The goal of industrial asset management, or IAM, is to maximize the value of a company's assets. An effective IAM solution can make the business more efficient, reduce downtime and improve service delivery. And yet, for many companies, the current IAM operating model just isn't cutting it. For original equipment manufacturers or OEMs in particular, the IAM function leaves a great deal of unrealized potential on the table – in some instances, up to 20 percent service cost reduction, 15 percent revenue enhancement, and 15 percent asset up-time improvement.

The importance and potential of supply chain finance as a line of business is increasingly recognised by the European banking community, according to the latest study by Demica, a technology specialist for working capital solutions.

China's investment of billions of dollars in a domestic commercial aviation industry has yet to result in a commercially viable aircraft and is unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Add Spartanburg, S.C., to the list of manufacturing hotspots. That's where BMW AG last week announced it will invest $1bn to build the equivalent of a new factory to its already formidable U.S. production site. Following the expansion, BMW's U.S. complex will become the automaker's biggest, larger than any it operates in Germany, its home.

Every business has its rock stars. In the world of supply chain, you might call Joseph C. Andraski the lead singer.

More than a dozen of the world's largest car makers have agreed on minimum human rights, environmental and business ethics standards for their global supply chains, according to the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in Michigan and CSR Europe in Brussels, which today jointly announced the "unprecedented agreement."