Nearly everything in our lives is impacted by rail, from food products to chemicals and energy. Total U.S. weekly rail freight traffic for one week in January 2015 was 548,055 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.1 percent compared with the same week last year, as reported by the Association of American Railroads.

When the Great Recession hit, an Irish dairy and nutritionals provider realized its manual method for managing transportation and delivery was woefully inadequate. The problem was solved when it automated routing and scheduling.

The North American robotics market is off to its fastest start ever in 2015, according to statistics released from Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry's trade group.

Describing radio frequency identification labels as a "learning tool," Peltz Shoes has stopped using the technology, primarily because of high costs related to the passive tags, and changed to a barcode system.

A conversation with Britt Dayton, director of Deloitte Consulting.