Discrete manufacturing companies operating with highly complex supply chains in today's volatile business world need collaborative planning and the ability to quickly respond to variances in those plans. They often want to model 'what-if' scenarios to better prepare them for those inevitable hiccups - or new business. Kinaxis designed its RapidResponse solution to help companies with demand and supply balancing, optimized forecasting, and improved supply chain performance. Recently it debuted an enhanced version called RapidResponse Control Tower.

Challenge: A major U.S. food manufacturer and distributor wanted to implement a new warehouse management system using bar code labels to track the movement of products within its warehouses and to customers. A difficult challenge for a 100,000 sq. ft. warehouse with 1,600 different products in inventory.

Today's ERP systems often have much of the needed supply chain management software, they are interoperable, and with them collaboration and visibility problems are minimized, says Mike Tatara, product marketing manager, Epicor Software Corp. In addition, they are highly efficient information repositories.

The world of consumer electronics is a rapidly evolving marketplace, one where manufacturers have to deal with product price erosion and the challenges that come with selling into many layered vertical markets.

The Port of Los Angeles will invest billions of dollars in transportation infrastructure to maintain its ranking as the largest U.S. container port, according to the 2012-2017 strategic plan it just released.

Ryder System Inc. has launched a new military-recruiting website, to help veterans match their skills with open positions at the provider of commercial transportation and supply-chain management services.

A recent S&P credit-rating report on the end-of-life of the U.S. merchant marine fleet over the next few years read more like an obituary than a financial analysis: "Weak credit quality, challenging capital market conditions and reduced access to government-guaranteed loans could spell doom for many U.S. shipowners," said S&P analyst Funmi Afonja.

Korea's largest pharmaceutical company, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, is testing a radio frequency identification system at five of its wholesalers, as well as at five retailer locations throughout the nation.

According to Interpol, the return on investment for counterfeiting pharmaceuticals can be over 20 times more than the return on dealing illegal drugs. In addition to making more money, counterfeiters usually face relatively lower penalties if caught.

Challenge: The leader in the dark and premium chocolate industry needed to update its manual, paper-based order and fulfillment operation, and "right size" capacity and establish repeatable processes across its distribution center network.