More retailers today are looking at the way they manage their non-merchandising indirect spends, and procurement transformation is increasingly coming into the conversation.

Larry Boroff, director of automation systems engineering with FORTE, outlines the fundamentals behind balancing the need for flexibility, efficiency, technology and cost control.

TZA, a vendor of software to track and enhance labor performance across the supply chain, has released a new version of its cloud-based ProTrack Labor Management System.

The Supply Chain Council has launched M4SC, a newly developed framework and accompanying training tool for supply-chain management.

Accellos, a vendor of supply-chain execution software, has released AccellosOne SkyTrack Mobile.

A recent Deloitte survey of 600 executives at manufacturing and retail companies found that 63 percent were highly concerned about risks within the extended supply chain comprising vendors and customers, ranking it among their top-two concerns. The executives surveyed also cited "lack of acceptable cross-functional collaboration" as the number one obstacle to managing risk effectively. While these survey results indicating a serious lack of collaboration and coordination among trading partners are certainly worrisome, should they really come as a surprise?