China's Winning Warehouses

The next battle in the economic war called globalization? Warehouses.

Yep. Warehouses.

China and the rest of developing Asia are showing it's possible to cut costs even in the warehousing of goods intended for retail customers in the U.S., Japan and Europe by shipping jobs to China. So of course, that's what retailers from London to Tokyo are doing.

There's still a global logistics crisis. It's not easy -- and it is in many cases beyond the capacity of physical and electronic infrastructure -- to make sure that customers in Ohio and Osaka can tell designers in Taipei and Los Angeles what they want in a product in time for manufacturers in South Carolina and Shanghai to get parts to assemblers in Singapore and Austin in a way that lets retailers in Paris and Hong Kong have enough of the right stuff and none of the wrong stuff on their shelves. ...