Women account for 37 percent of students enrolled in university supply chain courses, but only 5 percent of top-level supply chain positions at Fortune 500 companies are filled by women, according to SCM World. In comparison, women hold 15 percent of all executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies.

For the second month in a row, Class 8 orders surprised on the high side in July, with net orders of 30,103. Classes 5 to 7 net orders also posted a gain in July, coming in at 15,834 units.

Many shippers and 3PLs want a warehouse management solution - and one that is quipped with such capabilities as electronic data interchange - yet more than a third of businesses still use paper, pen or spreadsheets as their WMS.

The number of container ships afloat has decreased in the first half of 2014 and could fall on an annual basis this year, for the first time in at least 20 years. Although the total TEU nominal capacity of the global fleet continues to increase by about 6 percent a year, this growth in capacity now comes solely from the increase in average ship size, not from having more ships.

John Sharkey, senior vice president for supply chain consulting at Spinnaker, discusses how Spinnaker's clients are employing inventory optimization and supply chain network modeling to meet specific service requirements without excess safety stock.