Internet and high-tech collaboration tools can add structure and security to a globally complex supplier-to-customer data-transfer process.

In the last year the headlines have been full of news about global supply chains and the disasters affecting them. From the Thai floods to the Japanese tsunami, to the tornadoes in Wichita and the Nylon-12 plant explosion in Germany, several fundamental truths about global supply chains have been made more apparent.

What began as a trickle of stories about challenges to China's supposed economic dominance has become a steady flow. It began with revelations of working conditions at Chinese factories. Soon we were reading about rising wages in the industrial sector - great for Chinese workers, but sure to make the country a less attractive source of cheap manufacturing for the West. Then there was the recent slowdown in China's foreign direct investment, along with the nation's struggle to create an economy that's geared more toward domestic consumption in the service of a growing middle class. Meanwhile, serious questions persist about the stability of China's banking system. And just last week, we learned that China's trade surplus with the U.S. is rapidly shrinking, as the country wrestles with the consequences of a stronger yuan.