Well, it was inevitable: we all had to come back to work today. I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing vacation.

Since this is the first day back for me and most of you, I’ll ease into this first week of 2010 by commenting on a few things that made news during our hiatus.

First, there was the would-be terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. What are the lessons learned of this incident for supply chain and logistics professionals? There are two: (1) the weakest link in any security initiative is a single person and (2) focusing too much on inspections and not enough on controlling end-to-end processes will lead to security failures. This is the point I made last month when I questioned the effectiveness of 100-percent cargo screening (see “100% Cargo Inspections: A Means to What End?”). Like the case of Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashing a state dinner at the White House in November, it didn’t matter that Mr. Abdulmutallab and all the other passengers were screened before boarding the plane because the security process was broken much further upstream, in the days and months leading to the flight (e.g., the fact that Mr. Abdulmutallab paid cash for a one-way ticket, didn’t check in any baggage for an international flight, was denied a student visa by the U.K. in May 2009 and placed on a watch list, and the most glaring oversight of all, his father had visited the U.S. Embassy in Abuja in mid-November to report that his son was under the influence of religious extremists). Let’s hope the end result of this incident is improved end-to-end security processes via better collaboration and communication between agencies and countries, and not just more onerous check-in procedures at the airport.

What do Tylenol and wooden pallets have in common? Ideally, nothing, but according to a safety alert issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 28^th, certain lots of TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles were recalled “due to consumer reports of an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that was associated with nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The odor is caused by the presence of a chemical 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, believed to be the breakdown of a chemical used to treat wooden pallets [emphasis mine] that transport and store packaging materials. The health effects of this compound have not been well studied, and to date all of the observed events reported to McNeil were temporary and non-serious.” What is the lesson learned here? There’s been a lot of focus on packaging in recent years, particularly in using less of it from a ‘green’ perspective. But in addition to the quantity of packaging used, companies should also consider the composition of the packaging materials used. There’s been ongoing debate, for example, on the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA) in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners (see Wikipedia entry for more details and this December 2009 article from Consumer Reports).

Finally, YRC dodged another bullet and avoided bankruptcy by getting bondholders to swap $470 in debt for equity (see article in Wall Street Journal for details). This is just the latest chapter in YRC’s troubles, which we wrote about several times last year. YRC’s stock is now trading near 85 cents. Can YRC avoid bankruptcy in 2010? A lot depends on the economy, if competitors continue to go for the jugular, and YRC’s ability to remain cost competitive, maintain service levels, and keep the trust of its customers.

Now, I’m off to my first meeting of 2010. Some things just never change.