"The Thinking Man’s Supply Chain Executive." That is the impression we get during our interview with Nick LaHowchic. In part 2, he discusses supply chain transformation, benchmarking, career management and more.

What were the top supply chain and logistics new items from the first six months of 2008? We review the key developments, from surging oil and diesel fuel prices to the dramatic change Dell made toi its supply chain strategy.

Global Logistics and Trade Management are inceasingly critical not only to the supply chain but to overall company success. Yet, globalization has come so fast, and added such complexity, that few companies have people, processes or technology quite right - though leaders like Payless Shoes and Texas Instruments are close.

Are we entering a new Perfect Storm of Supply Chain challenges? A combination of rising fuel and commodity costs, plus a host of other woes from rising complexity and regulation to the challenges in competing in developing markets may make this the toughest period ever for supply chain managers.

The annual State of Logistics report was released this week.The headline number - logistics costs rose for the fifth straight year as a percent of GDP, to 10.1%. As always SCDigest digs into the numbers and a summarizes key data for you.

Is supply chain complexity killing corporate profits? That is what author, consultant and former corporate executive John Mariotti says, and he makes a persuasive case. Is your company facing its own Complexity Crisis?

Is the integrated supply chain organization the clear model of the future? Supply chain principles would say Yes, but the issue is tricky, with decisions to be made regarding lines of business, functions and geographies. We take a look the Integrated Supply Chain Organization, and report on research from CSCO Insights on this topic.

As the supply chain software industry matures, positive trends are occurring: a greater focus on deployment success and lower implementation costs, better integration between modules, more partnering with customer to achieve value. Read our take after attending several software user conferences.

What is new in order picking strategies and technologies? SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore says we did not see much new for many years, but that is starting to change, with the rise of voice picking, new multi-modal approaches, automated case picking, and more.

When it comes to skyrocketing fuel costs and their punishing effect on logistics, should you cry, panic – or take action? SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore says this needs to be a wake-up call for companies to get busy both on their logistics strategies - and making their voices heard to elected officials.