In the United States, next on the Trump administration’s legislative agenda is the budget. Republican leaders have proposed an overhaul to the U.S. tax system, and manufacturers large and small are weighing what it means for them.

Recently, I was thinking about the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and how for the past 20 years it has flexed, grown and graduated to become the go-to supply chain model framework for companies, including those in the Gartner Top 25, Global 2000 and the Sustainable 100. So I decided to write about SCOR.

The economy is changing rapidly, and companies that innovate have a better chance of achieving profitability and success. Last week, Fast Company published “How Netflix-ication Can Deliver A Waste-Free Circular Economy,” which highlights the shift of products to services. Think of CDs to Spotify, DVDs to Netflix, cars to Uber, and computer storage to the cloud.

Sustainability has gone from an optional but noble issue to a business imperative

The question I’ve been asked most often, “Which of the APICS Certifications is right for me?”

Changes in customer behaviors are one of the biggest disruptions companies will face over the next five years, and a new report from PwC and APICS takes a closer look at how companies around the world are working to align business operations with ever-changing customer needs.

Next to water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, according to the Tea Association of the USA. Another fun fact: People have been drinking tea for 5,000 years. Fast forward to today, and Kenya has become the world’s top tea-exporting nation. However, its people haven’t been able to enjoy the best of its export. Instead, they have been left with the tea dust and residue. One company, Gold Crown Beverages Ltd., is hoping to change that, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Imagine having eyes and ears everywhere our supply chain exists. You would know exactly what’s going on in your operations—including what’s working, what’s not working, and how. This is similar to the future promised by the internet of things (IOT) and the industrial internet of things (IIOT).

Tracking and tracing products is an ongoing challenge for many supply chain professionals. Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety at Wal-Mart Stores, shared with The New York Times his traceability woes when monitoring product movements from farm to shelf. This task becomes especially important when identifying instigator ingredients during salmonella outbreaks, he says. To ease Yiannas’s concerns, IBM reached out to Wal-Mart Stores with an intriguing digital solution—blockchain—that could make this process much easier.

While interviewing industry experts for my March/April APICS magazine feature article, “Logistics Trends and Transformation,” I learned that parcel shipping is on an upward trajectory. In fact, according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, more than 31 billion parcels were shipped around the world in 2015.

Airplane manufacturers are pushing for production increases, but their supply chains are not always meeting their marks. Last week, The Wall Street Journal published “Where Are the Toilets? Order Glut Stretches Giant Jet Makers to Limit.” According to the article, Airbus and Boeing are missing more than toilets; they need engines and seats, too, in order to deliver their completed planes to customers.

Although many industries have fully embraced the benefits of automated inventory management systems, hospitals have yet to catch up. A new report from Cardinal Health and SERMO has uncovered that 78 percent of surveyed hospitals still use manual methods of inventory management, according to RevCycle Intelligence.

Wine making may be an ancient art, but many wine producers now use up-to-the-minute technology to gain competitive advantages in this profitable industry, according to a February 10 article in TechCrunch.

Many CPIM candidates and potential candidates have been asking us about the time table for the new reconfigured CPIM program. When will the new Learning System and exams be available? when will the old courses and exams no longer be available? I’m about to start, how will this affect me; should I start now or wait?

This week at Modern Supply Chain Experience 2017, supply chain’s best and brightest pros will see the capabilities that a cloud based, end-to-end supply chain can provide.

Today when I write left and right, I’m not talking about politics. Instead, I’m talking about UPS drivers who are instructed not to turn left into oncoming traffic—or turn right in countries where people drive on the left side of the road. Last week, Quartz published an article highlighting how this approach helps UPS save 10 million gallons of gas a year.

Businesses around the world are reiterating or shifting their priorities as a result of the new US president and expected policy changes. This week, DHL, a provider of international express mail, freight transportation, e-commerce, and supply chain management services, released survey results examining US business priorities for 2017. The survey, which was conducted immediately after the November 2016 US election, was distributed to more than 100,000 DHL customers in the United States.

New regulations resulting from the 2016 amendment to the TSCA may impact chemical supply chains.

This week, The New York Times reported that labor activists are protesting garment factory working conditions in Bangladesh, home to suppliers that work for global brands such as H&M, Gap, Zara, and others.

In the previous blog we examined the outcome of three possible sales campaigns. Before progressing, it is important to clarify the sales campaign forecast numbers. In this series of blogs, the sales forecast has been finalized as part of the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process. At this point, the S&OP teams have authorized the demand and supply plans and decomposed the aggregate plans into individual finished goods forecasts. In turn, these values have been loaded into the forecast row of the master schedule.

This is the last in a series of posts about operations and support for complex systems (or systems of systems), such as an electrical grid, railroad line, or assembly line. Such systems are nearly ubiquitous in business today, but we rarely consider their supply chain requirements until there is a problem.

This final blog on multi-echelon “push” and “pull” will summarize the uses and differences between the two techniques discussed throughout the series.

This is the third in a series of posts about operations and support for complex systems (or systems of systems), such as an electrical grid, railroad line, or assembly line. Such systems are nearly ubiquitous in business today, but we rarely consider their supply chain requirements until there is a problem.

As we approach the end of the first month of 2017, supply chain plans for the year should be well underway. However, the consolidation of four global vessel-sharing alliances into three— expected to take effect April 1—has created some uncertainties and potential challenges for shippers and their 2017 plans.

At the North American International Auto Show this month in Detroit, automakers are showing the world updates to their new models while also unveiling concept cars that “stir the imagination,” writes Jim Gorzelany for Forbes. At the show, lots of people, including reporters, are investigating the future of self-driving cars.