Doug Bowen, vice president supply chain, and Terry Loftus, medical director, surgical services and clinical resources, discuss the initiatives that Banner Health has undertaken in recent years to cut inventory and logistics costs, without affecting the quality of service to doctors and patients.

Retailers are already planning for the busy holiday shopping season, and there could be a complication this year. As the unemployment rate drops, stores are having a hard time finding workers for their warehouses. They've ordered all kinds of new stuff for the holidays, but it's stuck in a bottleneck.

It doesn't matter if the cost of supply is at an all-time high or fluctuating wildly, the impact of excess inventory and inefficient operations can be crippling to cash flow in bulk distribution.

In the increasingly frantic race to offer same-delay delivery to online purchasers, one contestant has spun out and hit a wall.

Cardinal Health Inventory Management Solutions has launched a series of automated, cloud-based workflow modules for biological implants, sutures, and trauma and spine implants.