Expert Predictions for This Year’s Supply Chain Trends

Supply chain visibility as a way to manage complexity. Building a resiliency supply chain. Advanced analytics and Big Dataas a means of creating a market-driven value networks.

These are just a few of the supply chain trends experts say will dominate supply chain management in the coming year, according to a recent Supply Chain Digest series.

Supply Chain Digest editor Dan Gilmore queried several experts, including research analysts and consultants, about the hot supply chain trends for 2013. The respondents didn’t restrict themselves to one trend each, so Gilmore shared the results in a series of articles this month.

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Competitors and Suppliers Should Prepare for ‘Amazon Effect’

Amazon is making major changes to it’s supply chain, especially when it comes to distribution. Because of Amazon’s changes, experts say both competitors and Amazon suppliers need to prepare for the “Amazon effect.”

In the past few months, Amazon has succumbed to paying state sales tax in some places, in exchange for gaining tax incentives for fulfillment centers. It’s possible Amazon is gearing up for same-day delivery, but at any rate, Amazon is definitely preparing to become a major contender against retail stores.

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Re-Shoring Revisited: MIT Suggests May be about Market Strategy

Are manufacturers serious about returning production to the United States? A recent MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation survey shows nearly half of 156 U.S. manufacturers are considering it. 

Last year was the third year high-technology manufacturing jobs left Asia and Latin American to return to the U.S., a practice sometimes called re-sourcing or re-shoring.

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Could Supply Chain Improvements be Key to Global Prosperity?

Lower tariffs are often hailed as a way of improving gross domestic product but when it comes to the global GDP, a recent survey suggests the best tactic would be improving global supply chain processes.

The World Economic Forum’s report found that eliminating supply chain barriers would result in a 4.7 percent increase in global GDP, according to a recent ThomasNet.com article. That would translate into an additional $2.6 million in added trade revenue worldwide, the report found.

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