In a placid lagoon about a mile inland from the Atlantic coast in southeast Nicaragua, the mast of Cornelius Vanderbilt's dredge boat rises out of the water. The railroad tycoon abandoned it along with his dream of building an inter-oceanic canal in the 1850s. More than 160 years and several failed plans later, Wang Jing, a 40-year-old Chinese telecommunications billionaire, has emerged as the next mogul to give it a go.

Across industries, manufacturers pride themselves on quality but put top emphasis on reducing overall costs. And while these may seem like conflicting priorities, they can be explained by the concurrent demands of the internal economic drivers of an organization and the external customer requirements for quality and efficiency. As such, these priorities are here to stay, especially as the consumer becomes increasingly empowered and publicly vocal. In recent years, product quality and safety have become tightly integrated with traceability and supplier scorecards. But for manufacturers with foresight to proactively implement a comprehensive traceability system before a contamination problem occurs, there is an opportunity to provide their organizations with the ability to dramatically improve response time, implement corrective measures, and minimize repercussions to the bottom line and the brand, should a problem arise.

As head of IT for Global Supply Chain Solutions at Ryder, a major third-party logistics provider, Gregory Knott well understands the issues surrounding technology integration between third parties and customers. Here he offers useful advice to outsourcing partners on both sides of a contract.

The Newark Group, a producer of recycled paperboard products, operates on extremely thin margins. It needed a transportation-management system that could automatically seek out the lowest-cost carriers, and search out opportunities for further savings through the booking of continuous moves.

GAC Group's Mobile Directory Application is now available on Android devices, version 2.3 and above, as well as on the iPhone.