The worldwide supply chain management software market totaled $7.7bn in 2011, a 12.3-percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner Inc. It was the second year of double-digit growth for the SCM software market as supply chain investments kept their priority status and moved forward, despite caution from IT budget decision makers.

The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry.

As a leading contract manufacturer of electronics, Celestica works with a diverse supply base comprised of thousands of vendors. Six years ago, the company began a major initiative to gain better visibility and control of supplier performance, an effort that led to creation of a proprietary supplier collaboration tool known as Live Share.

People, processes and technology are the three key areas where companies are experiencing "pain points" in their forecasting efforts, says Eric Ball, solutions manager with Avercast LLC. The people side is especially vital, given the trend within many companies of "trying to do more with less." Too often businesses rely on a new piece of technology to improve their forecasting, ignoring the need for humans to run the system. "Coupled with budget cutbacks left and right, developing personnel is a tremendous issue," he says.

International transportation management, value engineering and strategic collaboration are three cornerstones of Menlo Worldwide's 4PL service offering, says Nick Caragher, director of 4PL operations.

Six years after it was signed, the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement has taken effect, giving the U.S. economy a shot in the arm. Tell us again why this pact was a bad thing?

California cantaloupe handlers have voted overwhelmingly in support of the state's first mandatory food safety program to be implemented by a commodity board. The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that 100 percent of handlers voting in a statewide referendum are in favor of amending the existing California Cantaloupe Advisory Board to establish the new food safety program.

The key supply chain challenge today is the juxtaposition of complex and extended supply networks with increasingly fast and volatile demand networks - and the increasingly ineffective role for inventory as a way to buffer cadence mismatches.

Briggs Healthcare develops and markets products that are designed to improve clinical outcomes and reduce operating costs for more than 50,000 customers in the senior care, home care, acute care, physician and retail markets. "Having the right product at the right place and time and at the lowest cost is very important to us," says Brad Mueller, vice president of supply chain solutions.