Ann Drake, CEO of DSC Logistics and one of the few female chief executives in the logistics industry, discusses the supply chain as a career path for women and the goals of AWESOME (Achieving Womens' Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management and Education), a new organization that she founded.

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the continuing efforts of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to reduce, if not eliminate, the use of independent owner-operators in port drayage operations. But that's just one of several major issues affecting truckers today. Here are some more:

As the global economic landscape evolves and shifts, companies seek out new sourcing locations and growth opportunities in worldwide markets. Global expansion brings about new supply chain challenges and complexity that can vary by market and country. In North America, companies are looking for closer sourcing locations, greater efficiency, and opportunities to grow their export business. Latin America, due to its proximity, emerging market growth, and attractive free-trade agreements (FTA), as well as preferential agreements with the U.S. has made it a desirable trade region.

The CO3 Project is an initiative funded by the European Commission to develop and roll out tools and standards that will help shippers and logistics providers identify opportunities to co-load, share capacity and shift freight from road to rail. Giventis International provides the technology platform for this project.

Supply chain, logistics and warehouse operations are at the heart of most companies' physical processes, either inbound into production or outbound to customers. This is never truer than for the food and beverage manufacturing industry in the UK.