The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly $9bn was lost by merchants in returns fraud in 2012. And according to a report from ThreatMetrix, online fraud resulted in about $3.5bn in lost revenue in North America last year.
A British supermarket chain has recalled a beef product after traces of the powerful veterinary drug phenylbutazone, which is banned from the human food chain, were found for the first time in an item that had been on sale in stores here.
The giant producer of alcoholic beverages lacked visibility of its prepaid ocean shipments and carrier performance levels. It sought a single platform for managing the flow of goods from the factory all the way to destination.
While more than half (53 percent) of all companies in the S&P 500 Index and Fortune 500 published sustainability reports in 2011 "” up from 19 percent the year before "” companies in the U.S. are less likely to obtain third-party assurance than their global peers, according to a report by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Assurance refers to third-party validation of a sustainability report's contents.
Survey results from MyBuys and the e-tailing group reveal customer-centric marketing - the ability to engage consumers in one-to-one conversations across the customer lifecycle and all touch points - increases buyer readiness, engagement and sales activity.
To put China's sustained growth into perspective, when it surpassed the United States in 2010 to become the world's largest manufacturer, its output accounted for 23 percent of global manufacturing. Fast forward two years and China has gained an additional 10 percent of total manufacturing share, with $2.9 tr of the total $8.8tr global manufacturing output, putting their total value at 20 percent more than the US.
Three times in the past year, including just last month, the Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings that counterfeit cancer drugs originating overseas infiltrated the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, putting patients at risk.
Richard Bank and Lisa Harrington, directors of the Sustainable Supply Chain Foundation, bring us up to date on the group's efforts to introduce third-party verification of companies' sustainability programs.
Years ago, supply management professionals turned to low-cost countries to manufacture products, establish services operations and source materials in an effort to improve the bottom line for their companies. They found that inexpensive labor in India, China and emerging Asian countries made this new low-cost-country strategy successful "” despite requiring the management of lengthy, complex supply chains. Then the world began to change.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on airlines and their partners in the air cargo supply chain to work together to make the mode more competitive and address the challenges of safety, security and sustainability.
