The logistics sector in 2011 was characterized by flat freight volume and higher rates, says Rosalyn Wilson, senior business analyst at Delcan, who researches and writes the annual State of Logistics report. The report is underwritten by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Penske Logistics.

Manufacturing in the U.S. is growing stronger, but maintaining and strengthening America's competitiveness in the global market will require a tremendous measure of planning, effort and focused financial investment.

Scott Webb, assistant professor of logistics at Georgia Southern University, shows how companies can avoid "cannibalizing" their existing product lines - and how they can strategically employ the practice as well.

A number of macro-economic developments, such as the expansion of the Panama Canal, are driving changes in supply chain design, says John Trestrail, supply chain solutions manager at LLamasoft. "Supply chain managers are trying to understand the impact of the canal's expansion on cargo flows, especially from Asia to the East Coast," he says.

Mexican consumers have been hit harder than their U.S. counterparts by the downturn since 2008, but they are more optimistic about their country's prospects than their neighbors to the north are. Their attitudes are of key importance to consumer packaged goods and retail companies.

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.

Increasing labor costs in China's heavily industrialized areas, mostly along the coastline, are driving many companies to move production to the country's inland regions, creating a number of logistics and supply chain challenges, according to Greg Spudic, vice president of North American sales and marketing for Dimerco Express.

A new wave of robots, far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers, are replacing workers around the world in both manufacturing and distribution. Such factories are a striking counterpoint to those used by Apple and other consumer electronics giants, which employ hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers.

In the mid-2000s there was a beginning of public discussions and a surge in market awareness about support and maintenance (S&M) alternatives for users of enterprise applications. Companies in the market for enterprise software S&M services, like nearly every other market in the world, have responded to monopolistic-like pricing and profit margins by seeking choice. Enterprise software licensees now have a choice of annual support providers.