Supply chain and logistics play key roles in responding to both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. Whether the cause is a natural disaster, armed conflict or simply undeveloped infrastructure, Jarrod Goentzel says the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab is working to improve supply chain response.

Before attempting to enter a long-term relationship with a 3PL, shippers first need to be clear internally about the goals and objectives they hope to achieve and about cultural guard rails that might thwart necessary information sharing, says Sean Coakley, senior vice president at Kenco Logistics Group.

Here's the latest advice for supply-chain managers: Sweat the small stuff. Manufacturing company executives responsible for parts and supplies tend to worry most about what would happen if deliveries from one of their biggest suppliers were disrupted by a natural disaster or other unforeseen event, says David Simchi-Levi, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Today's shippers are done talking about collaborative freight solutions and are ready to allocate resources to design and implement programs that can scale, says Ben Cubitt, senior vice president for consulting and engineering of Transplace. He describes the role that 3PLs can play in such projects.

Saudi Arabia's infrastructure spending continues to surpass expectations. The Kingdom is especially committed to a nationwide transportation infrastructure expansion program which will feature one of the world's most sophisticated rail and metro networks.

Logistics companies generate huge amounts of data that could give companies competitive advantage, according to DHL's newly released "Big Data in Logistics" trend report.