OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Later this week, the nomination of Alexander Acosta to be the next Secretary of Labor will likely be voted out of the Senate HELP Committee and head for confirmation on the Senate floor. The administration made headlines just prior to his confirmation hearings outlining cuts to the Department of Labor budget in the neighborhood of $2.5 Billion or roughly 20%.   

Adidas Group wants to kick off its expansion in China on the right foot.   The sportswear brand plans to bolster its retail sales network to 12,000 outlets in China by 2020, with much of the growth slated for smaller cities. However, the company also knows that conducting international trade within China can be difficult and complex due to challenges presented by huge import and export volume, and minimal advance notice of regulatory changes.  

In the wake of mounting losses and increasing doubts about its viability, Sears Holding Corp. is facing pull back from some of its vendors.   That is according to a report by Reuters, which said that suppliers to Sears are becoming more defensive to protect themselves from the risk of nonpayment by doing such things as reducing shipments and asking for better payment terms.  

Jeff Gennette, who is set to take the reins of Macy’s Inc. from longtime chief executive Terry Lundgren in approximately one week, gave some hints of how Macy’s store experience is likely to evolve.     

In a move that will help it focus on its North American stores, Staples is selling its Australia- and New Zealand-based operations.   Staples announced Tuesday, March 13, that private equity firm Platinum Equity will acquire these stores for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2017.  

Diane K. Lettelleir, senior managing counsel of JCPenney Corp., discusses why retailers can’t wait for the government to solve the patent troll problem in the commentary below:    JCPenney and numerous other retailers have been hunted for the last decade by patent trolls that aggressively file suits based on overly broad claims in patents against related but distinct technologies. JCPenney alone has endured dozens of patent troll lawsuits over this period.   

Virginia’s new law is a coup for robotics.   The commonwealth is the first state to pass legislation allowing delivery robots to operate on sidewalks and crosswalks across the state, according to ReCode.