Wal-Mart Stores Inc. doesn't do things on a small scale. So when it moved to expand its global sustainability effort, the retailing giant acted true to form.
Daimler Trucks North America committed to lean management in 2012 and its seven parts distribution centers are full participants in that initiative. Carlos Billingsley, director of operations at the parts DCs, explains how the lean program has created a culture of continuous improvement.
ROI was founded 15 years ago to help Mercy Health Systems reduce overall supply chain expenses and improve patient care. Greg Goddard, project director for supply chain operations, discusses ROI's business model and how changes in U.S. healthcare are impacting the supply chain.
Gartner Inc. has released the findings from its 10th annual Supply Chain Top 25, and for the seventh year in a row Apple has topped the list. McDonald's took second place, and Amazon came in third.
If you're still not convinced that sustainability can be a big marketing tool for global brands, then take a glance at the latest "Conscious Actions" report from Hennes & Mauritz AB - known to clothing shoppers around the world as H&M.
When the U.S. economy emerged from the recession in June 2009, productivity was rising at a fast clip. Companies had spent the downturn cutting jobs and were lean and efficient. Productivity—output per hour worked—jumped 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as workers did more with less. But as the recovery has chugged on, productivity growth has stalled, averaging less than 1 percent a year since 2011. Workers were actually less efficient in the first quarter of 2014, producing fewer goods and services per hour than they had during the previous quarter.