Airfreight markets in March were up 5.9 percent compared to a year ago and capacity grew 3.4 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association. While this marks a significant improvement in volumes compared to March 2013, much of the growth took place in the final quarter of 2013 (over and above the usual year-end volume growth). Since the beginning of the year, air cargo volumes have been basically flat. This plateau in volumes is consistent with the recent pause in improvements to business confidence and world trade.

Challenge: A specialized industrial manufacturing company was looking to hire a new transportation manager to better manage multiple transportation providers, each with their own unique billing processes.

Project-based operations that improved on-time and on-budget performance by 10 percent or more were nine times as likely to also improve dramatically on key financial metrics such as net profit margin and cost of compliance. Nearly every project-based manufacturer feels it is important for their company to improve on end-to-end project management, but less than half of the companies in project manufacturing, aerospace and defense (A&D) and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sectors with project-based operations make wide use of any recognized category of commercial software system. This includes limited use of enterprise resources planning and quality management (QMS) systems.

Fujitsu UK & Ireland (UK&I), the IT systems arm of global electronics firm Fujitsu, has acquired Texas RFID software and solutions provider GlobeRanger.

A new digital presence has recently been created by AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education), the industry-wide supply chain leadership initiative started in early 2013. The launch of www.awesomeleaders.org is timed to coincide with the second Annual AWESOME Symposium on May 15, 2014, in Chicago.

The Japanese government has long banned most weapons exports. That policy helped buttress Japan's pacifism, but it also hindered the growth of the country's defense industry. Because it couldn't sell parts overseas, Japanese defense companies missed out on chances to develop fighter jets, tanks and other weaponry with the U.S. That's changing.

Tom Bacon, consultant with Revenue Optimization, discusses how supply chains can embrace the model of dynamic pricing that was pioneered by the airline industry.