If you're a consumer in one of the world's developed economies and you think that Japan is full of powerhouse exporters, you're right. Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony, Toyota - many Japanese multinationals became household names in the second half of the 20th century. If you're a consumer in an emerging market, though, you probably don't view Japanese companies the same way. In fact, it's possible that you have never used a product made by one of those giants.

This year, Vermeer Corp. is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its lean journey, a remarkable milestone given one of the words President and CEO Mary Andringa uses to describe the continuous-improvement methodology. "Fragile" is the word.

You can learn a lot by monitoring consumer conversations in social media. It can predict political elections, the Oscars and even the next reality show winner. If you are a CPG marketer, social media can also be a real-time predictor of your new product's success.

Brian W. Hagen, managing director of the Decision Empowerment Institute, explains why supply-chain risk management has failed as a decision-making tool for many companies.

Northeastern U.S. states are sometimes depicted as not particularly business friendly. But that hasn't deterred some major companies from locating in the Keystone State recently, not least of which is Volvo Construction Equipment Americas. For one thing, Pennsylvania's location makes it very attractive for companies that must get product to customers in a huge portion of the country within a day. And a pocket in Franklin County, in the south central part of the state, is helping them do just that.

Manufacturers can generate new value, minimize costs, and increase operational stability by focusing on four broad areas: production, product design, value recovery - and supply-circle management.

Dr. Chaman L. Jain, professor of economics in the Tobin College of Business at St. John's University, talks about how the demand-planning function has changed in his decades of observing global supply chains.

Misalignments in the many linkages of the supply chain lead to variability in delivery performance or in demand, says Dale Houle, chief technology officer at AGI-Goldratt Institute. The theory of constraints can help nullify the effects of that variability.