Logistics and transportation companies were hit early and hard by the economic downturn. Those that survived had to adapt operations and adopt new ideas and strategies. Many of those will remain and provide competitive benefits as the recovery takes hold.

Routing and loading optimization applications are two important technologies that trucking companies can leverage to achieve greater efficiency, says Ray Penn, consultant at Ortec. Both result in better utilization of equipment which ultimately means fewer miles driven, fewer trucks on the road and lower fuel and labor costs, he says. When enhanced by mobile communications between driver and home office, these tools become even more powerful.

Anyone doing transportation-related business in California, or planning to, must be aware of the environmental requirements imposed by the country's biggest state, says Yvonne Sanchez, air resources engineer with the California EPA Air Resources Board.

A conversation with Michael Martin, manager of global supply chain strategy at Black & Decker.

By some estimates, 75 percent of companies rely on some kind of automated warehouse management system. The question for them is whether to turn that job over to external providers or keep everything under their own roof but try in this tough economic environment to get a bargain on an upgrade.