The age of the omnichannel is all about options. Customers buying online should be able to receive their purchases in any way they choose — at home, work, a designated retrieval point, or direct from the store. Or so goes the theory.

Consumer preferences are shifting. More and more, shoppers are favoring the convenience of online shopping over the in-store experience. As retail tilts more toward online sales, delivery becomes one of the few remaining face-to-face touch points with end customers.

Artificial intelligence promises to have a profound impact on the way in which shippers and carriers do business together. Assuming, of course, that they’re able to make use of the wealth of data that the technology offers.

It’s lazy to think that a manufacturing process is better just because it’s automated. While the effort going on right now at the Tesla factory in Fremont is anything but lazy, it brings into the spotlight one of the core problems with the simplistic “automation for automation’s sake” strategy: processes that aren’t stable to begin with cannot be made stable with robots.

Three years into the Iraq war, facing a spike in casualties from roadside bombings, the Pentagon turned to a steel mill in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, to supply emergency armor for combat vehicles.