December 2017 Editorial Highlights: A resource for the year ahead

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the December 2017 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

December 2017

It’s December and time once again for our annual Executive Guide to Supply Chain Resources. This is a comprehensive guide to services, products and educational opportunities targeted specifically to supply chain professionals. As with years past, we’re also featuring several articles we trust will offer food for thought in your supply chain throughout the coming year.

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It's December and time once again for our annual Executive Guide to Supply Chain Resources. This is a comprehensive guide to services, products and educational opportunities targeted specifically to supply chain professionals. As with years past, we're also featuring several articles we trust will offer food for thought in your supply chain throughout the coming year.

First up is executive editor Patrick Burnson's annual outlook for the economy and supply chain management in the year ahead. Burnson surveys a wide variety of published reports and brings them together in one concise outlook feature. As a complement to this outlook, for the first time, we're running insights from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' 2017 State of Logistics Report authored by A.T. Kearney. The authors identify four scenarios that have the potential to significantly affect profitability, and even the future viability of some logistics sectors. And, they walk through the major trends they believe will have an impact on logistics in the coming year.

Together, they're a good reference point for any supply chain professional planning for 2018.

We're rounding out the issue by republishing two articles on the future of supply chain management and supply chain managers from Steven A. Melnyk. These are the first two articles in a series Supply Chain Management Review will be publishing over the next year or two. In the first, Melnyk, a frequent contributor to SCMR, looks at how the “new” supply chain requires a “new” breed of supply chain manager. In the second, he looks at how customer service requirements—rather than cost reduction—is the most important driver of the supply chain of the future.

Additionally, I hope you'll glean insights from the column on last mile delivery by David Widdifield.

The editors at Supply Chain Management Review wish all of our readers a successful year to come. We hope that the information and insights contained in this issue will play some part in that success.

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