MHI Blog -- Eliminating supply chain risk is the primary driver for sustainability initiatives and industry collaboration is the biggest opportunity according to a recent report published by Ethical Corporation titled "Sustainable Supply Chain Trends 2015." The report features insight from 415 CSR and supply chain professionals primarily based in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Reuters -- Pacific Rim officials meet in Hawaii this week for talks that could make or break an ambitious trade deal which aims to boost growth and set common standards across a dozen economies ranging from the United States to Brunei.

Trade ministers go into the talks, which run from July 28 to 31 on the island of Maui, with high hopes of a pact to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the most sweeping trade deal in a generation and a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama.

EBN -- Dirty. Dangerous. Mind-numbing.

That is what a large percentage of American teenagers think of manufacturing. Fifty-two percent of the same group have no interest whatsoever in a manufacturing career. And in the most recent U.S. Public Opinions on Manufacturing report by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte, manufacturing came in last as the career of choice among Generation Y (ages 19-33 years).

MHI Blog -- MHI recently launched a new video platform – MHI view. MHI view content is designed to spark supply chain innovation by sharing useful information about the industry’s maturing, growing and emerging technologies that were identified in the 2015 MHI Annual Industry Report.

The first episode details the benefits of robotics and automation. Robots have revolutionized manufacturing, and today's robots can produce goods with higher quality, less down time, and fewer errors than humans. In this installment of MHI view, find out why and how. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

The Wall Street Journal -- As shippers feel the crunch of a truck driver shortage, a report from one of the largest U.S. freight companies says buyers of transportation service could greatly increase capacity if they managed their time better.

Titled "660 Minutes," after the maximum time drivers can be behind the wheel each day under federal regulations, the report from J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. estimates that shippers lose more than 44,000 miles, or 63 loads, annually for each driver to excessive paperwork, long waits at distribution centers and other inefficiencies.

Logistics Viewpoints -- What types of supply chain roles are on your company’s career webpage? What skills are important for new hires to possess in order to manage this increasingly critical area of the business? 

Many of the best practices LLamasoft has advocated related to supply chain design as a repeatable, sustainable process within the business have been highlighted in a recent article, Companies See ‘Massive Shift’ in Search for Supply Chain Talent, Wall Street Journal, May 22nd, 2015, Loretta Chao. Here are a couple of examples.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Bill Graves didn’t mince words last week during his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee. On June 17, the CEO of the American Trucking Association explained to the committee the long-term effects its decisions would have if a sustainable funding source for the Highway Trust Fund was not found.

"It is important for all to understand that the decisions made by this Committee over the next few months will have effects beyond the immediate solvency issues," Graves said.

Industry Week -- On Easter weekend in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, with all the gleeful grade-schoolers streaming into the streets, "you would have thought they were giving away free puppies," says Jennifer Miller. But the puppy handout was actually a STEM fair, featuring friendly drones and a hovercraft that kids could ride made out of a blower, a hula hoop and a lawn chair.

Miller, the vice president and chief operating officer for the business development organization Upstate SC Alliance, says that only recently--in the past year--have manufacturers in the region made outreach to young people a priority.

Supply Chain Brain -- Tom Sanderson, CEO of Transplace, discusses the growing U.S.-Mexico freight market and how Transplace continues to strengthen its presence there. Sanderson also highlights border-crossing issues that continue to complicate U.S.-Mexico freight moves.

Sanderson has lots of reasons to love the freight market to, from and in Mexico. "Mexico is the 15th largest country in the world, ranked by GDP, and is growing faster than either the U.S. or Canada," he says.

Modern Materials Handling -- The journey of supply chain software has seen more hills than valleys in recent years as competitive pressures spur adoption of modern, integrated platforms. Having installed or updated warehouse management, labor or transportation systems, users and suppliers of all sizes are now looking to unify these systems.

"Suppliers’ focus is extending beyond the four walls, and many are putting money into providing more than just excellence in warehousing and distribution," says John Hill, director at St. Onge Company. "From their purview of materials management, they are now fine-tuning the connection with all the other elements of the supply chain."

Forbes -- Imagine a world in which you know not only where your cargo is, but whether it’s still at the right temperature, whether it was dropped, whether the truck driver braked hard or got stuck in traffic, and exactly who handled it and when. That’s the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), and it’s here now: providing deep insights and actionable information that boosts efficiency , improves safety and fuels the supply chain. 

But it also increases risk. According to the World Economic Forum’s "Global Risks 2015" report, with the IoT, "There are more devices to secure against hackers, and bigger downsides from failure."

MHI Blog -- David Butler is Coca-Cola’s vice president of innovation. Every day it’s his job to create the systems, process and relationships necessary for the company to produce as much value as possible through innovation. He is a self-proclaimed "systems geek," surfer and natural optimist. He is also a keynote speaker at the 2015 MHI Annual Conference.

In the past decade, Coca-Cola has added ten billion-dollar brands to its portfolio and doubled its stock price. Butler also believes that the company is now on a trajectory to double the size of its business by 2020 – "essentially replicating in the space of a decade what took the company 100 years to build."

China’s troubled debt market is a growing threat to global supply chains, according to a new report from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.

Companies doing in business in China could see suppliers fall into disarray overnight if the People’s Bank of China moves to rein in the debt market, either through monetary policy or by allowing more borrowers to default, said John Glen, a CIPS economist.

EBN -- Roads are crowded, trains are running nearly full, port container capacity is running low, and there are more logistics jobs than can be filled. All of this will tumble down the electronics supply chain, a spiral that is already beginning.

Just a quick look at some recent headlines about transportation, logistics, and infrastructure in the U.S. alone will drive this point home.

Supply Chain Standard -- The US Congress is to be asked to vote on a bill targeting slavery in the supply chain. The bipartisan bill would require companies with sales over $100 million to disclose the measures they are taking to prevent human trafficking, slavery and child labour in their supply chains as part of their annual reports.

California has already passed a similar law but that only applied to companies trading in the state. The UK is also planning a similar law.

Supply Chain Brain -- Container service reliability made another steady improvement in June with the aggregate on-time performance for the three key East-West trades rising by 5.7 percentage points to extend the data-series record to 77.3 percent, according to Carrier Performance Insight, the online schedule reliability tool provided by Drewry Supply Chain Advisors.