The Port Race for Africa’s Hinterland
In July 2026, a terminal in Dar es Salaam handled 46,582 containers, more than three times the 13,779 it handled in May 2024. The striking detail is not the speed of that change, a 3.4…
Europe’s Automotive Turning Point
EU imports of hybrid cars from China rose from 3,800 units in October 2024 to about 50,000 in July 2026, more than thirteenfold in twenty one months. A battery electric car from a carmaker can…
Nearshoring Buys Weeks Not a Forecast
On October 2, the chief operating officer of the world’s largest sportswear company told employees that Nike is walking away from owning a large part of its own fulfillment and distribution network, something it has…
The Tanker That Came In Blind
A fully laden crude supertanker, longer than the Chrysler Building is tall and as wide as an American football field, arrived off the Texas coast with its communications dead. Investigators also found evidence that outsiders…
The AI-Using Animal
Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Man is a Tool-using Animal. Weak in himself, and of small stature… without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.” The sentence appears in Sartor Resartus, published in 1831, where…
When AI Sees but Cannot Act
The most expensive moment in many supply chains is not the moment an exception is discovered. It is the quiet hour after discovery, when a warning waits for a person to open a case, understand…
Agents With Job Descriptions
A planning department can have six people, six inboxes, and still have nobody clearly responsible when a small component stops a factory. One general purpose assistant holding demand, supply, freight, supplier risk, and master data…
The Bottleneck Three Tiers Down
The paint was ready. The factories were ready. Cars still could not leave the line: a glittering pigment had disappeared. A few cents of components, made in one country. Your biggest supply risk may hide…
Inventory Planning Gets Its Agent
A shipment can be physically close to a warehouse and still be financially invisible. The carton has left the supplier, the carrier has scanned it, and the receiving team has not yet made it available…