Analyst Insight: The most important resource for the supply chain moving forward is people. However, the outlook is grim. The world's labor supply is shrinking, which has huge implications at a macro level on GDP and economic growth and at a business level in terms of available talent. The world labor supply hit an inflection point in 2012, when the proportion of nonworking age population "growth" became greater than the working age population. – John Johnson, senior content specialist, Gartner

Analyst Insight: Concern over a potential economic slowdown in 2017 is showing up in both government policy and business strategy in ways that positively impact the logistics sector. Government policies are showing concern for profitability of businesses. Many of the new incentives are centered around logistics. Meanwhile, businesses are taking a harder look at where to make profit in sectors which have thus far shown little margin, such as e-commerce logistics. – Jim Serstad, managing director, Asia, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: The lines between consumer products and retail are more blurred than ever. But for large CPG companies, the challenge remains to create seamless, responsive supply networks optimized to sense demand and respond efficiently, whether shipping to a major retailer or an individual customer. The next five years will see increased adoption of digital technology, heightened M&A activity, and new competition from unexpected sources, all jockeying for a place in customers' homes. – Matt Gunn, manager of Industry Solutions, GT Nexus

Analyst Insight: As companies adjust their business strategy to the dynamically changing marketplace, many seek direction when investigating options for supply-chain improvement. With help from data insights obtained through supply-chain analysis, more companies are achieving greater flexibility for meeting demand by leveraging their supply chain as a competitive advantage. – John Richardson, vice president, Supply Chain Analytics, Transportation Insight

Analyst Insight: The chemical industry is a critical partner to many other industries, with nearly 96 percent of all manufactured products being touched in some way by chemistry. The accelerating pace of product life-cycles, driven by demand for new and innovative products, plays an important role in driving the need for innovation in the chemical industry. To drive innovation and improve business performance, chemical companies are looking at the role of digital transformation as a lever to improving the innovation process. – John Santagate, Research Manager, IDC

Analyst Insight: Most products arrive in the hands of customers through traditional processes. Sales and operations build forecasts, make procurement plans, and order the necessary materials to produce the products, and manufacturing builds the products at the planned production rates. Distribution plans are established to account for some variation in demand, and customers are promised specific delivery dates. If all goes well, the gap between demand and supply at every point in the system will be small. But that rarely happens. –Eduardo Alvarez, principal, PwC, and Rodger Howell, principal, PwC

Analyst Insight: The Internet of Things (IoT) was originally the concept of "things talking." In the early days we envisioned RFID tags on everything, helping to identify and locate any object in the universe. The RFID tag would uniquely identify the item, determine its location, and put a time stamp to the transaction. It was a straightforward concept. It was either there, or it was not. It was all about identity and location. – Eric Peters, executive vice president, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: When people talk about the Internet of Things, they can mean many different things, even within one industry. For a manufacturer, there are four major areas where IoT may have an impact: the manufacturing plant, the supply chain, service and the product. – Bill McBeath, chief research officer, ChainLink Research

Analyst Insight: The chemical/energy industry market is ripe with mergers and acquisitions on a global basis as a way for businesses to position themselves for sustained growth. With low fuel prices, foreign competition and an uncertain economy, processors are shuffling their portfolios to offset losses. – Simon Hardy, senior supply chain evangelist, Elemica