MHI Blog—Peak shipping season for holiday packages runs from Black Friday through early January, allowing for the increasing number of returns that occur after Christmas. This leads to three of the most popular US shippers, UPS, FedEX, and USPS, hiring thousands of seasonal workers to fill out their workforce for the rush of 2016

Bloomberg—China’s factories may be on the cusp of delivering a new shock to the global economy after years of undercutting rivals with cheaper costs. This time, increases in prices could reverberate around the world.

To understand why, consider the dilemma facing Jiangmen Luck Tissue Mfy Ltd., now caught in a squeeze between surging wages and tepid demand. The company has already slashed staff by half, shaved prices and automated production to survive. Now, with margins razor thin, it’s weighing the first price increases since 2010.

The New York Times—The futurists of Silicon Valley may not have seen this one coming: The first commercial delivery made by a self-driving truck was 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer.

On Tuesday, Otto, the Uber-owned self-driving vehicle operation, announced the completion of its first commercial delivery, having delivered its beer load from Fort Collins, Colo., to Colorado Springs, a roughly 120-mile trip on Interstate 25.

EBN—At one point in history, parents wanted their offspring to become doctors or lawyers. In the 1980s, the must-have job was computer programming. Now, however, savvy mothers and fathers may suggest their kids look at training for a job in the supply chain.  Some of the most well-known universities in the country offer undergraduate programs to get students started down the supply chain path.

ZDNet—The use of robotics is expanding in a number of business environments, but warehouses seem especially well suited to the adoption of autonomous machines of various types.

Forbes—Over the past six months, a revolution has begun in the world of planning. New technologies for enhanced visibility offer previously unimaginable granularity, timeliness and subtlety in both demand and supply awareness. At the same time, faster, richer and most amazingly, self-teaching analytical methods are increasingly in use in making sense of all this new supply chain awareness.

The big question is whether our business decision-making abilities will keep pace with the power of our tools.

MHI Blog—If you missed Friday’s post, I ran wild on some (I think) fun Halloween facts. But while Halloween and other holidays are fun, we also need to remember people that can’t celebrate because of their circumstances. Recently on the East coast of the US and in the Caribbean, Hurricane Matthew created a need for goods and services to be rushed to people. Many of us may have moved on from that because it’s no longer in the news, but help is still needed, and it takes logistics to make it work.

Warehouse execution systems provide an opportunity for these businesses to reduce inefficiencies and re-sequence the flow of work to achieve more competitive shipping times.

The Wall Street Journal—This holiday season one way traditional retailers hope to wrestle sales from Amazon.com Inc. is by making it easier for shoppers to buy items online and pick them up in stores.

21st Century Supply Chain—Welcome to the first blog post in our three-part series discussing three ways to improve supply chain collaboration.

Forbes—Holiday shopping season is upon us. Gone are the days when logistics companies could get by simply focusing on operations. The ability to provide on-time deliveries now meets only a minimum standard of success, despite extreme weather and increased volumes going through the same infrastructure. Today’s empowered shoppers are demanding more (e.g., lower costs, increased control and more options), and logistics companies that don’t prioritize technology in order to meet that demand will likely be left behind.

Material Handling & Logistics—Historically, machine builders all had one common challenge: Once a machine is delivered to an end user, it can be difficult to determine how it is being used and whether or not it is performing to expectations. Traditionally, machine performance has been measured by "fire drill" when something goes terribly wrong or during regularly scheduled maintenance visits. Remote monitoring technologies have changed all of this. Machine operators are leveraging existing technological tools, including the Cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) to differentiate their offerings and work closely with their customers to improve overall machine performance.

Using technology to create smart machines, builders can tell exactly how a machine is being utilized, bringing builders and end users together to solve challenges in real time.

Business Insider—Uber has already mastered moving people and food around cities. Now it's getting into the long-haul business with a new division called Uber Freight.

The plan builds on Uber's acquisition of Otto, a self-driving trucking company that Uber bought in July for $65 million.

Chainlink Research—Omni-channel strategy and execution continue to be central to retailers' success as the holiday season is upon us. Here we look at the major challenges retailers are facing and how they are dealing with them.

Climate Change News—The UN’s shipping body will produce a strategy to curb greenhouse gases by 2023, over 170 countries agreed at talks in London on Friday.

An initial plan from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is expected to be released by 2018, which will feed into a UN-led assessment of global climate policies.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive—As the holiday season approaches, supply chain teams should be well on their way to gearing up for the big business holiday season test. They should be proactively assessing the risks involved in reliably meeting this year’s market demand and aiming to continue strong growth trends from the past several holiday seasons.

MHI Blog—We’re back with another installment of finding weird facts about holidays. You’d be surprised what a good Google search can dig up.