KANE’s new Chief Operating Officer is Richard McDuffie, a 30-year logistics industry veteran with a strong track record of driving operational excellence in logistics across the retail, manufacturing and 3PL industries. We recently sat down with Richard to discuss some of the changes he has seen in the industry over the years and what the future might hold.

If you were contracting for home renovation work, you might deal with a single general contractor to coordinate the project. But you’d like to feel confident that the people actually laying the tile, putting up the drywall, and attaching the plumbing fixtures have the experience and training to do a quality job. 

The same holds true for the use of temporary labor for warehouse staffing. As a user of third-party logistics (3PL) services, you want to understand how your 3PL utilizes temporary labor and how that might impact work quality.

KANE’s new Chief Commercial Office is Stan Schrader, a 35-year logistics industry veteran with a strong background in building and scaling successful logistics sales organizations.  We recently sat down with Stan to discuss some of the changes he has seen in the industry over the years and where he sees the greatest opportunity.

Distribution network optimization has become a white-hot topic these days as “the Amazon effect” leads businesses to evaluate how quickly they can get products to customers. 

Warehouse optimization modeling exercises examine the upside of being closer to customers versus the downside of carrying more inventory in more locations.  The biggest mistake companies make in this area is relying too much on the modeling software itself to provide an answer to the question: “How many warehouses should I have and where should they be?”

AIB International, formerly the American Institute for Baking, was founded in 1919 to “put science to work for bakers.” Since then, AIB has grown into one of the world’s foremost training organizations on food safety, setting AIB standards for quality and safety.

Owner-operators are freedom-loving entrepreneurs. They own their trucks and want to earn a good living, while remaining independent. Some may choose to hunt profitable freight on load boards, while others align with carriers to provide dedicated capacity. 

In recent months, Kane Freight Lines has had an increasing number of inquiries from drivers seeking owner-operator trucking jobs. That’s because currently, in the spot market, load-to-truck ratios are down and rates are down. The owner operators who rely on load boards are working hard to find profitable driving opportunities. Two-way freight would help, but that’s nearly impossible to find in the spot market. And, if you get it, the rates will need to be dirt cheap. 

Lean warehousing quality improvement programs have driven billions of dollars’ worth of value across corporate supply chains. They are the road map to faster, better and cheaper. But, if you’re not careful, these programs can become weighed down with bureaucracy, adding time and cost to your quality improvement efforts.

Listen. React.

Listen. React. 

Listen. React.

These two words summarize the day of many customer service representatives (CSRs) across the world.