The manufacturing world is entering an era of hyper-innovation where advances in technology and material science are rapidly changing what we consider "possible" and creating new business opportunities along the way.

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

S&OP has never been more important or more confusing. For the supply chain leader, it is growing in importance and is on the top of the list for a 2014 focus. However, the market for technology solutions is confusing. We count more than thirty-five solution providers claiming to provide S&OP solutions with a range of capabilities. Here we share insights on why it matters. - Lora Cecere, CEO and Founder, Supply Chain Insights

Analyst Insight: Tracking supply chain metrics can help organizations identify opportunities for quality and performance improvement. However, identification is half the battle; organizations must adopt practices that can lead to improvement. One of these practices is the development of close relationships with key suppliers and service providers. Through these relationships, organizations can realize improvements in both performance and quality. - Becky Partida, Research Specialist, APQC

Analyst Insight: Best-in-class companies are evolving to meet their customers' needs by reverse engineering their supply chains to align with overall sales strategies and customer desires. This process involves integrating and working various verticals within a company in order to achieve the desired outcome. Supply chain professionals are taking a different look at their companies' operations through the lens of customers' perspectives and expectations, and organizing the supply chains around those focal points. - Rodrigo Cambiaghi, Principal, Ernst & Young LLP and EY US Leader for E2E Supply Chain practice; and Dieter Bölzing, Principal, Ernst & Young LLP and EY Supply Chain Strategy & Planning, EMEIA

Analyst Insight: Sherman's Law of Forecast Accuracy states that forecast accuracy improves in direct correlation to its distance from usefulness. It's time to stop being driven crazy by demand variability. Don't be driven by demand; sense, shape and respond to demand. Your company can better predict and respond to demand variability through integrating forecasting techniques with demand planning techniques; in a word, collaboration! - Rich Sherman, Principal Essentialist, Trissential

Collaboration has been an alluring concept in the world of supply chain for years, but many have found that pilots often fail to expand beyond the honeymoon phase. Part of the problem may be trust gaps at the senior executive level that are worse than at lower managerial levels. This is not irrational, but reflects the fact that top executives see a struggle over jointly created value that is less obvious further down the organisation. - Kevin O'Marah, Chief Content Officer and Head of Research, SCM World