Top-level executives from more than a dozen major U.S. companies joined with government officials to launch a nationwide public-private sector initiative to advance employment of people with disabilities. The companies and officials plan to work together to achieve common goals, including to identify and resolve employment barriers facing people with disabilities, share experience and best practices, raise visibility around the effort and awareness of the significant benefits, and expand participation.

As supply management organizations strive to extend their influence throughout the company and impact the bottom line with ever fewer resources, some are turning to managed service providers (MSPs) to make the best use of their organizations' time and talents. MSPs, sometimes called consolidators, can be used for certain spend categories, such as energy or telecommunications, that traditionally have been difficult for mid-sized procurement organizations to manage effectively.

When prices are updated at the E.Leclerc supermarket in Saint-Jean-du-Falga, France, as many as 30,000 labels can change automatically, bringing an end to a time-consuming process by which staff previously had to manually print and swap out printed labels on store shelves.

The EPA plans to propose tougher air quality pollution standards for fine particulate matter, or soot, a microscopic particle released from power plants, factories and vehicles.

Costly coding requirements have limited adoption of voice technology, but that is changing, says Steve Gerrard, vice president, marketing and strategy, Voxware. The technology is truly adaptive now, which is a key buying criterion.

U.S. ports plan to spend more than $46bn over the next five years in anticipation of fierce global competition for exports and imports, a report by the American Association of Port Authorities shows.

Purfresh Inc., a developer of technology for maintaining the integrity of fresh product in transit, has joined with Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) to serve worldwide markets.

Automobile manufacturer Volkswagen Slovakia is tracking its assembled vehicles as they undergo final servicing and inspection processes at its plant in Bratislava, using a real-time location system (RTLS).

U.S. rail shippers don't appear to be heeding the warnings of a national economic slowdown. Intermodal volume in May on the major U.S. railroads hit the highest level in history for that month, according to the Association of American Railroads. Intermodal traffic last month was 3.5 percent higher than the same month a year ago. Although carload volume was down 2.8 percent year-over-year in the same period, the big losses were because of slumps in the major commodities of coal and grain.