Losing an employee is costly -- very costly. Yet, many organizations don't know how to ensure that its human resource assets don't just walk away.

The US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 2 million people voluntarily leave their jobs each month. The Society of Human Resources Management has found that the cost of replacing an employee ranges from 50 percent of the employee's annual salary to 400 percent of their annual salary. So that employee with an annual salary of $45,000 that just gave his notice -- the cost of replacing him could be between $16,000 and $160,000. And the other employee, the one whose annual salary was $150,000 -- the cost of replacing her could range from $60,000 to $600,000. Not inexpensive.

In August 2013 the United States exported $189.2 billion of goods and services, slightly lower than July’s exports of $189.3 billion. August’s exports are marginally lower than June’s all-time record high of $190.5 billion, according to data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Exports of goods and services over the last twelve months totaled $2.2 trillion, which is 42.2 percent above the level of exports in 2009. Over the last twelve months, exports have been growing at an annualized rate of 10.1 percent when compared to 2009.

When you test the softness of a cashmere Brunello Cucinelli pullover or try on a pair of knee high boots from Manolo Blahnik, it’s easy to forget that luxury retailers face the same distribution issues as mass merchandise merchants. They still have to receive product, replenish their stores efficiently and fill a growing card of e-commerce orders.

Those are among the reasons the Neiman Marcus Group launched a 200,000-square-foot distribution center in Pittston, Pa., last spring. The facility processes 7.6 million newly received units a year. 

As a participant in managing all or part of your company’s supply chain, you may know the pain of answering sometimes difficult questions. Where is my order? Why is it late? When will it get here? Why didn’t the vendor let us know? What should I tell the client?  Who is responsible? What is this going to cost? You could answer them with a purchase order (P.O.) management system. But implementing one means dealing with change, which is hard for any organization.

But look at the pain-vs.-gain equation. Is it worse to suffer because you can’t answer queries from internal and external customers? Or is it worth the pain of implementing a P.O. management system and obtaining capabilities your competitors don’t have?

Total intermodal traffic grew by 4.7 percent, year-over-year, in the third quarter of 2013, according to Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics published quarterly by IANA. This growth is attributable to industry gains in general. Domestic container volume continued to lead intermodal growth, posting a year-over-year increase of 9.4 percent, and combined with a 1.2 percent boost in intermodal trailer volume for the same period, all domestic equipment experienced 7.6 percent year-over-year gains during the third quarter of 2013. 

Also contributing to the increase in total intermodal traffic was a slight uptick in international volume which posted a 2013 Q3 gain of 2 percent over 2012. If jobs, consumer spending and/or the broader economy accelerate, a slow but steady growth trend is likely for the international market.

The revival of US manufacturing is evident, with reports this past summer showing steady growth and factory production reaching its highest level in over two years.  This expansion offers tremendous promise for our economy and is being fueled by a number of factors, including abundant sources of energy, historically low interest rates and improved lean processes.

With this resurgence, however, comes increased stakeholder scrutiny.

Carriers are becoming increasingly anxious about finding good drivers. Good drivers want to know why, in a time of shortage, they are not being rewarded better. And shippers are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping trucks will continue to be readily available – and affordable.

The solution seems simple enough: boost driver pay.

But pesky basics like market economics and sound business practices keep getting in the way. Mix in some increasingly costly regulations that take drivers out of the industry with one rule and reduce productivity with another, and trucking faces a challenging operating environment – again.

Use of RFID tags at the item level is upstaging case and pallet tagging among many retailers, says Tom O'Boyle, director of RFID at Barcoding Inc. O'Boyle explains the benefits derived from item-level tagging and looks at other innovative applications for RFID, including hybrid systems that mix active and passive tags.

Applying RFID tags to individual items gives most retailers a bigger bang for the buck than tagging cases and pallets in the warehouse, says O’Boyle. Item-level tagging not only allows retailers to track high value products, it also enables them to see what is on the store floor or in the back room and enables a quick inventory count, he says.

The supply chain and logistics sector faces a major human resources challenge in the coming years. By 2017, the industry needs an additional 500,000 highly skilled individuals, trained and qualified, to address the demands of increasingly sophisticated supply chains. But as an industry, we are failing to attract the next generation of bright young things and this comes down to three key barriers.

Sticking to the known best-practices and markets may be the quickest path to irrelevance when it comes to designing and building new products and mapping out corporate direction.

At least, that was the premise of Adam Hartung, managing partner of Spark Partners, a consulting firm specializing in innovation, during his presentation at the Electronic Component Industry Association (ECIA) executive meeting in Chicago this week.

"If you are irrelevant, you are a failure," said Hartung to an audience of supply chain professionals.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation released its final report today on the current state of freight transportation in the U.S., including its recommendations for improvements.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps — an innovative fellowship program that has helped identify $1.3 billion in potential energy savings for host companies since its inception in 2006 — has expanded to include logistics operations across the United States. EDF is seeking organizations with large logistics operations to host EDF Climate Corps fellows for the summer of 2014.

Signing up for EDF Climate Corps is a highly cost-effective way to save money, reduce waste and improve environmental performance; dividends that pay off year after year.

Traditional management approaches must be replaced or at least altered to reflect the evolving business market, said Doyle, a senior manager at Plante Moran, one of the nation’s largest consulting firms.

Manufacturers are outsourcing and expanding their markets and as a result logistics have become more complex. "Think about the activities that people have moved outside of their four walls," Doyle said. "It could be engineering, distribution or production. It adds complexity when you add new partners involved in your supply chain."