As an industry, global consumer products companies have historically underinvested in plants and manufacturing capabilities. In fact, a significant number of organizations may still be running their operations on equipment and processes that were last updated in the prior millennium. Under these circumstances, throughput can rarely keep pace with current needs. At the same time, many of these same companies have made one or more large acquisitions that slow the supply chain down even more: duplication and redundancy at the plant level; disparate operating and ERP systems that cloud visibility; and manual processes that consumed valuable resources.

There was a continued modest improvement in air cargo markets in August, according to the International Air Transport Association. August airfreight demand was up 3.6 percent year over year, which is considerably better than the year-to-date performance of a 0.7-percent expansion.

The first draft of the U.S. Roadmap for Material Handling & Logistics is now available for public review.

Basware has joined with MasterCard to develop an electronic-payment application which speeds up payment to suppliers upon invoice approval, while extending payment terms for buyers.