A growing number of consumers go to Amazon first when shopping for online products. According to a Survata study, commissioned by BloomReach, 44 percent of shoppers go straight to Amazon, beating out the 34 percent who go direct to search engines and 21 percent who go directly to a retailer's e-commerce site.

It has been roughly four decades since industrial robots - with mechanical arms that can be programmed to weld, paint and pick up and place objects with monotonous regularity - first began to transform assembly lines in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Yet walk the floor of any manufacturer, from metal shops to electronics factories, and you might be surprised by how many tasks are still performed by human hands - even some that could be done by machines.

Elemica says its new sourcing optimization solution not only enables procurement professionals to make better buying decisions but improves the entire supply chain.

Transplace, a provider of transportation-management services and logistics technology, has acquired M33 Integrated, a third-party logistics provider with an emphasis on the packaging, chemical and advanced materials sectors.