Just two weeks before companies are required to begin filing reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the presence of conflict minerals in their products, confusion reigns.

Fleetmatics Group PLC has released a new software platform to support truck-fleet management by mobile workforces.

Sana International Inc., an export-management company, has joined with J. Canavati & Co., LLC, an agent for international logistics and trading firms, to develop new international markets for U.S. exports.

Most firms have already invested in business intelligence, supply chain management (SCM), and modeling tools that claim to make it possible to drill deeper into their supply chain data in search of savings. These tools are often marketed with vague promises that they will harness the organization's 'big data' and/or provide 'end-to-end' visibility.

My previous post covered the difficulty of tracing and ensuring the quality of automotive and aerospace parts. The job is just as tough for consumer packaged goods and food producers.

Maybe people and robots can co-exist in the workplace after all.

Savi Technology Inc. has launched Savi Insight, a cloud-based sensor-analytics tool designed for the Internet of Things.