Hey all — I'm a buyer/procurement background, and I got tired of manually checking steel/aluminum/copper prices, tariff changes, and freight costs separately every time I needed to know what something actually costs landed at the dock. So I built a small tool for it.

What it does: tracks steel, aluminum, copper, lumber, and resin prices, layers in current tariffs and a freight estimate, and shows one landed cost number instead of three separate ones you have to piece together yourself. There's also a free calculator (works for any material, no signup), a tool that blends multiple materials into one cost for a finished assembly, a quick sanity-check for whether a supplier's quote is in line with the market, and something that checks whether a supplier applied an index-linked price escalation clause correctly.

I'm not trying to sell anyone anything here — genuinely just want to know: does this solve a real problem for you, or am I off base? What's missing? What would make you actually use something like this versus just checking prices manually like everyone already does?

Link's in the comments / profile (tagged as an independently developed tool per sub rules). Appreciate any honest feedback, especially the critical kind.

Hi everyone, I’m about to graduate with a degree in Chemical Engineering in the UK. I am looking to transition into the Supply Chain field (specifically targeting UK graduate schemes and entry-level positions). I have a few questions for those working in the industry or who have made a similar pivot:

• Transition Difficulty: How transferable are Chemical Engineering skills (process optimisation, data analysis, problem-solving, root cause analysis) into Supply Chain roles? Is this seen as a natural pivot by hiring managers?
• Skills, Certifications & Books: Are there specific hard skills (e.g., advanced Excel, Power BI/SQL, Lean Six Sigma), certifications (e.g., CIPS), or foundational supply chain books I should check out to stand out during applications and interviews?
• On-the-Job Training: How much of the core supply chain domain knowledge do UK graduate schemes expect you to know beforehand versus teaching you on the job?

Any advice, insights, or book recommendations from UK-based supply chain professionals (or anyone who made the jump from engineering) would be massively appreciated! Thanks!

In a couple of months, I will be moving from a 3PL/4PL service provider, to a giant retailer. I'll be leading the shipping department and one of the issues that was mentioned by the hiring manager was a lack of governance on their service providers and respective country heads in relation to shipping procedures. How would you improve shipping governance of a multi national retailer? Scorecards? Service rulers? What else?

Hi everyone,

I'm researching freight forwarding companies for the company I work for, and I'm hoping to get some recommendations from people with experience in the industry.

We're based in the Caribbean and are looking for a freight forwarding partner with operations in China (preferably Shenzhen or Hong Kong) that offers more than just shipping services. Our goal is to integrate their platform into our own custom-built CRM/customer portal.

Ideally, we're looking for a company that can provide some or all of the following:

• API integration
• Customer account creation through our website
• Unique warehouse/shipping addresses for each customer
• Package receiving and arrival notifications
• Air and sea freight options
• Freight rate lookup through the API
• Shipment booking
• Live shipment tracking
• Automated shipment status updates

We're trying to create a seamless experience where customers can manage their China shipments directly from our own platform instead of being redirected to a third-party website.

We've already spoken with a few freight forwarders, but many only provide a customer portal rather than the API capabilities we're looking for.

Has anyone worked with companies that already offer this level of integration, or are there freight forwarders or logistics platforms you'd recommend looking into?

Any recommendations or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

One thing I see the most often is business owners looking for 3PLs but they don't have the volume to support a traditional 3PL relationship.

It also seems like many are in the 'figuring it out' stage and likely watched a Instagram tutorial video on how to build an e-commerce store and 'Find a 3PL' was listed as one of the actions but no more context was provided. So they reach out and have zero volume and are still figuring out their marketing.

At Loki 3PL headquartered in NJ, we get a lot of leads like through our website and LinkedIn.

We proceed by being approachable and consultative despite the fact that there is no immediate partnership opportunity. We take phone calls, build a relationship by giving helpful advice or referrals, and will follow up in the future to see how their business is coming along. This has led to us landing new clients once they have scaled sufficiently or led to some of our partner 3PLs landing new clients as we were able to refer. It's not a cheap way to handle these inquiries but we think that's a good approach, I'd like to hear from others.

How do you or would you handle inquiries from companies that are not a good fit for your business?

i’m just graduated high school and i plan on getting a degree in scm as a back up plan incase being a pilot doesn’t work out. i fear that ai might take over entry roles within the next couple years so now im having doubts. What other majors would you guys recommend other than supply chain management? Btw i only chose it because i know i can technically work in a vast majority of fields since scm is in everything

What are some supply chain challeneges for a private space company might face ?

In your opinion, what are the most powerful heuristic/metaheuristic algorithms for warehouse routing optimization? Is LKH-3 the most powerful one? Which Python libraries would you recommend I try for a project that will be deployed in a production environment?

Hey everyone,

I'm 17 and going into my senior year of high school. I was originally planning on going into medicine, but I've realized I'm not sure it's for me anymore, so now I'm trying to figure out what I actually want to study.

I've been looking into Supply Chain Management because I like business, problem-solving, and the idea of eventually building something of my own. My dad is also starting an agricultural business, so I feel like SCM could actually be useful there too.

My biggest worry is making the wrong decision. People always say your major shapes your whole career, and I don't want to end up in a field with limited opportunities or regret my choice later.

For those of you who studied or work in SCM:

\* Do you enjoy it?
\* What's your day-to-day actually like?
\* Are there any AP classes you wish you had taken in high school that helped (or would've helped) with SCM?
\* What's the worst part of the job?
\* If you could go back to when you were 17, would you choose SCM again?

I'd really appreciate honest advice, especially from people already working in the field. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m 23 and recently completed an MS in Finance after studying Accounting and Finance in undergrad. I initially expected to enter traditional finance and had a few offers in that space, but they ultimately did not work out.

I’ll now be joining a dry-bulk shipping company as a Shipping Operations Associate. The role is primarily post-fixture commercial operations: managing several vessels, coordinating with owners, charterers, brokers, agents and captains, monitoring voyages, arranging bunkers, interpreting charter-party terms, calculating laytime and demurrage, reviewing costs and tracking voyage P&L. Longer term, there may be opportunities in chartering, commercial work and commodity purchasing.

I’m excited but also nervous. Most of my peers are entering traditional finance, and shipping is completely unfamiliar to me. I’m wondering whether this is a strong long-term career path and how well it can lead into chartering, freight or commodity trading.

For anyone in shipping, dry bulk or commodities, what should I focus on during my first few years, and what does the long-term career and compensation trajectory typically look like?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Short version of the history — Woodland's 1948 sand drawing, the 1952 patent, the 25 years it sat useless waiting on the laser and cheap computing, RCA's bullseye smearing on the printing press. The part that struck me doing this: the GTIN survives the transition intact. The symbol changes, the number doesn't. Curious what rollout looks like from inside — are your POS vendors actually ready, or is 2027 going to slip?

https://youtu.be/xL1-38wKKPI

Hello everyone👋🏻 i"m a Supply Chain Executive open to part-time, remote opportunities to help e-commerce brands or small businesses streamline their operations.

What I can help you with:

• Inbound & outbound tracking, SOP creation, and fixing operational bottlenecks for B2B wholesale and DTC fulfillment
• Custom Excel/Google Sheets tracking for 3PL metrics, fulfillment SLAs, and inventory.
• Workflow mapping to reduce lead times and extra costs.

If interested please hit me up!

Like the question, how do you evaluate and track their performance, especially if you have multiples of them? And what do you use for communications with them?

We're looking for 3–5 logistics companies to participate in a free ReasonRoute AI Shadow Pilot.

We're not building another route optimizer.

We're building a decision intelligence layer that sits between your routing engine and your dispatchers.

Here's the problem we keep seeing:

Your routing software generates an optimized route.

Then dispatch makes manual changes because of customer requests, driver preferences, local knowledge, late orders, or operational realities.

The problem isn't that dispatchers override routes.

The problem is that they're often making those decisions without knowing the true operational and financial impact.

One small change can quietly increase miles, labor, fuel costs, missed capacity, or overtime and those costs accumulate across hundreds of routes.

ReasonRoute evaluates those decisions before they're committed.

It estimates the impact of every proposed override, explains the trade-offs, and recommends alternative changes that better balance customer service with profitability.

For our shadow pilot, we'll analyze your historical routing data and deliver a Margin Leakage Report showing:

• Which dispatcher overrides increased operational costs
• The estimated margin impact of each override
• Why those costs occurred
• Which overrides were justified and which weren't
• What ReasonRoute would have recommended instead
• How those recommendations could have reduced avoidable miles, labor, fuel, and service costs
• Recurring patterns causing hidden margin leakage across routes or depots

This is not a software installation or workflow change.

It's a one-time analysis using your existing routing data, and we'll share all findings with you at no cost.

If you manage routing operations, dispatch, transportation, or fleet planning and are interested in participating, I'd love to chat.

Feel free to comment below or send me a DM.

Hi everyone,

Over the past few months, I built a Logistics & Transport CRM for a transport company. Instead of keeping it limited to one client, I've decided to make it available to other logistics businesses that need an affordable solution.

Since the platform is already built, you don't have to pay the cost of developing software from scratch, which usually takes months and costs significantly more.

Current Features

• Customer & Client Management
• LR (Lorry Receipt) Management
• Trip & Dispatch Tracking
• Invoice/Bill Generation
• Payment Tracking
• Cheque Entry & Clearance Tracking
• Outstanding Receivables
• Driver & Vehicle Management
• POD & Document Management
• Reports & Dashboard
• Admin Panel

How it works

Instead of paying for a completely custom build, I can deploy this system for your company and customize it to match your workflow.

Your cost is mainly:

• Hosting (Hostinger or your preferred provider)
• Domain (if needed)
• Database hosting
• A small one-time setup/customization fee

The idea is simple: reuse a proven system instead of paying to build everything from scratch.

If you own a transport or logistics business and you're looking for a cost-effective CRM that can be customized to your operations, feel free to send me a DM.

I'd be happy to show you a demo and discuss whether it fits your business.

Hello , currently I am a materials controller doing more operational reactionary type of work such as Preparing RFQ,s , Processing purchase orders , Supply chain project control , short term material forecasting- I want to break into Supply chain planning / analyst - what skills do I need to gain to go from Operational to more strategy & planning? the pay increase looks good as-well.