Supply Chain Digest

The other PMI metrics were mostly positive. The New Orders Index expanded for the eighth consecutive month after four straight readings in contraction, registering 53.7, down 3 percentage points compared to July’s figure of 56.7 but again above the key 50 mark, in good news for future US manufacturing activity. The August reading of the Production Index (58.3) was 0.2 percentage point lower than the 58.5 recorded in July, but still strong.

New New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani was only elected by a wide margin in November, but after a little more than half a year it’s clear Amazon is a target for “reform.” This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Since taking office, Mamdani has made a number of moves directed at the retail-and-cloud-computing giant,” For example, a few weeks ago, he backed the Delivery Protection Act, which would force warehouse operators to obtain licenses from the city by adhering to new safety,...

The maritime analysts at Drewry recently asked a question: What are the reasons for new Panama Canal surcharges? They then answer their own question, as follows: “Carriers are introducing Panama Canal surcharges to cover lost vessel capacity. But they won’t tell you that,” Drewry writes in a recent blog post. Supply Chain Digest Says...

It’s been tough times in the US freight sector for more than two years, and carriers showed mostly down results in July, according to the Cass Freight Report for the month released late last week. Supply Chain Digest Says... The Cass Truckload Linehaul Index fell 10% in 2023, another 3.4% in 2024, and turned up to a 1.8% increase in 2025. What do you say?

But the reality of it is that a majority of Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) are unclear on the return on investment (ROI) of their AI investments. Supply Chain Digest Says... Adopt a Composable Approach to Change Execution: Define different change approaches based on the scale, speed and organizational context of each initiative. What do you say? Click here to send us your comments So said the analysts at Gartner in a press release late last week.

Last week, we reported on a new from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that appears to ban the import of certain robots - Autonomous Mobile Robots and humanoid robots – into the US, in what could be a major inflection point in the market. (See Has the US Banned Robot Imports?) But many questions remain. Supply Chain Digest Says...

ISM also says that the overall economy continued in expansion for the 21th consecutive month. The PMI itself tracks closely but not exactly with the overall US economy. A Manufacturing PMI above 47.5, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy, according to ISM. The other PMI were mostly positive.

Late last week, Amazon released its Q2 2026 earnings report. Below you will find some of the highlights. Supply Chain Digest Says... Together, fulfillment and shipping were therefore 93.4% of ecommerce revenue, again excluding any shipping revenue, and rising in Q2 while trending down a bit but in recent years. What do you say?

According to theregister.com web site, the decision to ban foreign-made robots trickled out over two days with publication of a National Security Determination and an update to the list of banned devices set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Supply Chain Digest Says... “But the intent of the documents is clear: from n ow on, only robots made in America are welcome in America,” The Register concludes. What do you say?

Walk into almost any consumer packaged goods (CPG) plant today and you’ll know within minutes whether the operation runs on flow or on fire. Frequent schedule changes, urgent calls to suppliers and managers racing from one crisis to another are all signals that firefighting, not flow, drives the system. The root of that chaos is not just bad luck. It’s a broken planning environment.