More predictions for the future of supply-chain management, courtesy of a panel of industry insiders at the fifth annual seer-fest sponsored by the San Francisco Roundtable of the Council of Supply-Chain Management Professionals:

All hail the omni-channel. But how can logistics providers possibly keep pace with an explosion in the number of delivery points within a city that must be served?

Since computers and data automation first entered the workplace, integrating systems and information has been a constant challenge - and often a costly one.

Since the end of World War II and the birth of the modern global economy, business leaders have come to accept an iron law: International trade always expands faster than economic growth. Between the late 1940s and 2013, that assumption held true. Trade grew roughly twice as fast as the world economy annually, as fresh markets opened up, governments signed free-trade pacts, new industries and consumers emerged, and technological advances made international trade cheaper and faster. Now this iron law may be crumbling.