Moving at the blinding speed of bureaucracy, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finally adopted a rule that requires manufacturers to report on their use of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The worst U.S. drought in more than half a century has rallied critics of the federal renewable fuel standard, which will reserve about 40 percent of the nation's corn crop for ethanol production this year.
In 2001, Jim O'Neill kicked off a decade-long investment boom with a catchy acronym for the four largest emerging-market economies - BRIC, for Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman is now promoting a new foursome of fast-track countries: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. Call them MIST countries.
After demonstrating significant success with lean manufacturing, Johnson & Johnson decided to apply lean principles for reducing waste to its supply chain.
An important first step in building a strategic supply management organization is developing solid business-unit relationships. But how many are taking the next steps and asking internal stakeholders pointed, detailed questions about how well the supply management team is meeting their needs?
The company's sales of high-value chemicals, laboratory supplies and equipment were constrained by an inefficient order-entry and processing system. It needed a new sourcing solution for its upstream supply chain.
Recently dubbed the world's second-largest maker of personal computers, Lenovo has adopted a new B2B sourcing solution from IBM for streamlining communications with logistics-management providers and contract manufacturers.
POOL4TOOL Corp., a consultancy and applications vendor specializing in electronic sourcing, has formed a partnership with D+B Germany, a provider of business-information services with an emphasis on supplier risk.