A recent Deloitte survey of 600 executives at manufacturing and retail companies found that 63 percent were highly concerned about risks within the extended supply chain comprising vendors and customers, ranking it among their top-two concerns. The executives surveyed also cited "lack of acceptable cross-functional collaboration" as the number one obstacle to managing risk effectively. While these survey results indicating a serious lack of collaboration and coordination among trading partners are certainly worrisome, should they really come as a surprise?

For retailers, the bar just keeps getting raised. Supply-chain excellence used to be about filling orders seasonally. Then weekly. Then daily. Now we hear of merchandise being replenished multiple times a day. Is there no end to the madness?

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.

When it comes to high demand volatility and difficulty in forecasting, few industries match the world of consumer electronics. And Monster Products, the maker of high-quality cables and other accessories for computer, video and sound systems, faces a challenge that's especially daunting. For much of its product line, the company depends on the ever-changing nature of big-ticket items like PCs and flatscreen televisions, not to mention the fickle tastes of consumers. Now add thousands of SKUs to that mix, and you have a forecasting effort that can be brutally complex. In this interview, conducted at eyefortransport's Hi-Tech & Electronics Supply Chain Summit in San Francisco, director of materials Jennifer Hochstatter spoke with managing editor Robert J. Bowman about how Monster Products approaches the problem of prioritizing supply for its extensive product line, and ensuring forecast accuracy for the most critical customers.