What Rust Belt? Timothy Butler, associate professor at Wayne State University's School of Business Administration, details how Southeast Michigan's economy - of which the automotive industry is a major piece - is recovering.
FirstCarbon Solutions, a provider of software and consulting services to enhance the environmental sustainability of business, has expanded its partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). FirstCarbon will score companies' submissions on their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon-management strategies to CDP Supply Chain. The latter works with global companies to measure and understand the impact of climate change across supply chains. An independent, non-profit organization, CDP helps companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share information on environmental risk and opportunity.
Supply chains are just as susceptible to faddish behavior as anything else. We're social animals, so we tend to follow the crowd - especially if we believe that the crowd has a competitive edge. That's why so many companies flocked to China over the last couple of decades, in search of ever-cheaper sources of production. Or why outsourcing became such a hot trend over that same period of time.
Thirty-six percent of all targeted attacks (58 per day) during the last six months were directed at businesses with 250 or fewer employees, according to the June 2012 Intelligence Report from Symantec. The figure was 18 percent at the end of December 2011.
To put it mildly, today's ERP is not what it was a decade ago. In terms of mobility, speed and actionable intelligence, technology was in its infancy at the turn of the century.
China's retail sales growth slowed to 13.8 percent in May, down from the 16-0percent to 18-percent annual growth analysts have grown accustomed to. Many analysts are panicking, saying the data indicate the end of the Chinese consumption story. These fears are overblown.
The use of predictive analytics is common in industries such as telecommunications, financial services and retail, says Gareth Herschel, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "But overall it's still a relatively small percentage of organizations that use it - maybe 5 percent." That's changing.
Automobiles are selling again, and executives are confident. The U.S. auto industry is positioned for a global economic recovery - if car manufacturers can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the automotive industry — which consists of companies that produce automobiles, utility vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and heavy trucks. Learn how automotive companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!
Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.