Manufacturing and distribution executives love the idea of slashing inventories. But it's distribution-center managers who must deal with the consequences.

OEMs' insistence on more and more cost reductions has caused painful friction in the relationship, according to the annual Global OEM-Supplier Relations Study conducted by IHS Automotive. The survey allows automotive suppliers to rate car makers on a variety of matters, including technology sourcing, profit-impacting factors, quality management and intellectual property protection matters.

The stage is set for strategic buyers. Uncertainty over macroeconomic issues may have dimmed the corporate lights on M&A plans in previous years, but 2014 is providing a more promising script. Debt financing is readily available; many corporations boast significant cash on their balance sheets; shareholders are clamoring for more than just share buybacks; and companies are scouring for targets at home and abroad with more immediacy than before. CEOs are viewing the M&A scene with more confidence than they have in a long time.

An Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule that would require modified and reconstructed power plants to meet two different carbon dioxide emissions standards under separate provisions of the Clean Air Act is illegal, states and industry groups said.

For many of us trying to navigate the 21st Century, it's become sensible – healthy, even – to maintain a simmering, low-grade paranoia about the impending robot revolution. Advances in automation and robotics are impacting virtually every area of technology and industry.