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Labor represents two-thirds of the total cost of operating a warehouse. However, when an organization wants to improve its overall performance and profitability, processes and systems are typically the first to be attended to. While these are critical components to any company’s short and long-term success, consider the potential impact of a disengaged and inefficient work force.

The last few years have brought significant changes to the retail landscape, and 2014 will be no exception. While a few brands are delivering on their omnichannel strategies, many are still struggling to meet expectations. The latest retail survey from GT Nexus sheds some light into what today’s consumers expect – and what they’re actually getting.

Supply Chain Matters (SCM) speaks to Mark Patterson, Vice President - Innovation and Product Incubation at DHL Supply Chain, to review the five most important supply chain trends of 2013, and what they mean for companies going into 2014 and beyond.

Before entering this vibrant marketplace, trade experts advise logistics managers to conduct a very careful examination of the region’s transportation and regulatory infrastructure.

With the unprecedented power of the omni-channel consumer driving behavior in the global marketplace, companies — regardless of where they sit in the supply chain — must not only find new ways to achieve efficiencies and operational control, but also to accomplish these objectives with the agility necessary to competitively serve today’s end consumer.

American Shipper recently released its annual benchmark report entitled “Global Transportation Management Benchmark Study: Climbing the Visibility Sophistication Ladder.” The study surveys practitioners from a variety of industries as well as a cross section from a diverse organizational scale.

The goal of any retailer is to develop a merchandising strategy and assortment that meets the needs of the customers that you are servicing. The best merchandising strategy is often sub-optimized by not having the right inventory, at the right time, at the right quantity allocated to the right channel.

The challenges that retailers face during Christmas naturally vary according on the sector and from company to company. For many specialty retailers, having to cope with long lead times, Christmas challenges centre around estimating the season’s demand both well in advance and accurately; not an easy task.

Since 2007, the survey has helped the Global Compact understand and benchmark how corporate participants are advancing their commitment to the Global Compact and implementing the Ten Principles. The Global Corporate Sustainability Report 2013 is based on findings from the Global Compact Annual Implementation Survey including 1,712 respondents from 112 countries.

I recently attended and co-presented with one of our retail clients to an audience of retailers and distributors at the Vendor Compliance Federation’s (VCF’s) Fall Conference. The amount of time, energy and money companies spend on reporting, capturing and problem-solving around non-compliance is astounding.

The recent downtime experienced by Amazon E3 and Microsoft BPOS has created quite a buzz about the stability of cloud computing. Has your organization proactively made provisions and does it have cloud security best practices in place to protect your vital business data and processes in the event of a natural disaster?

Many U.S. companies sign contracts with Taiwanese firms to have their products manufactured (mainly in China), and then shipped to the United States where they are sold by U.S. firms under their own brand name. In many instances, the level of value-added that occurs in China (often it simply involves assemblage) can be quite small relative to the overall cost/price of the final product.

Selecting the right firm that can meet your requirements can be challenging, however, consultants vary in their level and type of ERP expertise, experience, geographic coverage, size and vertical industry knowledge. Fortunately, there are some common criteria to consider when selecting your next ERP consulting firm.

Top-performing CPOs can increase their influence over strategic business imperatives by driving efficiency and performance, introducing innovative new processes and uncovering new insight into supplier networks that have a measurable effect on the bottom line.

Today the U.S. and the region are facing a changing international landscape for trade and investment. It brings new risks but also opportunities to strengthen our economic recovery. Nafta at 20 needs Nafta 2.0—a new version of expanded trade and cooperation to help the three member nations better compete with Asia and Europe.