Welcome to the Fortna Library

Fortna is proud to provide thought leadership that will enhance the supply chain community's scope and understanding of business issues. 

Most Recent Topics: 

Based on a year-over-year analysis, the Fortna Customer Group has built superior customer strength over Non-Fortna Customers of 15% and 13.2% on average over the past three and five years respectively.  This growth parallels the 2007 expansion of Fortna's supply chain service offerings. 

State of the Retail Supply Chain - Results and Findings of the 2009 Study - RILA and Auburn University's annual study of the State of the Retail Supply Chain brings together the country's leading retailers to delve into the year's current trends, leading practices and key issues that will have the greatest impact on strategy and planning for retail supply chain executives now and in the near future. 

Learn about the key characteristics of today's best-in-class retail supply chains and how they are building competitive advantage.

Building a Business Case for your Materials Handling System Investment - Your business case must be logical, credible, and presented in terms that are important and appealing to executive stakeholders.  This white paper outlines the components you need to consider.

Dynamic Labor Balancing Optimizes Order Fulfillment in a Waveless Environment - This article focuses on how a distribution center ultimately in the business of shipping orders.  You can't just focus on how fast you pick, pack, build pallets, or sort.  You have to look at how quickly and accurately you can process a complete order.    

Integrated Delivery Model - A Faster, Easier, Better Approach - This paper explores the external partner sourcing strategy of a cross-functional, supply chain project from strategy through implementation.  The tenet behind this paper is that external service providers with an "integrated delivery model" provide supply chain leaders with an opportunity to more effectively manage the time, cost and risk of such projects.  These partners have the skills and experience to lead and integrate the lion's share of cross-functional responsibilities throughout the project.  And, their approach guards against siloed, functionally focused communication and accountability, which is symptomatic of a poorly executed project.  In essence, the integrated delivery model offers a faster, easier and better approach. 

A Holistic Approach to Improving Distribution Operations

Seven Keys to Organizational Excellence

Flow Path Design

The Truth About the 2009 Parcel Carrier General Rate Increase

Fox Racing Slashes Labor Cost & Improves Order Process Time

Optimizing Picking Performance

ERP vs. WMS

Profiling vs. Slotting

Supply Chain Design

Keys to Supply Chain Competitive Advantage

Designing a Superior Distribution Network

Purchasing Pallet Rack as a Commodity

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Tips on Optimizing Current Supply Chain Investments

We invite you to read Fortna's newest white paper that outlines proven strategies for tactical / within the four walls plus strategic / outside the four walls improvements.  In this interview conducted at the 2010 WERC Annual Conference, you will learn proven tips for assessing your operations for low hanging fruit, strategies to analyze your supply chain network and a roadmap for organizational excellence that can help reduce costs, increase productivity and enhance customer service.

Keys to Successful Supply Chain Transformation

Major business transformations are notorious for not delivering on the original intent of the change, and supply chain programs are not immune to these challenges.  Riddled with cost and schedule overruns, critical projects often miss delivery results, negatively impact service, and directly affect profits.  

This white paper delves into the specific approaches, issues, and challenges of three companies (names are withheld to protect the wounded) that implemented large-scale, business transforming programs. 

The Secrets of Applying Lean Principles to Distribution Operations - Lean has commonly been applied to manufacturing.  Learn how these same lean principles can be applied to distribution operations.

In 2007, a major US big box retailer implemented "lean" across it's network of distribution centers.  Within a year, and coupled with a full labor management implementation, the retail realized $1 million in savings at each facility - and annually thereafter.  Impressive - but not uncommon.

2009 wRatings Report on Most Competitive Retail and Industrial Companies

- Independent competitive research firm, wRatings Corporation recently completed a report stating that companies partnering with Fortna over the past ten years have out performed their direct industry peers in terms of economic profit and customer advantages.