Automotive suppliers are struggling to keep up with increased production, according to a new survey, raising serious concerns among purchasing executives.

As tainted-food scandals go, it wasn't so bad. The discovery early this year of unlabeled horse meat in European food products wasn't for the most part a safety issue. It was a violation of cultural norms, to be sure, as well as a truth-in-packaging problem. Most of all, it was a supply-chain failure.

Cognex Corp. has developed a new version of In-Sight Track & Trace, the company's identification and data-verification software for healthcare product serialization.

CFOs remain optimistic about financial prospects and are focused on growth, as indicated by increased hiring, capital and R&D investments, according to buying consortium Prime Advantage's fifth annual Group CFO Survey.

On March 11, 2011, a tsunami off the coast of Japan caused human tragedy on a massive scale, killing thousands and rendering more than half a million homeless. The tsunami also wreaked havoc on business supply chains worldwide. Toyota and Honda experienced a 30-percent and 60-percent decline in profit, respectively, which both attributed to production lags caused by limited supplies of parts after the tsunami. The tsunami caused an estimated $40bn in economic losses due to interruptions in global supply chains.