Analyst Insight: Demand planning can be both a complex and demanding exercise to fully conduct. To get past the initial challenges, it is tempting to consolidate demand planning into a few simple metrics and goals to support adoption. Blue Hill believes that this approach will ultimately sabotage the best-intended intentions to support enterprise demand planning. – Hyoun Park, Chief Research Officer at Blue Hill Research

It's easy for tech-savvy executives to get excited about Big Data and advanced analytics these days. Newly available tools allow companies to do things they couldn't do before, like recommending specific products to online buyers or mining workers' compensation claims data to recommend better treatment options for injured employees. But whiz-bang capabilities don't create real value unless an organization incorporates these new techniques into its day-to-day operations.

Analyst Insight: The greatest gap between performance and satisfaction of supply chain applications is in the area of demand planning. The reasons are many, but many are rooted in organizational and processes issues causing many people to throw in the towel too early. – Lora Cecere, Founder of Supply Chain Insights

U.S. Carnivores U.S. meat exporters caught in the middle of the West Coast port labor standoff diverted millions of pounds of chilled pork and beef into cold storage facilities over the last few weeks, creating an oversupply of meat, analysts said.

Analyst Insight: Collaboration is widely identified by supply chain analysts as a critical trend for supply chain execution. But it is one thing to "say" collaboration and quite another thing to get it right and garner real results from your efforts. For the best results, think of collaboration and integration together. And don't be afraid to contract for collaboration. - Kate Vitasek is a faculty member of the University of Tennessee's Graduate Center for Executive Education.

Analyst Insight: Supply chain efficiencies and dynamics are tested daily by the heightened need for companies to meet a growing set of demands. As efficiency and consumer demand converge, visibility grows in importance and can only be brought about through collaboration. What makes visibility and collaboration between stakeholders possible is a common language of standards that can enable supply chain participants to understand and act on information with agility and precision. Industries achieve remarkable progress together. – Siobhan O'Bara, Senior Vice President of Industry Engagement, GS1 US

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration has unveiled proposed rules for drone flights. The plan maintains aviation safety standards, but may make it difficult for companies - such as Amazon - hoping to use drones for delivery service.

Retail demand planning is, to a great extent, a game of numbers. But the store that relies entirely on hard statistics is likely to be in for an unpleasant surprise.