Archive for October, 2009
In case you don’t regularly check our News Roundup section on Logistics Viewpoints, here are some important developments that occurred this week:
Hours of Service (HOS) trucking rules are back on the drawing board. After years of legal challenges, the “final” rule was published last November. But earlier this year, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, and the International Brotherhood… Continue reading
Task interleaving is an advanced productivity practice enabled by leading warehouse management systems (WMS) with task management engines. Task interleaving is designed to reduce deadheading—i.e., when a worker, for example, picks products and drops them off at a dock and then returns to the picking area without performing any useful tasks along the way. In most operations, some workers are dedicated to picking, while others are dedicated to put-away. Task… Continue reading
Best Practices in Transportation Procurement
· CommentsThat is the title of the workshop I will conduct next week at The Logistics & Supply Chain Forum organized by Richmond Events. The content of my presentation is based on numerous case studies and end-user interviews I’ve conducted over the years (Ace Hardware, Frito-Lay, HJ Heinz, International Paper, Wausau Paper, and others), as well as interviews with some of the leading technology and service providers in this area… Continue reading
Ford’s Service Parts Supply Chain
· CommentsI recently spoke with key members of Ford’s service parts supply chain and IT organization in North America to better understand how the company is using SAP’s end-to-end service parts supply chain solution (SAP is an ARC client). Ford and Caterpillar Logistics, as key customers and partners, have helped SAP to build out this solution, particularly in the area of service parts planning. Ford has implemented service… Continue reading
The authors of Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, have a new book out (SuperFreakonomics) and they were featured this past Friday on ABC’s 20/20 news program. Climate change was among the topics covered in the book and the television program. You can watch excerpts of the program here (parts 3 and 4 are the most relevant).
Many of the points the authors raised… Continue reading
In August, Fortune magazine published an article titled “ExxonMobil: Green Company of the Year” by Christopher Helman (ExxonMobil is an ARC client). The article argued that “The engineering solution to the matter of carbon in the atmosphere [is to] drill for natural gas. Per unit of energy delivered, methane releases 40% to 50% less carbon dioxide than coal and a quarter less than petroleum. Coal fuels half of U.S… Continue reading
It is getting harder and harder for software vendors to innovate in supply chain management (SCM). I went to Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) last week expecting to see incremental improvements in many of its SCM applications (Oracle is an ARC client). Instead, I was blown away by what I saw and heard in one key area: Oracle’s innovative solutions for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.
For CPG companies… Continue reading
Several times this year, we have written postings related to the role, current and future, of mobile computing and social networking technologies in supply chain management.
- Everything Will be Tracked Wirelessly in 10 Years
- Fleet Management and ‘Connected Vehicles’
- The iPhone as a Logistics Visibility Device
- Facebook in Supply Chain Management
- The Collaborative Enterprise: A Focus on People-centric Collaboration
