Today's highly complex supply chain has to contend with a lack of skilled labor, says Dirk Hejnal, CEO of Körber Supply Chain. That necessitates investment in automation technology.

Getting inventory closer to the end user saves money on transportation and is much more eco-friendly, says Corey Apirian, chief executive officer of Davinci Micro Fulfillment.

Seth Patin, CEO and founder of LogistiVIEW, and David Meyn, senior director of distribution at Cintas, discuss optimizing labor visibility and productivity at the uniform company.

Women need to be further empowered if they are to continue their climb to senior management positions in supply chain and logistics, says Victoria Ma, head of digital innovation at Miebach Consulting.

If any technology is making up for the labor shortage and boosting productivity in the warehouse, it's robotics, says Jake Heldenberg, head of solution design, warehousing, North America, for Vanderlande.

Harpinder Singh, managing partner of Innovation Endeavors, discusses problems to be solved and capabilities of startups to be considered before investing in this space.

Aidan Madigan-Curtis, partner at Eclipse Ventures, discusses what makes technologies in logistics and transportation worthy of serious investment today.

4PLs and 3PLs are not mutually exclusive, says Eric Rempel, chief innovation officer at Redwood Logistics. But 4PLs do have other capabilities that logistics managers might want to tap.

Charley Dehoney, vice president of Zebox, discusses workflow automation, document digitization, transportation optimization, visibility, decarbonization of assets and infrastructure, and the future of work.

Because the labor shortage is expected to continue, warehouse operators must consider investment in robotics, says Stanislas Normand, managing director of Exotec.