Analyst Insight: Key to driving performance and achieving your business strategy is choosing KPIs that clearly align with that strategy. This usually involves identifying three or four areas where the company needs to excel, and then defining a "balanced scorecard" of metrics that shows progress toward the business goals, as well as the trade-offs necessary to achieve those goals. - Rodger Howell, Principal, PwC's Strategy&; Derrick Austring, Director, PwC's Strategy&

Analyst Insight: We have spent over a decade understanding what drives operational performance in DCs through the DC Measures Study. We've written that a DC's operations should reflect the firm's strategic direction. If the strategy is not communicated or understood, firm performance will be mixed at best. Combining over 2,000 respondents spanning five years of data, we've identified a common theme: the lack of alignment between the operational level and corporate strategy. -- Karl B. Manrodt, Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, & Donnie Williams, Assistant Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Georgia College & State University

Analyst Insight: Manufacturers are under greater pressure to improve product reliability and reduce cost-of-quality non-conformance, while increasing product functionality. This can be done through increased use of software, mechatronic systems, new materials and manufacturing technologies. Still, more pressures await, as manufacturers struggle to reduce a product’s time-to-market, all while keeping capital investment low. Doing more with less requires manufacturers to reduce the time from detecting a product issue to correcting it, known as detection to correction (D2C). - Kevin Reale, Senior Manager, Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP

As pharmaceutical companies have expanded target markets and outsourced production over the last decade, the supply chain has become increasingly global, virtual and vulnerable. As a result, counterfeit activity is thriving - and patients have suffered and died from counterfeit and contaminated drugs.

Analyst Insight: Data has become as consumable as a box of crackers. As a society, we expect information about product origins, ingredients, allergens and other information will be available at our fingertips prior to purchase. However, data inconsistencies often frustrate consumers on their quest to learn more and can stop them from completing their purchase. As a result, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are focusing on data quality to satisfy the demands of increasingly empowered consumers. - Angela Fernandez, Vice President of Retail Grocery and Foodservice, GS1 US

Food manufacturers across the globe have admitted failing to put in place basic safeguards to protect vulnerable workers in their supply chains - almost one year on from laws to stop slavery, child labor and unethical working practices.

You have an earache and decide it's time to see the doctor. You call the office, sit on hold with a receptionist, and finally schedule an appointment – but not until five days later. As if waiting around for your appointment doesn't waste enough of your time, it's only the beginning of a tedious process – driving 20 minutes to the doctor's office, sitting in a crowded waiting room and filling out paperwork.

Hewlett Packard optimizes the procurement processes of its global inkjet printer production operations by gaining visibility into component costs and product usage.

The typical procurement organization invests heavily in supplier compliance but rarely reaps the value rewards. Compliance can often feel like a revolving door, with procurement teams evaluating the same risks and under-performing suppliers over and over again and never identifying the root causes or making real progress toward sustainability. Eventually, after a multi-year investment into a responsible sourcing program, procurement finds itself past the point of diminishing returns.