What began as a trickle of stories about challenges to China's supposed economic dominance has become a steady flow. It began with revelations of working conditions at Chinese factories. Soon we were reading about rising wages in the industrial sector - great for Chinese workers, but sure to make the country a less attractive source of cheap manufacturing for the West. Then there was the recent slowdown in China's foreign direct investment, along with the nation's struggle to create an economy that's geared more toward domestic consumption in the service of a growing middle class. Meanwhile, serious questions persist about the stability of China's banking system. And just last week, we learned that China's trade surplus with the U.S. is rapidly shrinking, as the country wrestles with the consequences of a stronger yuan.

You could call inventory and warehouse space the twin evils of the supply chain. Both are big drags on the balance sheet. So it should come as no surprise that the two categories are lagging the recovery - or what's passing for one.

Aiming to specialize in the outdoor sports industry, ITS Logistics finds it essential to swap out its WMS, while simultaneously retooling key processes at two Nevada distribution centers.

Doesn't it seem as though we are forever plunging into recession, then clawing our way back to recovery? In recent months we've seen hints that the U.S. economy is on the mend, with unemployment levels dropping. At the same time, consumer confidence is once again on the decline. It's a mixed bag by anyone's measure, but we've yet to return to pre-recession numbers in key sectors.

Never mind the naysayers: Del Monte Foods is a big believer in cloud technology. In just three years, the $3.7bn company has placed its entire inbound supply chain in the cloud. The result, according to senior manager of global trade compliance Brian White, has been tighter relationships with suppliers, and greater visibility of product in the pipeline.

What is this thing called "cloud computing"? It's nothing new - that much is certain. Software vendors have been offering applications "hosted" off-site for years. The idea of computer services as a kind of managed utility dates back to the 1960s at least. Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, based its entire business model on the cloud, even if it didn't use the word at the time. Since then, we've seen a variety of takes on what came to be known as Software as a Service, or SaaS. That's now been supplanted by "the cloud," a term which refers to any number of apps that reside in huge banks of servers located far from the client.