Almost four of every five manufacturers and distributors still have no plans to implement IIoT technologies. They’re making a mistake.

Forced labor and other rights abuses are widespread in Thailand’s fishing fleets despite government commitments to comprehensive reforms, which in some cases have made the situation worse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released last week.

In the heartland of the tequila industry, in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco, a worsening shortage of agave caused by mounting demand for the liquor from New York to Tokyo has many producers worried.

It’s a stronghold of insider Washington, a place where billionaires and former presidents mingle in black-tie splendor.

Challenge: The operations vice president of an oil and pipeline construction company recently admitted there was a time when he wondered if his company’s cargo insurance policy was worth it. The company sources goods from around the world, moves cargo by multiple modes and runs a supply chain through some of the world’s most high-risk countries. Thanks to meticulous packing and some good luck, they'd had very few supply chain incidents over 11 years. Until that summer, a few years back. That June, a truckload of welding equipment heading to Moscow caught fire. The $809,000 shipment was a total loss. One month later, a cargo ship carrying two of the company's containers, worth $150,000, caught fire. Those containers were also total losses.

Increasingly, the old, functional ways of operating across the supply chain are working less effectively. New ways of working have emerged, which put collaboration at the heart of establishing a powerful rapport with the consumer. Successful retailers understand this. The new creed is to work more effectively and efficiently, both internally and externally, to derive more value from the supply chain and, crucially, to get closer to the customer. -Nancy Marino, Senior Vice President, Tompkins International, and Chief Development Officer, MonarchFx