Challenged by fast fashion, prompted by speed to market and buoyed by thoughts of small runs/low inventory levels, reshoring or the return of manufacturing for a company and its brands to its country of origin (COO) has sparked continuing interest in the best strategies for market entry and what it takes to succeed once you are there.

In a further sign of the falling barriers to hardware innovation, the price of 3D printing machines is expected to fall 6.4 percent in 2016, according to a report by market research firm IBISWorld.

In many businesses, supply chain management historically has fallen outside the core of the company's compliance function. But that was then. A renewed push this year by state, federal and international regulators – not to mention consumer advocacy groups, NGOs and foreign legislatures – to conscript the business community into the fight against human trafficking and the use of child, indentured, forced and other forms of coerced labor has brought supply chain management to the front and center of the corporate compliance world.

Are consumers really willing to pay more for a product that's environmentally sustainable and socially responsible? Depends on whom you ask.