Less than 10 percent of hospitals have warmed up to RFID technology.

Never mind those expert consultancies and handsomely compensated analysts who purport to tell us the future of supply-chain management. The real answers can be found in an event that's held once a year in the heart of Silicon Valley. With dinner thrown in as well.

Import volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to grow 1.8 percent in December over the same month last year, and the year should end with an increase of 2.3 percent over 2012, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Food is now arriving at grocery store shelves across the East Coast with a smaller carbon footprint, thanks to the recent purchase by Supervalu Inc. of 35 Class 8 Volvo trucks that operate on compressed natural gas (CNG).