Novelis, a leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, has opened what it calls the world’s largest aluminum recycling center. Located adjacent to the company’s rolling mill in Nachterstedt, Germany, the $258m (€200m) recycling center will process up to 400,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap annually, turning it back into high-value aluminum ingots to feed the company’s European manufacturing network.

A shift is underway for distributors of industrial supplies and the e-commerce experience they provide to their customers. In 2013, more than 63 percent of industrial supply buyers said they made purchases online, with half of those purchasers spending at least 50 percent of their annual budget with suppliers who have an e-commerce platform.

China's investment of billions of dollars in a domestic commercial aviation industry has yet to result in a commercially viable aircraft and is unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Supply chain visibility is a requirement for any organization competing in today's global marketplace. The top strategy for organizations looking to improve visibility into their supply chains is to implement technologies that enable effective monitoring of not just tier one suppliers but tier two and tier three suppliers. New technologies enable real-time collaboration between an organization and its suppliers by providing a mechanism for sharing information about inventory and processes throughout the supply chain. – Andrea Stroud, Research Program Manager, APQC

Analyst Insight: The true value of supplier relationship management is not what you think. It isn't just about managing a bi-directional relationship between the buyer and supplier – it's about managing the extended supply network (customers' customers and suppliers' suppliers). In today's business, the best network of relationships achieves optimal results; thus, managing the supplier relationship is not only critical to success, it's mandatory if full value is to be extracted for both the buyer and the supplier. – Mickey North Rizza, BravoSolution

Analyst Insight: There needs to be a clear line of sight between what is in the contract (and the contractual obligations of both parties), the performance metrics or KPIs, and the relationship, including a 360º perception of the relationship. However in practice this is rarely the case. – Alan Day, Chairman & Founder, State of Flux

America's chain restaurants this year plan to ask customers to dig a bit deeper into their pockets, hoping to offset higher food costs and put a bit more cash in their wallets, according the latest national menu price survey conducted by restaurant supply chain co-op SpenDifference.