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Free Articles From The Current Issue
Who keeps the engines of global commerce running?Although what supply chain professionals do every day impacts commerce everywhere in the world, their role in corporate success and competitiveness generally has remained in the background.
Emerging consumer markets: the new drivers of global economic growth
Consumption is still largely concentrated in North America and Western Europe, but consumers in emerging markets are stepping onto the world stage in greater numbers.
Global trade trends down as local consumption slowly grows
Global trade levels declined by 1.3 percent in Quarter 3 of 2011 while domestic consumption continued to grow.
Time to come home?
To offshore, nearshore, or "reshore"? A total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis can answer that question. For some companies, TCO analyses are suggesting that manufacturing close to the point of consumption is the best choice.
A hard look at the soft side of performance
Supply chain scorecards typically focus on operational metrics. But if companies want to capture a true picture of supply chain success, they need to measure employees' interpersonal performance, too.
Most Read Articles
Northern Exposure
Ten years from now, the busy Asia-to-Europe trade lane could be in a completely different location than it is today. Instead of plying the waters of Southeast Asia and transiting the Suez Canal, container ships might head in the opposite direction, toward the Canadian High Arctic.
With the Arctic ice pack melting at a rapid rate, the fabled Northwest Passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans could become a commercially viable trade lane in less than a decade, say climate experts. Such a route could potentially cut weeks off the current transit times from the transportation hubs of North Asia to ports in Northern Europe.
Earlier this year, government officials from Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, and Russia met in a remote town in Greenland to discuss their competing claims on Arctic resources. Among the resources at stake are oil, gas, minerals, and shipping lanes. At the end of the meeting, the five nations declared their intention to abide by international treaties governing the region, including a United Nations plan that's expected to be in place by 2020.
Canada already claims the Northwest Passage, but other nations argue that the waterway should be open to all. Once the ice melt makes the passage a reliable shipping route, though, Canada will be in the best position to use—and control—the waterway. The Canadian government announced last year that it will upgrade an old deepwater mining port near the passage's eastern entrance, open a military training facility at its northern end, and build military icebreakers that are specifically designed to guard the passage.
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