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Will Apple successfully pass the extra costs of the initiatives it has introduced recently to its contract manufacturers and suppliers; will the company itself absorb the cost, or will it successfully pass these onto customers?

Almost every major retailer, from grocery chains to investment banks to the U.S. Postal Service, has a “predictive analytics” department devoted to understanding not just consumers’ shopping habits but also their personal habits, so as to more efficiently market to them.

The Coca-Cola Company uses 300 billion liters of water a year and it is the enabling supply chain resource for its approximately 3,000 different products sold in over 200 countries that generates $35 billion in annual revenues. Therefore, using water efficiently and sustainably is both a business and environmental need and is key to the company’s survival.

The company has reportedly pressured Taiwanese supplier Pegatron into dropping its production of the ASUS Zenbook, due to its striking similarities to the MacBook Air.

This Leaders for Global Operations/ILP event will gather CEOs of major companies along with MIT faculty and Government leaders to focus on the current state and the future of manufacturing in the US. We will address major challenges including government policies, global operations and key trends in technology, manufacturing and sourcing. New MIT research on how hundreds of companies address these challenges will inform our discussion.

..And promising signs are emerging that American companies are shifting some manufacturing production and employment back to the United States. Policies to strengthen the competitiveness of the United States as a location for manufacturing can strengthen these nascent developments.

87 major corporations (including Nike, Nestle and Unilever) around the world shared the results of their supply chain analysis with the Forest Disclosure Project (FDP). At issue is the global supply of “forest risk” products such as soy, palm oil and biofuel, not to mention timber. All are harvested either directly from forests or from recently-deforested land, and failure to manage that land properly will lead to higher prices for these commodities, more destruction of rainforests, and more liability for companies involved.

In the last 6 months, GSK has been “simplifying the manufacturing footprint” to align that footprint more tightly to the three main businesses: Vaccines, Pharma and Consumer. Creating a single end-to-end supply chain, much like you would find in any of the major Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies around the world allows the company to drive the speed of response, drive the costs lower and particularly to drive cash and the working capital out of the process.

Moving assembly out of Europe and the Americas to factories in Asia where most of the components are sourced. As a result factories in Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico and Salo, Finland will focus on smartphone product customisation, serving customers mainly in Europe and the Americas. About 4,000 jobs will go as a result.

The internet retailing revolution has brought enormous benefits to the global express and logistics sectors. However, there are challenges of different kinds in China and the US.

New TechNet Sponsored Study also found that App Economy jobs are spread throughout the nation with more than two-thirds of employment outside of California and New York.

Starring Emmy® Award winner Steve Thomas, former host of PBS’s “This Old House,” the premiere episode of Move It! showcases transportation and distribution operations at the Port of Virginia, the consumer products companies Amway and iHerb, and a brand-new Old Dominion Freight Line trucking terminal.

China’s wages have risen 15 percent a year over the last decade, prompting U.S. companies to rethink where they manufacture.

The 557-foot-long Nichioh Maru features solar power panels, LED lighting, and an electronically controlled diesel engine, the first such vessel of its type in Japan’s coastal shipping trades. The hybrid ship is capable of fuel reduction of up to 1,400 tons annually, which converts to 4,200 tons of CO2 emissions saved compared to other car carriers of similar size and scope.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a wide-ranging package of policies to help create American manufacturing jobs, including trade enforcement measures, business tax breaks and worker training programs.

Despite improving their own carbon performance, multinational companies are not yet demonstrating significant emissions reductions in their supply chains, according to research published today by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Accenture.