Supply Chain Trends and Issues : Our Weekly Feature Article on Important Trends and Developments in Supply Chain Strategy, Research, Best Practices, Technology and Other Supply Chain and Logistics Issues by SCDigest Editorial Staff In his First Thoughts column last week, SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore offered an overall review of the year in supply chain 2015. As promised in that piece, below we provide the latest edition of our popular timeline of key supply chain news and events of the past year, organized by month. . January The US DOT at long last allows Mexican trucking companies to operate in US – some 20 years after NAFTA supposedly gave them that right. The move had been bitterly opposed by trucking and Teamster interests for years. Impact is likely to be modest at best, however, as deadheading concerns likely mean Mexican truckers unlikely to drive too far into US. Procter & Gamble announces plans for a new factory in West Virginia – just the second new US plant P&G will have opened since 1971. The new plant will be a sort of "factory of the future" – designed to run products across multiple product types and brands in a single facility. The new facility will encompass more than 1 million square feet and employ 700 full-time workers. February Walmart announces it has launched something it calls the Sustainability Leaders Shop, an on-line shopping portal that helps customers identify and purchase products that are produced in what it defines as an environmentally and socially responsible way. The effort is the customer-facing side of Walmart’s supplier Sustainability Index, a program it launched in 2009 to grade suppliers on environmental and other sustainability factors. With this new initiative, Walmart says it will now be designating some 10,000 "best in class" products across 80 […]