, coupled with a powerful visibility layer, is the bedrock of securing an organization's data.
Shifting Our Perception Of Ransomware From “If” To “When”
In 2020, a company was hit with a ransomware attack every 11 seconds. And the costs from these attacks are expected to reach around $20 billion by 2021.
We need to shift our mentality from what we should do if ransomware infiltrates our networks to what we should do when ransomware infiltrates our networks. To catch ransomware early on, it’s imperative to understand everything that is on your network. While that might seem daunting, AI-powered technology can help organizations fingerprint and profile devices across the network to not only enable complete visibility, but they can also help identify weak links and minimize risk over time. By understanding what’s on your network, your security team will be better equipped to identify malware and ransomware binaries before they have the opportunity to wreak havoc and stop the attack before it ever occurs.
Going Beyond Legacy Technologies
Legacy antivirus solutions simply haven’t kept up with the rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape. Most legacy solutions only rely on scanning files to detect known attacks, which makes them extremely vulnerable to new attack techniques. While standard vendors only look for the known — a known hash, IP address, vulnerability or behavior — next-generation technologies go a step above, providing organizations complete visibility into all activity across the network.
Once upon a time, signature detections might have been “good enough,” but today, any solution that doesn’t encompass behavioral AI and machine learning will be easily outwitted by attackers in seconds. With ransomware, phishing and malware all on the rise, the modern enterprise needs a modern solution.
2020’s cyberattacks taught us that hackers' techniques are advancing at an alarming rate. Security can no longer be viewed as a liability, but instead must be viewed as essential infrastructure. We must embrace technology to bolster our security efforts, which isn't nearly as daunting as it sounds. To begin, it can be helpful to catalog the capabilities your organization needs new technology to address — those that were overlooked by the old. From there, it can be as simple as mapping those capabilities to current processes, procedures or workbooks that need to be updated and selecting the new technology that maps to the capabilities you’ve listed.
We must do better and prioritize security together. Adapting our views on enterprise security will enable us to take on cybercriminals head-on and, hopefully, be in the position to beat them at their own game — especially on the day your organization is under attack.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Forbes
June 25, 2021
According to Supply Chain Dive:
Dive Brief:
- Recent data from the American Forest and Paper Association suggests the containerboard industry is producing close to full capacity, as the operating rate for containerboard companies was 98.4% in March (up 2.8% YoY), according to a statement from Terry Webber, the association's executive director of packaging.
- As production ramps up, corrugated packaging manufacturers, such as WestRock, are raising prices. During the company's Q2 earnings call, Ward Dickson, WestRock's executive vice president and CFO, said the "implementation of these price increases and improved business mix drove $88 million in year-over-year earnings improvement."
- The index measuring cardboard prices increased to 369.4 in May, compared to 342.1 for the same month in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Producer Price Index for corrugated and solid fiber box manufacturing. Prices shot up during the first half of 2021, after remaining fairly flat in 2020 despite an uptick in demand.
The PPI for for corrugated and solid box manufacturing shot up
The Producer Price Index for primary products related to corrugated and solid fiber box manufacturing, since Jan. 2019.
Chart: Edwin Lopez / Supply Chain Dive Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Get the data Created with Datawrapper
Dive Insight:
Although American Forest and Paper Association found that containerboard production increased 9% in March compared to March 2020, the boost in supply was not enough to keep prices from going up this month.
Rising containerboard prices could be a threat to companies that rely on packaging to deliver goods ordered online to their customers. If prices continue to shoot up, companies will have to pay even more for shipping boxes and figure a way to balance out the additional cost. That could mean setting higher prices to absorb the increase.
"Boxes are the most widely used packaging for e-commerce shipments," Webber said. And to meet the rising demand, manufacturers have "steadily increased over the last decade" by expanding capacity by 14% between 2010 and 2019, he added.
Manufacturers are now operating at almost full tilt. Many investments are geared toward recovering product fibers for reusable packaging to secure supply.
"Boxes are ... the most recycled packaging in the United States providing a versatile and sustainable packaging solution for retailers and consumers alike," Webber said.
American Forest and Paper Association expects the industry's capacity expansion to continue with billions in investments lined up through 2023.
This story was first published in our weekly newsletter, Supply Chain Dive: Procurement. Sign up here.
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At LFS, we provide tailor-made logistics solutions to manufacturers, distributors, importers, and exporters across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are a 3PL company lead by a team of experts who will help you evolve your logistics through advanced technological platforms, providing you great efficiency, cost savings, and delivery speed in every shipment.
LFS keeps you updated with the latest news, if you need additional information about our freight shipping solutions, contact us or follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
For cargo insurance experts, please contact Skholl, our partner to avoid any freight damage.
By: Supply Chain Dive
June 25, 2021
According to Supply Chain 247:
Time to Modernize Supply Chain Design
In light of the dramatic changes that supply chains have undergone over the last 20 years, companies need new, innovative approaches to supply chain design that shifts the focus from cost-minimization toward value creation.
And the design process must mature to capture the complexity, volatility, and uncertainty of the competitive environment in which modern supply chains operate.
These challenges can be met with the support of advanced methods that combine the power of analytical models with the implicit knowledge of expert human-decision makers.
The new approach improves decision-making transparency, enriches design solutions, and reflects the real-life challenges that companies now face.
A New Supply Chain Environment
The field of supply chain design is rooted in conventions developed through studies carried out in the 1990s. These studies primarily focused on the physical configuration of supply chains, such as facility location and customer allocation decisions. Supply chains were designed to minimize costs such as those associated with facilities, warehousing, and transportation.
Also, in the conventional approach, the design of a supply chain is typically reviewed once every few years; these exercises are rarely linked with tactical planning decisions.
Such conventions are no longer adequate. The competitive environment in which firms operate has changed over the last two decades. During this time, the acronym VUCA has been employed to describe the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of business conditions.
Today, operating in a VUCA environment is no longer the exception but the reality to which companies must adapt daily. Globalization, multi-outsourcing, and the proliferation of brands are driving the structural and organizational complexity of contemporary supply chains. Increasing economic and political volatility creates uncertainties on the demand and supply side of global operations.
Furthermore, new models such as omnichannel retailing and shifting customer expectations in terms of service responsiveness and flexibility are radically changing the way we think about supply chain design. As supply chains have become a major competitive differentiator, design has moved center stage in the development of corporate strategy.
Traditional supply chain design approaches fail to capture these realities in several ways.
First, conventional methods fail to capture the complexity of contemporary supply chains. The decisions that underpin these designs were historically constrained by limits on computational power and data availability. Also, traditional design processes rarely incorporate factors such as demand uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, and multi-channel distribution.
Second, the focus on cost minimization is outdated. Traditional approaches mainly focus on decreasing the logistics costs under a given demand, which often results in the use of centralized facilities in areas with low real estate costs. Today, proximity to the end customer and delivery speed are major drivers of competitive advantage.
Consequently, when deciding on the deployment of logistics assets, companies must consider aspects of revenue management. Design approaches need to implicitly consider trade-offs between the ability to capture additional revenue by meeting customers’ increasing delivery expectations and the need to keep fulfillment costs under control.
Third, given the highly volatile and uncertain conditions that now prevail, success in contemporary markets requires decision-making agility and speed. As a result, supply chain design must be evaluated much more frequently than before. Thus, supply chain design must become an ongoing process that involves continuous updates of the variables and methods used, rather than one-shot exercises carried out every few years.
And fourth, in addition to these changes, in recent years there have been significant advances in data science and a massive increase in the amount of data available to supply chain professionals. Data analytics and machine learning tools make the structure and performance of complex supply chains more visible
Furthermore, advanced network science methods enable companies to characterize the complexity of relationships between multiple suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
A Supply Chain Fresh Approach
With the benefit of these developments, traditional optimization and simulation models can be extended to include more information and complexity. Consider, for example, a network design study carried out recently by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) for a major e-tailer that looked at multiple sales channels. The study explored the integration of direct sales and third-party flows as well as multiple distribution channels with deliveries to customers or traditional stores. Additionally, multiple delivery services, including same-day and instant delivery and customer and transport infrastructure information at the level of each neighborhood, were part of the study.
The shift toward value creation also extends supply chain, design models. In addition to traditional decisions such as the number, location, and size of facilities, models can now incorporate go-to-market decisions including distribution channels, tactical asset deployment, and operation governance rules.
Importantly, studies no longer need to be confined to decision-makers within logistics and the supply chain function; executives from strategy, finance, sales, and marketing can now participate in design projects, bringing a level of cross-functional collaboration that is rare in traditional modeling exercises.
The ability to include other disciplines in the design process is a hugely significant development that will enrich supply chain designs and make companies more responsive to an ever-changing competitive environment.
For example, in a project carried out recently in MIT CTL’s CAVE Lab, a team of executives from a leading manufacturer modeled iterations of a supply chain design. Participants from various disciplines, including logistics, finance, sales, and marketing, worked jointly on defining key features of the design.
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The exercise revealed that increasing the density of warehouse and asset deployment throughout the United States enabled the company to increase its market share significantly. This increased revenue more than compensated for the additional logistics costs incurred. Direct engagement of sales and marketing executives in the design process injected critical knowledge of market conditions. The co-design event was essentially a sales and operations planning exercise at a strategic level, quickly aligning intuition and accelerating the market response.
Given the central role that supply chain design now plays in corporate strategy, the modeling process must reflect the corporate goals of each company and the decisions needed to implement design changes. This level of specificity requires a shift from generic supply chain design solutions to a highly customized approach. Rapid prototyping and software development enables companies to implement tailor-made design solutions at a lower cost and update them more frequently.
Supply Chain Visualization Adds Value
