Skip to content
Search AI Powered
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

CSCMP EDGE 2023

Supply Chain Quarterly honors top supply chain leaders with first Outstanding Women in Supply Chain Award

Jackie Sturm of Intel and Meredith Westafer of Tesla receive inaugural award.

IMG_9204.jpg
Supply Chain Quarterly Staff
By Supply Chain Quarterly StaffOct 02, 2023
Supply Chain Quarterly Staff
See Full Bio

CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly celebrated the achievements of two exceptional women with the inaugural “Outstanding Women in Supply Chain Award." Jackie Sturm, Corporate Vice President of Global Supply Chain Operations for Intel, and Meredith Westafer, Industrial Engineering Manager for Tesla, received the inaugural award today at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual EDGE Conference.

Sturm leads operations for Intel’s multi-billion-dollar global supply chain. Her international team supports both direct and indirect procurement; business continuity; supply chain systems and analytics; and Intel’s Supply Chain Environmental and Social Governance program, which includes Intel's Conflict Minerals initiative. She is a committed advocate for value-added manufacturing, engineering, and trade as the economic foundations of thriving societies. Sturm sponsors targeted advancement programs to address challenges faced by women and under-represented minorities in technology.  

Westafer leads the Tesla Factory Design team, designing the layouts and material flow for new Tesla "gigafactories." Westafer joined Tesla in 2015 as the company was just beginning construction on its first gigafactory in Nevada. She owned the material flow design for getting all parts to the powertrain manufacturing lines, including developing an automated guided vehicle (AGV) program with more than 50 AGVs. Her responsibilities have since increased to include global factory design and strategic planning. Her engineering team designed the layouts and material flow strategy for Gigafactory Shanghai, Gigafactory Berlin, and Gigafactory Texas, and helped selected the Gigafactory Monterrey site. 

The awards were sponsored by Metro Supply Chain, a contract logistics provider based in Canada. Sarah Opperman, senior director of business development for Metro Supply Chain’s U.S. operations, presented the awards and commended Sturm and Westafer for their commitment to excellence.  

ArticlePlanFinance & Strategy
cscmpteslaintelcscmp edgecouncil of supply chain management professionalsquarter 3 2023
ArticlePlanFinance & Strategy
cscmpteslaintelcscmp edgecouncil of supply chain management professionalsquarter 3 2023

Recent

german courthouse
Move

Deutsche Bahn claims victory in “air freight cartel” settlement

boxes on a conveyor
Store

Amazon adds Adidas as its latest e-commerce 3PL customer

Report: 65% of consumers made holiday returns this year
Featured

Report: 65% of consumers made holiday returns this year

Industry Press Room

Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Group Announces UniCarriers® Forklifts’ Premier Club Winners for 2024

More Stories

Just 29% of supply chain organizations are prepared to meet future readiness demands

Just 29% of supply chain organizations are prepared to meet future readiness demands

Just 29% of supply chain organizations have the competitive characteristics they’ll need for future readiness, according to a Gartner survey released Tuesday. The survey focused on how organizations are preparing for future challenges and to keep their supply chains competitive.

Gartner surveyed 579 supply chain practitioners to determine the capabilities needed to manage the “future drivers of influence” on supply chains, which include artificial intelligence (AI) achievement and the ability to navigate new trade policies. According to the survey, the five competitive characteristics are: agility, resilience, regionalization, integrated ecosystems, and integrated enterprise strategy.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Companies double down on resilience as trade complexities rise
Featured

Companies double down on resilience as trade complexities rise

A generative AI image of a future warehouse with two figures looking at digital overlays of traditional warehousing racks. An autonomous mobile robot is nearby.
Store

Strategic planning and smart investments: Unlocking the potential of automation

US customs agent inspecting agricultural goods
Finance & Strategy

Industry groups: Reciprocal tariffs show “incomplete thinking”

photo collage of containers and ports
Plan

DHL Supply Chain expands offerings in returns, multi-shoring

chart of GenAI impact on workforces
Technology

Gartner: GenAI tools create anxiety among employees

woman making purchase with smartphone
Plan

C.H. Robinson says shippers are stressed about tariffs and trade changes

screen shot of returns apps on different devices

Optoro: 69% of shoppers admit to “wardrobing” fraud

With returns now a routine part of the shopping journey, technology provider Optoro says a recent survey has identified four trends influencing shopper preferences and retailer priorities.

First, 54% of retailers are looking for ways to increase their financial recovery from returns. That’s because the cost to return a purchase averages 27% of the purchase price, which erases as much as 50% of the sales margin. But consumers have their own interests in mind: 76% of shoppers admit they’ve embellished or exaggerated the return reason to avoid a fee, a 39% increase from 2023 to 204.

Keep ReadingShow less
robots carry goods through a warehouse

Fortna: rethink your distribution strategy for 2025

Facing an evolving supply chain landscape in 2025, companies are being forced to rethink their distribution strategies to cope with challenges like rising cost pressures, persistent labor shortages, and the complexities of managing SKU proliferation.

But according to the systems integrator Fortna, businesses can remain competitive if they focus on five core areas:

Keep ReadingShow less
shopper uses smartphone in retail store

EY lists five ways to fortify omnichannel retail

In the fallout from the pandemic, the term “omnichannel” seems both out of date and yet more vital than ever, according to a study from consulting firm EY.

That clash has come as retailers have been hustling to adjust to pandemic swings like a renewed focus on e-commerce, then swiftly reimagining store experiences as foot traffic returned. But even as the dust settles from those changes, retailers are now facing renewed questions about how best to define their omnichannel strategy in a world where customers have increasing power and information.

Keep ReadingShow less
artistic image of a building roof

BCG: tariffs would accelerate change in global trade flows

Geopolitical rivalries, alliances, and aspirations are rewiring the global economy—and the imposition of new tariffs on foreign imports by the U.S. will accelerate that process, according to an analysis by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Without a broad increase in tariffs, world trade in goods will keep growing at an average of 2.9% annually for the next eight years, the firm forecasts in its report, “Great Powers, Geopolitics, and the Future of Trade.” But the routes goods travel will change markedly as North America reduces its dependence on China and China builds up its links with the Global South, which is cementing its power in the global trade map.

Keep ReadingShow less
Copyright ©2025.