The Association for Advancing Automation, the umbrella trade group for the Robotic Industries Association, AIA - Advancing Vision + Imaging, and the Motion Control Association, has launched a new web site, www.A3automate.org.

Sun Lieu, head of supply chain engineering at the Electronics Measurement Business Group of Agilent Technologies, talks about the supply chain challenges of a high-mix, low-volume business and describes Agilent's two-level supplier collaboration model.

Four years ago, Caribou coffee's supply chain was managed with spreadsheets. Their only method of gauging demand was the order-fill numbers of product leaving the warehouse - basic replenishment. The team knew they were missing a big opportunity - accurate visibility to drive a more efficient operation, right-size inventory, improved customer service, as well as the expansion of product sales. The supply chain team also knew they were faced with a lot of risk. Could they respond to demand variability?

Mike Landry, president of Barkawi Management Consultants, North America, explains the "control tower" approach to supply chain management and why he believes this approach can enable companies to go beyond incremental improvements to real transformational change.

When integrating its two major business units, First Solar partnered with Kinaxis to provide supply and demand planning capabilities, says Shellie Molina, vice president-global supply chain.

At the same time that supply chains are becoming increasingly global and complex, customers are expecting faster than ever service, says Vijay Subramanian, president of Prana Consulting.