The heart of a global business has always been the operations by which it buys, makes and moves what it sells to customers. Yet only 45 percent of supply chain and 40 percent of procurement executives at U.S.-based global companies say they are extremely or very confident that their supply chain organizations have the competencies they need today, according to the 2015 Supply Chain Survey from Deloitte.

APICS and American Society of Transportation and Logistics (AST&L) announced that the boards of directors of both organizations have approved an agreement under which AST&L will merge with APICS upon ratification by an AST&L member vote.

There are many articles about the problem of America's "skilled worker shortage" and why we need advanced training; but most don't define or explain what they mean by "advanced training."

For a limited time, JDA Software Group is offering Supply Chain For Dummies, available as a free download from its web site.

A recent survey of 37,000 global employers performed by staffing firm Manpower reported that 36 percent say they're having trouble filling available positions. Of those respondents, 35 percent cite a lack of hard skills or "technical competencies" as the reason, while 25 percent cite a lack of experience and 19 percent say a lack of soft skills makes it difficult to fill available roles.