Topic: Mobile & Wireless

Mobile and wireless technology is making a measurable impact on today’s warehouse & DC operations. Savvy users are going multi-modal, pulling multiple technologies and software capabilities together to increase productivity, cut pick-rate errors, and increase inventory accuracy.

Logistics professionals are certainly moving toward mobile applications to improve overall supply chain operations, but just how fast is it happening? Our technology correspondent gives us a reality check.

Over the past six years, the tortilla manufacturer has rolled out a combination of wireless technologies—from handhelds, to wireless networks, to RFID—to automate transactions, track assets, and manage labor and inventory in its distribution and warehouse operations. Here’s how they made it happen.

A few weeks ago, Congress signed off on extending funding for federal highway and transit funding through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. This multiple month extension was the seventh of its kind, albeit the lengths have differed for each one.

Following last Friday’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami, nearly all Japanese automakers have idled production, owing to either physical damage or rolling blackouts.

A bipartisan group of senators this week has introduced legislation that they said would help to close the country’s widening infrastructure funding gap, serve as a job creator, and enhance U.S. competitiveness. The legislation, drafted by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Mark Warner (D-VA), is entitled the BUILD (the Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for Long-Term Development) Act.

Seven years after the Wal-Mart RFID mandate, the technology is alive and growing in logistics and supply chain operations. While most companies are not attempting to track cases and pallets through an open supply chain—which was the idea back in 2003—a new vision for RFID is taking hold and driving real value for early adopters.

The Panama Canal expansion - expected to be complete by 2014 - has seaports throughout the hemisphere readying for a new competitive landscape. For most, that means offering value-added services designed to move inbound goods faster than ever before. Here’s where the preparations currently stand.

The International Air Transport Association reported full-year 2010 demand statistics for international scheduled air traffic that showed a 20.6 percent increase in freight

Listen to Group Editorial Director Michael Levans, Executive Editor Patrick Burnson, and a panel of leading energy and transportation analysts as they give shippers an updated look at the key drivers behind the increasing transportation rates U.S. logistics professionals will face over the course of 2011.

Company officials said that bringing SofTechnics into the fold, with its portfolio centering on mobility-enabled Store Inventory and Price Management, Intelligent Store Ordering, Direct-Store Delivery and Master Data Management, serves as a “logical extension to RedPrairie’s E2E productivity suite, which focuses on managing end-to-end business processes for myriad sectors in retailing and manufacturing.

The nation’s supply chain may be at risk if new sources of energy are not tapped in the near future, said the American Petroleum Institute

The Port of Seattle Commission authorized the port’s annual budget and plan of finance yesterday, approving nearly $500 million in capital projects and maintaining the agency’s tax levy at $73.5 million.

Following a July announcement stating that ATC Corporation, a provider of logistics and remanufacturing services for the high-tech and automotive services had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by third-party logistics (3PL) services provider Genco Distribution System for $512.6 million, the deal has now been made official.

Global on-demand, software-as-a-service logistics technology provider Descartes said it has acquired privately-held Belgian-based Routing International, a developer and distributor of optimized route planning solutions. Descartes paid for roughly $4.1 million for Routing International and incurred certain transaction expenses.

One of the emerging stories in the RFID market is the convergence of technologies around RFID.

You’ve heard about cloud computing. Get ready for RFID in the cloud.

In an effort to target freight congestion, the Federal Highway Administration in conjunction with the American Transportation Research Institute has developed a Web-based application that will help to identify key traffic chokepoints on some of the busiest roads in the country.

Faced with new FDA record-keeping requirements, Ce De Candy tossed out its manual systems and turned to information technology to collect information and drive new efficiencies across its logistics operation. And the results have been simply delectable.