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CEOs know there's a widening talent gap in the supply-chain sector. They also know they're not doing enough to close it.   It's an odd kind of stasis: being aware of a serious problem, while admitting that you're not fully committed to a solution. But who can blame companies today? The talent gap is all too real, if more visible in some areas than others.   Take the nationwide driver shortage, which qualifies as old news by now. According to the American Trucking Associations, the indust....

In the end, all outsourcing relationships are founded on trust. You can write a contract that drills down to the smallest details, but at some point you have to rely on the integrity of your partner. And when that trust is violated, the consequences can be severe.   Take the world of freight payment and auditing. Two major players in the business, Trendset Information Systems and TransVantage Solutions, Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Each was accused of embezzling millions ....

How far do companies have to go, before they become truly "green"? A long, long way, if the results of a new survey are to be believed. According to the study by the Business Performance Management Forum (BPM) and E2open, nearly two-thirds of respondents lack the visibility needed to monitor the environmental impact of their supply chains. This despite the fact that 90 percent say their top management supports the notion of "enhanced trading partner visibility, flexibility and sustainability acr....

Once upon a time, there was Clorox bleach: one product, one universally recognized brand. Now there's Clorox Germicidal, Concentrated, Splash-less, Stain Remover, Outdoor, not to mention a raft of other products manufactured by The Clorox Co.: Pine-Sol, Tilex, Liquid Plumr, Glad, 409 "¦ you get the idea. We're in that modern-day zone of retailing chaos known as SKU proliferation.   About 98 percent of supply-chain leaders conduct some level of segmentation, although the word can mean many di....

The next general of supply-chain risk management will deploy the quantitative analytical tools that are widely used today in global banking, said Anthony Tarantino, a senior consultant in supply-chain and operational excellence to Cisco Systems, Inc. So bring on the number crunchers. But every successful supply-chain initiative involves a blending of technology and business-process change. Speaking at a recent global trade seminar in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted by the law firm of Pillsbury Wint....

You can't tackle the problem of product recalls without data. From a logistics standpoint, visibility is key. That means having access to critical data at the right time. With the recent spate of supply-chain disruptions, including natural disasters in Japan and Thailand, and congestion at West Coast ports, companies are beginning to realize the value of knowing exactly where their products are at any given moment. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is proving to be a valuabl....