Just two weeks before companies are required to begin filing reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the presence of conflict minerals in their products, confusion reigns.

My previous post covered the difficulty of tracing and ensuring the quality of automotive and aerospace parts. The job is just as tough for consumer packaged goods and food producers.

Think it's tough tracking finished goods from source to sale? Trying doing the same for the millions of parts that go into them.

We speak incessantly about the impact of "consumer demand" on manufacturers' supply chains. But do we really understand what that term means?

Carbon footprint: What a misleading metaphor that is.

No doubt about it - consumer packaged goods companies are drowning in data today.

Same-day delivery of items ordered online or from stores is an irresistible idea. Now if retailers could only figure out how to make it work.

It's getting harder and harder to keep air-cargo freighters profitably aloft.

Fast and innovative: that's the image conveyed by the air cargo industry. So why is it lagging so badly when it comes to automating documentation and standardizing key procedures?

It looks as though we're in for a year of continued economic recovery and job growth, however gradual. That should be good news for ocean carriers - assuming they don't undermine their own success by flooding the market with capacity, then engaging in rampant discounting to fill it.