Having a supply chain strategy is equally important for midsize companies as it is for enterprise-level firms. In Part I of this series, here are some of the key high-level approaches you can adapt from your bigger business counterparts.

Taking a company global sounds great, but once a business decides to do it, the cascade of challenges begins. Customs clearance, industry rules and regulations, and new infrastructures are just a few — especially for mid-size companies. The ones that succeed will be the ones that have done the most homework and found the right partners.

Operating a company in an omnichannel world is the price of doing business these days. Find out how to overcome a host of new supply chain challenges to satisfy the multi-channel consumers.

In today's business world, technology has opened the door to reaching and attaining a whole new customer base. The development of e-commerce has presented distributors with the opportunity to target not only businesses but also the individual consumer, converging the B2B and B2C markets.

Transportation capacity problems have been a volatile issue over the past 20 years or so. A thorough analysis provided by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, in its "State of Logistics" report, indicates that by 2017, shippers in the U.S. will face shortages in trucking resources again, predominantly a trucker shortage, in the near future due to an array of developments that may cause shippers to find loads left on the ground, shipping costs rapidly escalating, and shrinking profit margins that stun stakeholders.

Almost 25 years after the rise of warehouse management solutions to drive increased customer service levels, there still remain a significant number of Tier 1 distribution-intensive companies that continue to use manual processes to support a growing demand on the warehouse.

Amazon Supply still is not selling china or fiberglass, but it does offer more than 54,000 fittings, valves, tubing, pumps and meters. It also offers 5,300 HVAC supplies, tools and meters, but no equipment.

Data from the Reshoring Initiative shows it's primarily southern U.S. states that are seeing the benefits of manufacturing companies returning production from overseas.