Distribution centers that use autonomous robots are finding that their internet connections are unable to keep up with the high-powered sophisticated technology, which experts say will require costly and time-consuming upgrades. "We have the bots at these sites run 24 hours a day. The system has to be super-resilient, super-robust," says Mike Johnson, president of Locus Robotics, a warehouse automation company.

In September, homebuilder confidence in the market for newly-built, single-family homes fell to 45, down five points from the previous month, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The decline reflects the impact of mortgage rates remaining above 7%, which has eroded buyer purchasing power and led to increased price cuts by builders.

Dot Foods has opened a $37.1 million distribution center in Ingersoll, Ontario, a 168,875-square-foot facility that is expected to house as many as 200 Dot and Dot Transportation employees in three to five years. "We built this facility because we've seen incredible growth in our Canadian business in the seven years since we established operations here. We need more physical space and a larger team to keep up with the demand," said CEO Dick Tracy.

Omnichannel demand planning brings together data from in-store and online sources and turns the information over to AI and machine-learning algorithms for analysis, which could benefit the mid-tier fashion market's agility and scale, writes Nicholas Wegman from antuit.ai. Improvements could show up for omnichannel retailers in the form of buy planning, optimized prices and inventory management, Wegman notes.

More than half of supply chain executives in an MHI survey say their biggest problem right now is hiring and keeping employees. To address the issue, the majority of companies are investing in technology, such as AI and the internet of things, to help reshuffle workers and minimize their repetitive tasks, as well as develop skills in less-knowledgeable workers.

Adweek revealed the winners of its inaugural B2B Innovation Awards, which span ten categories including LinkedIn Marketing Solutions as Brand of the Year and Transmission as Agency of the Year. In addition, the Lifetime Achievement award was won by Linda Boff, chief marketing and communications officer at GE, while Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' "Leave No Room for Interpretation" for Autodesk won Campaign of the Year.

Digital media is getting 74.6% of ad spending this year, while the medium only gets 62.1% of US adults' time, Insider Intelligence estimates. The gap between money and time goes in the other direction for connected TV and digital audio, partly due to the current lack of reliable purchasing and tracking technology.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign legislation passed by state lawmakers requiring large companies to disclose emissions relating to their operations as well as their supply chains and other sources. Newsom said that he wanted "some cleanup on some little language" in the bill, but he did not offer details.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet this week to review interest rates at a time when the United Auto Workers have begun a strike, a federal government shutdown is on the horizon and the student repayments could affect spending. "Recession comes from shocks relative to the vulnerability of the economy," says Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon and former head of the Fed's monetary policy division

In this disruptive environment where it's hard enough to keep up, much less get ahead, leaders need to master the four elements of a transformation mindset for sensing change, then creating and implementing a strategy, writes Adam Bennett, of Great Change Consulting. "Cultivating the right mindset will be key to how you sense what's changing in the world, the strategic response you develop and whether you can then implement it," Bennett writes.

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