In the roughly 10 months I’ve helped my buddy Buzz out with his daily ‘Supply Chain Buzz’ for the EC-BP.com site, I figure I’ve read close to 1000 stories, blogs, and articles on supply chain, ERP, ecommerce, and general management topics. Since this is the time of year that the ‘Big News of 2012’ and ‘Predictions for 2013’ stories abound, I thought I’d put together my own list with a little different spin. It’s more along the lines of ‘Biggest Topics With Staying Power That Have and Will Continue to Affect Supply Chains ‘. Here we go……

OK, you’ve survived the latest challenge from your major customer, complying with their mandate to receive electronic purchase orders and send electronic invoices and ship notices. It wasn’t easy, but you made the smart move, at least in your mind, by utilizing their recommended 3rd party’s webform solution. It costs a little money each time you use it, and you need to re-enter a bunch of stuff you’ve already keyed into your ERP, but at least you’re in compliance. Is ‘good enough for them’ good enough for you?

One of the mantras of modern management, ‘you can’t manage it if you don’t measure it’, certainly applies to supply chain sustainability. However, sustainability is often a moving target since almost every supply chain is different. A good way to find some commonality as a basis for understanding the term is to take a look at how businesses measure it.