Having a visual map that overlays a company's key facilities, suppliers and lanes with actual or potential risks helps enable faster reaction to supply chain disruptions, says Chris Kushmaul, director of supply chain solutions at IDV Solutions.

The Amazon effect is raising consumer expectations for delivery services - expectations that logistics providers are struggling to meet without degrading margins, says Robert Lieb, supply chain management professor at Northeastern University. Lieb discusses this and other trends revealed in the annual survey of global 3PL CEOs.

Retailers are moving away from liquidating outdated inventory for a set price of pennies on the dollar, says Jeremy Witte, COO of Genco Marketplace. Instead they are looking to partners to maximize liquidation returns through a network of secondary merchants.

The focus of RFID in the supply chain has shifted from case tagging to item tagging, says Ann Grackin, CEO of ChainLink Research. Grackin explains why this is so and details other areas of the supply chain where RFID is being embraced.

Managing the multiple relationships in today's supply chains requires a new level of cross-functional business processes, says Doug Lambert, director of the Global Supply Chain Forum at Ohio State. He identifies eight critical processes and explains methods for implementing them.

The biggest barrier to innovation in global supply chains is the inability of companies to identify and then quickly react to opportunities, says Corey Rhodes, vice president-Americas at Amber Road. He discusses the reasons behind these shortcomings and steps to remedy them.