At the conclusion of my 10th annual APICS conference, I continue to be amazed and motivated by the attendees, speakers, and APICS staff. I’m ecstatic to give readers everywhere a glimpse of what we learned this week in Washington, DC.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is making plans to adopt innovations in the 3D printing marketplace. The US shipping company announced last week that it would expand its 3D printing services to Asia and Europe “in a bid to fully embrace and get ahead of a trend that threatens to eat away a small but lucrative part of its business,” Nick Carey writes for Reuters.

Digital supply chains may become known as the great levelers. In this era, small businesses that lack the capital of their larger competitors can use information and digital supply chains to make up the difference. For example, online property rental marketplace Airbnb does not own any hotels, yet it is responsible for millions of overnight stays. The Uber online transportation network does not own any taxis, but the company has delivered many millions of trips. Although the business models of Airbnb and Uber are new, leveraging the assets and inventory of others is an old business strategy. Take drop shipping, for example.

Despite the added control offered by DRP and centralized “push” channel planning, there are often occasions when distribution centers possess insufficient stock to fill the inventory needs of the distribution network. Such an event could occur because of the normal lag time in channel information and material flows or because of unplanned demand or supplier stock out.

This is the second 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.

The title of this week’s Supply Chain Management Now isn’t from a new Hollywood thriller; this situation is real, and it’s serious. One of the world’s biggest shipping companies, South Korea-based Hanjin Shipping, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, leaving as much as $14 billion worth of cargo floating and manufacturers uncertain, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Given today’s rapidly evolving supply chain environment, APICS Research has recognized a need to define the term “digital supply chain.” It has become a challenge, since few people agree on how to summarize the integration of so many different technologies, activities, and outputs. Digital supply chain must define the future of digital collaboration, risk management, supply chain flows, and so on. In this series of blog posts I will highlight some relevant topics in the developing area of digital supply chain.

Winning an award is a wonderful way to brag. It’s an endorsement from a respected third party that brings your organization positive publicity and credibility. It provides a great opportunity to market your organization and your work.

Although water covers almost 70 percent of the earth’s surface, only about 2.5 percent of it is fresh and only about 1 percent is easy to access. That means about one in nine people worldwide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water. Therefore, replenishing and preserving water is an immense part of sustainability efforts for industries and for individuals.

SAP has a marketing campaign underway that showcases its technology through the eyes of its customers, and one video segment stands out to me. It tells the story of athletic apparel manufacturer Under Armour, and the key takeaway is that supply chain excellence has made the company what it is today.

In the previous blog we began a discussion on what happens to the distribution orders (DOs) generated by satellite warehouses. It was stated that the most important output of DRP was the generation of a schedule of DOs extending out into the planning horizon.

This summer, the world has heard a great deal about the Zika virus, especially as athletes and fans from all around the globe flocked to Brazil, an affected region, for the 2016 Olympics. As the mosquito-borne virus has spread to the United States, Zika has affected US supply chains and trade with China as well. Chinese officials have tracked the virus and keep a list of Zika-affected countries. Shipments from these countries must be fumigated before they enter the Chinese market. Last month, officials added the United States to this list. This new status has US exporters worried about added costs and shipping delays, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In August 2015, China rattled global trade by suddenly devaluing the yuan against the US dollar. The devaluation came at a time of weakening China exports, falling stock prices, rising debt levels, and a new long-term strategy to increase Chinese domestic consumption. Global concern at the time was for stability. What has happened in the 12 months since? More devaluation and a new supply-side recovery strategy.

In the previous blog we examined the mechanics of the first part of the DRP pull system in action. The grid illustrated how the bill of distribution (BOD) was used by the DRP processor to guide the implosion process whereby projected inventory shortages at the lowest echelon in the channel structure are converted into distribution orders (DOs) and then placed as a schedule of gross requirements in the planning grids of supplying warehouses.

Mexico’s manufacturing economy is booming, according to an article published earlier this week in The Los Angeles Times. This manufacturing insurgence is fostering a growing middle class in that country, but what that means for American manufacturing and its middle class is still in question.

Trust is at a low ebb for some in the European auto industry. Various automakers are facing investigations and fines for excessive diesel emissions. Investors are nervous about expensive R&D bets made on electric battery powertrains and SUV designs. On top of this, the German Federal Cartel Office reported making major raids on six automakers and parts suppliers on June 23, 2016 as part of a large steel price-fixing cartel investigation.

You may never have heard of the companies Rimowa, Jungbunzlauer, or Strama-MPS, but an August 12 Harvard Business Review article by Winfried W. Weber suggests that these and other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Germany could teach a few things to companies all over the world seeking to endure in good economic times and bad.

Building self-managing networks seems like a modern solution to overcoming complexity that scales beyond human comprehension. The Internet is a common example. But human beings have actually been building complex, self-managing networks for a very long time—even before computers.

Walmart Stores Inc. this week agreed to pay $3.3 billion for Jet.com, a year-old online retailer. The Wall Street Journal reports this is the largest-ever purchase of a US e-commerce startup, and a LinkedIn Pulse article digs into the reasons why.

Did you turn on a light, ride a train, or drive a car today? I’m guessing you probably did. And, while doing these activities, did you think about what it takes to ensure your electricity works, keep your train operating on time, or deliver your car to your local dealership so you could buy it?

Business and bicycling: It’s not often that those two things are mentioned together. However, this week, Quartz ran a story advising businesses to learn from British Cycling and how it seized an opportunity to get more women involved in the sport.

Earlier this month, APICS launched the definitive global standard for logistics best practices, the APICS Certified in Logistics, Transportation, and Distribution (CLTD) credential program, which will elevate knowledge and skills in logistics, transportation, and distribution practitioners.

Marketing isn’t just for the marketing department or your company’s marketing people. In fact, the marketing you can do is probably much more interesting to the people who matter a lot to you – prospective employees.

It’s the solution we hear over and over again for many of our supply chain challenges: transparency. Transparency for suppliers, transparency for customers, and transparency for colleagues are all made out to be the ultimate answer. However, in his July 21 Harvard Business Review article, David De Cremer challenges that idea. He warns that transparency might not be the “universal solution—and may even create new problems.”

2015 saw the beginning of a decline in US industrial output. By February 2016, US industrial production had fallen five times over six months. Capacity utilization fell to 75.3%—4.7% below long-term historic averages.