State of the logistics in the U.S.

Filed in archive General on July 2, 2008

Bob Ferrari has written a piece recently in his blog on key takaways from 19th Annual State of Logistics Report sponsored by Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). I found his insights very interesting and decided to bring some of them here for you to read:

- As expected, increased globalization has led to quantified evidence of increased logistics and inventory costs. While investments in business process and technology continue to help in managing overall business agility and efficiency, economic trends and uncertain global forces again threaten to unravel these gains.

- As a result of unprecedented changes in the cost of energy and other economic factors, the U.S. has begun to experience structural change in overall logistical capacity, the effects of which are yet to play out.

- That despite a ten year track record of significant progress, difficult challenges lie ahead for the collective supply chain community, as well as industry and government.

- During 2007, the overall cost of U.S. logistics increased from $91 billion to $1.4 trillion, or the equivalent of 10.1 percent of GDP. As a reference point, the U.S. economy only grew by 2.2 percent in 2007. This was the first time since 2000 that overall logistics costs surpassed ten percent, and almost half-way into 2008, indicators point to overall logistics costs claiming a bigger portion of GDP.