An integrated point-of-sale IT strategy will help CPG firms gain valuable insight into consumption data that can pave the way for a positive impact in a number of important areas. They include new/improved product formulation, inventory optimization, supply chain optimization, trade promotion management and optimization, and demand/forecast optimization. Furthermore, an integrated POS strategy can create a win-win for all stakeholders involved, including the retail partners.

The year 2014 will see the debut of the Triple E, first of a series of at least 20 containerships to be operated by Denmark's Maersk Line, each with a capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Few could have imagined this behemoth at the dawn of containerization in the mid-1950s. (Malcom McLean's Ideal X carried only 58 boxes.) In the ensuing decades, containerships grew steadily in size, as operators sought to squeeze the most out of their investments. When ships became too wide to fit through the Panama Canal, builders doubled down. Between 2008 and 2015, average ship size will have risen from 6,000 TEUs to more than 11,000 TEUs, according to Lars Jensen, chief executive officer and partner with SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. Maersk's Triple Es will dwarf them all.

Back in the early 1980s, when I was new to the world of transportation, logistics and the supply chain, I recall ocean carriers complaining that their freight rates weren't high enough to meet operating costs, let alone generate a profit. They were begging shippers to accept higher rates, in exchange for greater service reliability. Yet every time they would achieve some traction on the rate front, they would flood the market with new capacity, and offer deep discounts in order to fill the new ships. Then they would appeal to shippers for higher rates ...

Analyst Insight: Consumer packaged goods manufacturers are being squeezed by trends in customer purchasing and technology, coupled with pricing pressures, higher input costs, and fluctuating commodity prices. In today's market, CPG companies have to integrate and collaborate with trading partners and better manage retail shelf space. Growing recognition that failure to innovate will result in poor performance, acquisition, or worse, is driving leading CPG companies to transform their operating models. - Ben Pivar, vice president, Supply Chain Technologies Practice, Capgemini North America Applications Services