Challenge: One of the world's largest steel manufacturers seeks to improve the efficiency of its logistics function. The manufacturer faces two key challenges: 1.) An overall lack of efficiency of all outbound freight flows to worldwide destinations. 2.) A manual, resource-heavy process for managing all shipments, associated costs and billing activity from end to end.

Challenge: In an effort to better communicate with external partners and suppliers, a national gas and convenience store chain was looking to improve order management, invoicing and overall visibility into the supply chain.

Demand planners are coping with the growing complexity of consumer-goods supply chains. Most of all, they have to do a better job of getting the numbers right, says Robert F. Byrne, chief executive officer of Terra Technology.

Webalo, maker of a mobile application development platform, has joined with Bell Nursery to launch a mobile product for supply chain and inventory management.

A steep rise in vessel orders risks bringing the recent bonanza in oil tanker shipping to an abrupt end, according to the latest edition of the Tanker Forecaster, published by shipping consultancy Drewry.

Recently, McDonald's, the world's iconic largest food service provider, has been (forgive the cliché) through the grinder. Poor performance has led to the departure of its CEO and plenty of critical attention in the business pages. Part of this story relates to the provenance, or origins, of its products: Chains that provide more upmarket "fast casual" dining such as Panera, Chipotle, and Shake Shack have brands that speak of freshness, health and trustworthy sourcing.

Toby Brzoznowski, executive vice president of LLamasoft Inc., details the changes he's seen in supply-chain modeling and network design over the last 15 years. And he offers a picture of where the technology and supporting business processes are going.

Companies such as Harley Davidson Motor Co. in Milwaukee, Illinois Tool Works Inc. in Glenview, Ill. and Essve Tech Inc., a manufacturer of corrugated steel pipes in Alpharetta, Ga., are actively recruiting women to fill the shortage caused by a growth spurt in U.S. manufacturing due to lower energy costs, reshoring a more competitive labor market as Baby Boomers continue to retire. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated last spring that 241,000 factory jobs remained unfilled.