With all the talk in our field about putting the customer first, I was surprised to read an article in which a company claims a different strategy. In the June 1 edition of JOC.com, Stewart Lamont, from Tangier Lobster, says his priority is the health of his product, followed by the health and reliability of his logistics strategy.

Each emerging market is different in terms of regulatory requirements, health care delivery, insurance penetration, disease areas and more. Yet, all are facing significant obstacles.

While more women are embarking on supply chain careers, there is still a pay disparity between men and women. Recent APICS research, which was highlighted this week in the Wall Street Journal, shows men in supply chain on average earn 16 percent more than women.

Ford F-150s are the United States’ best-selling vehicle and a serious financial boon for the carmaker. According to The Detroit Free Press, F-Series trucks contribute more than $100 million a day to Ford revenue.

For a warehouse to be dubbed “smart,” it must be automated; provide real-time visibility; be agile, as relates to space, staff and software; scale to respond to needs instantaneously; take a web-driven approach to running the business; and maintain focus on delivering a customer-centric experience.

Harvard Business Review posits that the advancement that will drive the factories of the future is not automation but, instead, operations enhancements.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) help organizations measure progress against a goal. The APICS Dictionary defines a KPI as “a financial or nonfinancial measure, either tactical or strategic, that is linked to specific strategic goals and objectives.”

Although professionals often excel at their own job responsibilities, many only have a vague idea of what their colleagues’ jobs entail. As supply chains become more intricate and entwined, it’s helpful for supply chain professionals to understand the responsibilities and pressures their business counterparts face every day.

High demand is nothing new for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. You’d think these companies would have the use of field intelligence and downstream consumption data down to a science by now. Unfortunately, many still grapple with it.

Blockchain has been touted as the cure-all for everything from financial fraud to voting, but this week Wired magazine’s Maryn McKenna suggested that blockchain could help prevent E. coli. How? Consider that two weeks ago, the earliest signs of an outbreak of the disease surfaced in New Jersey.

I recently had the opportunity to write a brief response to The Financial Times about what a supply chain transformation entails. The response accompanied a large feature on the status of seafood conglomerate Thai Union, which faced a crisis in 2015.

I was having dinner with a good friend recently, and I mentioned to her that Netflix Cofounder Marc Randolph was speaking at our annual conference and I had interviewed him for APICS magazine earlier that day.

British supermarket chain Iceland is making a bold sustainability move. The retailer is becoming the first major UK supermarket chain to stop using palm oil in its store-brand food products. It aims to accomplish this goal by the end of 2018, The Guardian reports.

In nearly every conversation I have about planning, especially regarding the sales and operations planning (S&OP) demand consensus meeting, I speak to the need for critical thinking and active challenges. These are not throwaway expressions but key elements of a mindset that must be adopted.

Since 2012, The Manufacturing Institute has celebrated women in manufacturing with its STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Ahead Awards, which recognize women in manufacturing who exemplify leadership within their companies.

Technology is a driving force behind operational innovation and is rapidly altering how companies do business. Faced with growing pricing pressure as customers demand more for less and more quickly, supply chain professionals are seeking new solutions to optimize operations and retain their competitive edge.

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, supply chain professionals are expected to embrace many new technologies — from artificial intelligence and robotics to predictive analytics and cloud computing.

U.S. leaders are levying new tariffs on Chinese imports and tightening restrictions on Chinese investments in U.S. technology, The Wall Street Journal reports. The efforts are an attempt to limit intellectual property theft and adjust a trade imbalance with China.

The 2018 APICS Awards of Excellence deadline is fast-approaching, so I thought it would be useful to share some tips on what really makes an entry stand out. To do so, I first asked our judges what they’re looking for.

In just a few years, digital assistants have become common place in homes, with adults and kids asking alarm-clock-sized devices about the weather, their favorite songs and much more. This week, IBM announced its own take on the trend with Watson Assistant.

Both companies and customers rely on a business’s regular hours of operation. Companies use this time to make and sell their products or services, and customers rely on these opportunities to acquire the goods or services they need. This balance falls apart when a natural disaster disrupts operations.

Two Harvard Business Review contributors have pointed out that there is not yet a well-accepted definition of what industries fit into the supply chain economy. Along the same lines, there also is not a formal count of the number of jobs supply chain encompasses or a rating of those jobs.

Procurement has been a key part of supply chain management for decades. However, the concept is a relatively new trend for law firms — the sector in which I work. Here, we have experienced some resistance to the procurement movement, typically stemming from a lack of understanding.

Supply chain professionals know that in the medical industry, supply chain performance is critical to the health and wellness of individuals. This week, Wired’s Maryn McKenna uncovered the effects a “long, thin” supply chain has on the medical industry.

As a writer and editor, word choice is critical to what I do. Often, I want to confirm that I’ve selected the best possible term for an APICS magazine article or blog post, so I look to Merriam-Webster. (Unless I’m verifying the correctness of a supply chain expression; in which case, I obviously check my trusty APICS Dictionary!)