MHI Blog -- UPS recently rolled out 100 industrial-grade 3-D printers in its Louisville, KY hub. They are testing to see if 3-D printing centers could shorten supply chains, cut costs and give them a better chance of taking advantage of the emerging trend of local production and delivery.

They also want to make sure they are ahead of the curve on this new, potentially disruptive technology and its potential impact on supply chains.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Manufacturing companies continue to show optimism for this year and next, according to a new survey by Prime Advantage, a buying consortium for mid-sized manufacturers.

After several consecutive years of climbing revenues, some manufacturing companies are starting to temper expectations. Eighty percent of respondents expect to be at or above the previous year's revenues. Although this remains a significant portion, it is the lowest percentage of optimists in this category since 2010.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive -- Read any news about China’s economy and supply chain challenges are usually mentioned: The pressures of a rapidly changing economy, government regulations and shifting customer demands are creating an uncertain environment for any company—domestic or foreign—doing business in China.

While many economists and analysts warned of a Chinese economic slowdown in recent months, there is still plenty of opportunity to engage with and serve this growing market.

EBN -- A new benchmark survey found that the small and mid-market manufacturers are optimistic about the future, but still are concerned about controlling costs and finding skilled workers in order to ensure the bright outlook.  

"The survey results are extremely encouraging. The majority of our members continue to achieve strong revenues and growth, even after concluding a string of very prosperous years," said Louise O'Sullivan, founder, president and CEO of Prime Advantage in a press release. "Our members are developing new products to increase demand like never before and the power of our group intensifies every single year."

MHI Blog -- Supply chain risk and the resulting disruption is a leading cause of business volatility. With more companies expanding into new and often emerging markets – using more complex and extended networks of suppliers and partners – the supply chain is at once a growth enabler and a key source of risk.

This is an area where we as an industry cannot afford to be complacent.

Logistics Management -- As reported by yesterday by LM in coverage of fiscal first quarter earnings for FedEx, the Memphis-based transportation and logistics titan said it has increased non-contractual rates for 2016.

Rate increases will take effect for FedEx Express U.S. domestic, U.S. export, and U.S. import services, effective January 4, 2016. FedEx Express will increase shipping rates by an average of 4.9 percent for U.S. domestic, U.S. export and U.S. import services, and FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery will increase shipping rates by an average of 4.9 percent. FedEx SmartPost rates will also change. And FedEx Freight will increase shipping rates by an average of 4.9 percent.

Forbes -- Supply chain excellence is easier to say than to measure. For a supply chain leader having a clear definition is the starting point to drive improvement. Without clarity it is very difficult to define an effective operating strategy. 

To help supply chain leaders fill this gap, over the course of the past two years we have studied industry progress on supply chain excellence by analyzing corporate balance sheet and income statement information for the period of 2006-2014. In this work, we analyzed patterns of performance and improvement for individual companies, for industries, and for value networks.

Logistics Viewpoints -- The challenge of managing complex global supply chains in an increasingly volatile business environment has companies searching for processes to make their supply chain more flexible and efficient. A well-managed supply chain provides them a competitive advantage and increased profitability. As outsourced supply chain professionals, logistics executives are tasked with meeting our customers’ growing needs and recognizing and reinforcing growth opportunities, while reducing or eliminating risk in our customers’ operations. How, then, do we establish a practice in doing so?

Manufacturers’ Monthly -- Cloud computing can assist manufacturers to effectively respond to increased order volumes and complexity, as Mark Troselj writes.

By switching to the cloud, manufacturers can reduce order-to-shipment cycle times by as much as 70%.

The Commercial Appeal -- FedEx trimmed its full-year profit outlook Wednesday but said it expects to hire more than 55,000 seasonal workers to help handle another record holiday shipping peak.

The Memphis-based company lopped 20 cents off its earnings forecast for the year that began June 1. The decrease, less than 2 percent, was attributed to weaker less-than-truckload industry demand and higher than expected insurance reserves and operating costs at FedEx Ground.

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.

MHI view recently released a video on the benefits of wearable and mobile technology for supply chains. The video provides an outlook of how wearable technology is currently being used in the manufacturing and supply chain operations and how it will be used in the future. 

Press-Telegram -- Sounding train whistles, civic and harbor officials on Wednesday touted the completion of a three-year Port of Long Beach project that seeks to push more cargo on rail while eliminating the number of truck trips on the road.

Paid in part with state and federal funds, the $93 million Green Port Gateway project solves a critical part of managing cargo growth for the nation’s second-busiest seaport by adding a third track on the southeast side of the port to ease bottlenecks, officials said.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Industry 4.0 is essentially a blueprint for digitalizing the value chain from factory to customer. It combines logistics, production, IT, engineering, production to digitize business operations. Technologies included are the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Services, which in turn create the Smart Factory.  

Supply Chain Brain -- Traditional demand planning systems have reached their limits, with key forecasting metrics remaining essentially flat for the past five years, says Terra Technology's sixth annual Forecasting Benchmark Study.

The data confirms that companies sensing demand achieve a step-change in performance, consistently doubling overall forecast value-added and cutting error by 37 percent. The study is the most comprehensive report of demand planning performance, encompassing $250 billion in annual sales from 14 multinational consumer product manufacturers, nine billion cases of goods and more than a billion item-warehouse stocking combinations.