In the world of e-commerce, the packaging is more than just a box. It's meant to "inspire and inform" consumers.

China's economy continues to make global headlines, with each uptick or downtick in GDP growth, industrial output, retail sales, or other measure pored over like tea leaves for what it portends.

To increase awareness and create ambassadors for manufacturing careers for women, APICS and the Manufacturing Institute have released LEAD: Becoming an Impactful Voice to the Next Generation of Talent.

Technology is an invaluable asset for sourcing teams, but it's not the end-all and be-all. In fact, for many organizations, evaluating vendors and deploying procurement technology can quickly become a major headache due to a lack of differentiation, long implementation time-lines and steep learning curves. Even when implementation goes smoothly, many procurement departments find themselves in a precarious position following deployment - they have a new, powerful technology at their disposal, but not enough people or internal resources to fully take advantage of its benefits and functionality.