White Papers, Industry Research & Reports

Global manufacturing supply chains face regular challenges: rising material and energy costs, smaller, local competitors offering lower prices and, studies now show, $900 billion lost in waste. In order to survive, manufacturers need to shift their mind-set, adapting existing processes to work with greater efficiency and precision.

A wide range of business-critical risks face today's manufacturers. Typical risks include material shortages, catastrophic property losses from unforeseen events, supply chain interruptions, IT failures and more. The lack of transparency and control among sub suppliers only adds to the risk equations for tier 1 suppliers.

This year's National Manufacturing Debate (NMD), hosted by Cranfield University, focused on the enormous potential of reshoring manufacturing to the UK.

The return of production that originated in Britain but moved abroad is increasing, driven by a number of factors including shifting consumer preferences and companies' desire to exert greater control over quality and supply chain risks.

Chief editor Ed Holden spoke with some of the major players within the field of transportation management about current key talking points within this fascinating technology field; including changing demand trends, security and how transportation solutions might continue to develop in the near future.

Speed of fulfilment was identified as a top challenge for 40% of the companies that responded to a Supply Chain Management Survey carried out for Access.

You've heard the analysts and blogging pundits point to the manufacturing industry and expound on the new technologies reinvigorating the outlook for growth. But have you heard any of those experts offer reliable advice on what to do about the increasing rate of change and new market demands? Unlikely.

Few concepts over the past few years have generated as much interest within the supply chain community as the 'control tower'. It seems that nearly every trade magazine and analyst firm has written about supply chain control towers.

TouchStar Technologies Ltd., a Belgravium Technologies PLC company and specialists in the design, supply and support of rugged mobile devices has published the results of its first annual 'State of the Union' survey for mobile computing.

This IDC Manufacturing Insights' White Paper discusses the results of our most recent research analyzing the trends of manufacturing operations management. We conducted a survey of over 240 European manufacturing enterprises across multiple sectors including consumer packaged goods (CPG), high-tech/electronics, discrete manufacturing, and process manufacturing.

In the June 2014 issue of Manufacturing & Logistics IT magazine editor Ed Holden spoke with a number of leading vendors, analysts, systems integrators and distributors about current issues, developments and possible future trends in the world of auto-ID and mobile computing technology.