Michael McComb, regional vice president of sales with the Hub Group, says there are multiple benefits - both environmental and financial - to participating in the U.S. EPA's SmartWay Transport Partnership program.

Those specialized sectors, with their need for strict regulatory compliance and product control, have lagged other industries in the use of third-party service providers. But the picture is beginning to change, says Angela Watson, UPS's vice president of enterprise sales for the healthcare sector.

Rod Derifield, chief executive officer of Envirocooler LLC, outlines some of the new ideas and technology that providers are deploying to boost efficiencies in the movement of temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals.

These competitive modes have at least two things in common: Each took a drubbing in the past year or so, and each is cautiously optimistic that things are looking up.

Sales and operations planning is growing in importance to manufacturers and so is the necessity to manage risk, says Simon Ellis, practice director, supply chain strategies, at IDC Manufacturing Insights. In his analysis, Ellis assesses the future of outsourcing and the health of the supply chain.