In the past, manufacturers simply used their supply chains as a means to control costs by improving efficiencies. Now, they are using their supply chains as a mechanism to boost revenue and improve customer satisfaction through capabilities like better management of highly customized products, quicker delivery times, and more integrated services.

Businesses are responsible for their products and must have sourcing disciplines which ensure their products are free of safety and quality defects...This basic responsibility exists whether the business is sourcing a finished product or components...or whether it sources from one supplier or must rely on second- and third-tier suppliers...

from solicitation of bids to qualification of suppliers to monitoring, auditing and testing by the ultimate seller of the product before it enters the market. Due diligence...is required to navigate the many shoals of shoddy businesses in the developing world - and to pierce the first-tier supplier, drilling back to the practices of second- and third-tier suppliers.

as we develop new forms of clean energy at home, we will share our technology and innovations with all the rest of the world. If we can build a clean coal plant in America, China should be able to as well. 

aim to gain expertise in combining China's famed low cost
with the development of new design and production skills. If all goes to plan, this will involve importing ideas from BASF's operations around the world and linking these with concepts developed by BASF's 6,000-strong staff in China.

Known for its rapid progress to become the world's joint-second most productive manufacturing region, China...is becoming a giant test bed for manufacturing ideas, building on its existing strengths in low-cost production by using the efforts of engineers and developers not just in China but from around the world.

The coming years will see a new era for industry collaboration, which will become an important factor for future success...Some business areas that are now considered to be core differentiators may well become candidates for collaboration with competitors.

At that point, rising transportation costs start to significantly impact both where products are made and what the distribution network looks like...Rising oil prices would have the effect of changing the way we think about outsourcing and offshoring, after 10 years of a mad rush to China and other Asian locations.

We're being boiled alive, but may not realize it until its too late. The US economy and our supply chains can be very resilient, but at some point in both, something has to give. 

• 70% of product recalls in 2007 involved Chinese goods, a scenario which has been greatly helped by the
  
• 30% annual increase of Chinese imports to the U.S. from 2001 to 2005, so that today
• 40% of all U.S. consumer imports come from China.
  

The single most critical action you can take to ensure a successful sourcing program is to visit your selected factory.

• personally speaking Chinese (I suspect, the first problem)
• personally and physically having samples tested and confirming they match production, and
  
• never getting angry in the midst of problems (the challenge is to get your supplier to like you).

Without Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), many new technologies developed to tackle global problems would never see the light of day and the great sporting events, which entertain and unite us, would not be broadcast into homes across the globe.

Yes, there is always much more to do. But we are talking about stemming a flood...It will take a LONG time before IP is as highly regarded as it is in America... But for now, can we just applaud the government's efforts?

A company's legal rights mean little in China unless the company chooses to protect them.

For most companies in China, the websites are little more than brochures for brick-and-mortar operations that provide a service or product that is paid for in ways other than the internet. B2B in the form of e-commerce has been more difficult to monetize - especially in China - because the products on offer have to go through a manufacturing process that may or may not involve design, testing and quality checks.

A company cannot simply wire money to a Chinese bank if the supplier does not have a foreign currency account at the bank. The supplier also requires permission to convert the payment into RMB that the bank will hold in the company's RMB account. Such complexity and sophistication are beyond the reach of most suppliers, which are miles away from banks that likely do not support such services in the countryside anyway.