Analyst Insight: Network design, network planning, network analysis, network optimization, or network studies - these terms have been used over the past 25 years to represent the work to determine how to set up logistics networks, how to analyze them for cost reductions, and how to re-plan them when something important changes. - Gene Tyndall, Executive Vice President, Tompkins International

After years of delay, the automation of importer filings, involving multiple government agencies, is upon us. Say hello to the "Single Window."

Analyst Insight: Logistics accounts for the bulk of humanitarian relief expenditures. Application of technologies and frameworks used in commercial supply chain activities can reduce costs, increase velocity and save lives during crisis. - Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network

Analyst Insight: The connected nature of today's business environment is driving exponential growth in data, which is subsequently driving improvements in advanced analytic capabilities and the opportunity to leverage advanced analytics in manufacturing processes. For industrial manufacturing firms, capturing real-time data relative to asset performance and condition enables predictive maintenance and helps to realize productivity improvements and cost savings by reducing unscheduled downtime and optimizing asset performance. - John Santagate, Research Manager, IDC

Analyst Insight: Your target customers have completed their research and are ready to purchase your product. Then comes the final step in the purchasing process - selecting the delivery method (logistics channel) that best fits their immediate needs. In today's world, whether customers realize it or not, they are driving companies to become more flexible in their logistics capabilities. - Thompson Brockman, Partner, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: The growth of IoT (the Internet of Things) will impact supply chains dramatically in the long run. Increasingly instrumented and connected manufacturing plants, warehouses, vehicles, and the products themselves will provide very precise, real-time 'X-ray vision' into what is happening in the plant, on the road, and in the field. - Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research

As pharmaceutical companies have expanded target markets and outsourced production over the last decade, the supply chain has become increasingly global, virtual and vulnerable. As a result, counterfeit activity is thriving - and patients have suffered and died from counterfeit and contaminated drugs.

Analyst Insight: Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) will no longer be able to squeeze the wages and benefits of their warehouse workers for cost savings. In the past, 3PLs came in with a lower hourly rate and a lower benefit package, with a mix of contract and full-time employees. The savings from this strategy, along with design improvements, workflow and systems, enabled the 3PL to present a value proposition with a lower cost for operation. - Valerie Bonebrake, SVP, Business Solutions, Tompkins

Analyst Insight: The demand for increased efficiency in China distribution is driving some incremental improvements in supply chain. Growth is on the rise for domestic transportation, localized supply chain IT solutions are experiencing revenue growth, and the amount of automation installed in new facilities is on the rise. Changes are also happening in real estate and there is an increase amongst importing and exporting. - Jim Serstad, Managing Director Asia, Tompkins International