Over the past few years, the tides of the maritime industry have been changing. There’s a push for safer, smarter, more environment-friendly and energy-efficient sea transport. Discover how ISO standards are redefining how the industry works.
U.S. companies cannot stop talking about marijuana, hoping in part they can catch investor interest as the booming economy around the drug lifts revenues throughout the supply chain.
That outsized growth is starting to bleed into adjacent industries ranging from energy to packaging to point-of-sale technology whose products are used in the production or sale of marijuana. As investors circle the cannabis space, supply-chain companies are showing a new willingness to associate themselves with an industry that remained largely illegal a decade ago.
For supply chain companies, revenue from cannabis “realistically could be a couple of percentage points a year,”
Cryogenic equipment manufacturer Chart Industries Inc told analysts on Feb. 14 that “cannabis has double-digit growth potential for us” as more grow houses use liquefied carbon dioxide in the extraction of marijuana.
Point of sale company Socket Mobile Inc said on Feb. 13 that cannabis dispensaries are “ideally suited to iPad-based point-of-sale solutions for accounting and regulatory compliance”.
And private security company Brinks Co said on Feb. 6 that its North America segment should have “another strong year” due in part to the growth of the cannabis industry.
Service disruptions persist on the Union Pearson Express, GO Transit and the TTC’s Line 3 due to the extreme cold weather.
A number of UP Express trains were cancelled early Thursday morning as a result of equipment issues. The entire line had to be closed for several hours before it reopened with limited service at noon.
The same problem occurred Wednesday evening which caused trains from Union Station to Toronto Pearson Airport to shut down.
New service backed up multinational organisations aimed at reducing plastic: Goods like orange juice, shampoo & laundry detergent to be delivered to doors.
It wasn’t too long ago when the milkman delivered to your door, and it seems like a return to the good old days might be just around the corner as part of a drive to slash plastic pollution.
An e-commerce service is launching a new era of the home deliveries of old – with goods like orange juice, shampoo and laundry detergent delivered to your door in glass and metal containers. Loop, which is aimed at curbing plastic consumption, was announced at the World Ecomomic Forum in Davos and has a number of high-profile backers, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Tesco.
The intention is to significantly reduce diesel powered vehicles and shift approximately 70% of HAVI’s total truck fleet to alternative fuels such as gas and hybrid models, by 2021.
The collaboration will initially focus on Europe while similar approaches are also being explored for Asia.
The CO2 emissions in deliveries by HAVI to McDonald’s restaurants utilizing Scania’s next generation trucks and operating solutions will be continuously monitored in real time, bringing existing fleet connectivity to the next level.
This significant transformation of the fleet is expected to lead to CO2 reductions ranging from 15 to 40% for every kilometer driven, depending on route, fuel and traffic conditions.
The gas and hybrid trucks are designed to generate close to zero air pollution and significantly reduce carbon emissions in cities.
Additionally, HAVI and Scania are developing a truck with special equipment to collect waste such as used cooking oil, plastic materials and cardboard from restaurants for recycling.
Source: Supply Chain Digital
How do you best compare Star Trek and Star Wars? What’s the only real way to match up these two icons and settle the dispute once and for all? By comparing the supply chains of The Empire and The Federation, of course!
The supply chain gurus in global manufacturing operations will tell you that optimizing that process can save your company money, inventory and time. Six sigma tools can help reduce waste and contribute to the bottom line. If you can deliver your products to your customers when they want them (and spend as little as possible doing that), you’re optimizing your manufacturing operations.
In Star Trek, when a Federation starship is manufactured – it’s done so near Starfleet headquarters (in Earth’s orbit). But when Star Wars’ Empire needs a Death Star, it manufactures the war machine where the customer needs it. Well, at least in Return of the Jedi they did. The manufacturing of a weapon the size of Rhode Island… in outer space… over the moon Endor… gives The Empire an edge in manufacturing operations.
Edge: The Empire
Getting your customers what they want, when they want it. That’s on-time delivery. In Star Wars, launching your customer’s order into hyperspace will definitely get it there fast.
But sometimes you don’t need hyperspace delivery. Star Trek benefits from having 10 warp factors. If your customer doesn’t need its order until next week, ground freight will do. If your supply chain and manufacturing operations are optimized, you don’t need to overnight every delivery. Sometimes you can tell UPS to use warp factor two.
Edge: The Federation
What do Star Trek’s original series and each one of the Star Trek movies have in common? The primary vehicle in each one is the Enterprise. When you can satisfy your customers by providing the same product over the course of decades – you have the opportunity to optimize your inventory.
With one primary SKU, The Federation has kept its inventory lean. The Empire, on the other hand, builds a Death Star, a second Death Star, Star Destroyers, and Tie-fighters. The Millennium Falcon is the franchise’s most enduring vehicle, but it doesn’t belong to The Empire and doesn’t show up until the fourth (albeit first) installment.
Edge: The Federation
When any key decision needs to be made in the Star Trek universe, a gathering of Starfleet leadership or The Federation must convene in San Francisco. San Francisco! You’re boldly deploying your fleet to the far reaches of outer space – and they need to report any action outside protocol back to Northern California? Holy Kobayashi Maru!
In The Empire, when Darth Vader needs to murder a ship’s commander in order to better optimize that ship’s processes – he doesn’t need to check in with HQ. The Empire has delegated decision-making to its front line managers.
In supply chain, your buyers and materials planners have the best view of transactional and tactical details. By empowering them to make fast-paced decisions, you can save time and money – and optimize your supply chain. And likely keep Lord Vader from showing up at your desk.
Edge: The Empire
In any company, you want to deliver what your customer wants, when it wants it – and spend as little money as possible doing that. That’s optimized supply chain. Both The Federation and The Empire have been doing that for decades. But Star Trek has an animated series and The Final Frontier to pull down its overall customer satisfaction metrics.
In Star Wars, the aforementioned Jar-Jar and the shouts of “Greedo didn’t shoot first” have the same negative customer satisfaction impact. But, in terms of delivering what customers want – both Star Trek and Star Wars win big.
Edge: Tie
In supply chain, there are few intangibles. If your company isn’t delivering what its customer wants, when it wants it (and spending as little money as possible doing that) – you don’t have optimized supply chain.
In the “Star Trek or Star Wars” debate, however, you could say that one has a slight edge. Star Wars would not have existed if it weren’t for Star Trek boldly going first. But Star Trek inevitably had to raise its game because of Star Wars’ success. To pick the The Empire or The Federation is like picking the supply chain of Apple over that of Amazon. Both deserve very high marks. But The Empire just appears to be a leaner organization with faster decision making and less obsolete inventory (they just eliminate it).
The Federation feels overly bureaucratic and maybe a pinch slower – and when an organization is slower to react to the market, they generally need higher inventory and higher costs to stay competitive.
Edge: The Empire
Final results:
Do you agree with the results? Leave your thoughts in the comment sections below.
May the Force be with your supply chain / Live long and prosper by delivering your customers what they want, when they want it.
Source: thebalance.com
In Russia, Adidas increased sales in Moscow by double digits in 24 hours, thanks to a supply chain initiative. At the same time Amazon is now looking at using drones to deliver products, a very expensive move, but one the company says will increase sales.
Experts would usually claim that supply chain management is about delivering the right quality at the lowest cost, with the agreed service level, right? Well, not anymore. As the two examples above show, it is also about increasing sales and profits; the supply chain is no longer just about efficiency, working capital reduction and inventory management. So, what happened?
Adidas is the leading sports’ shoe brand in Russia with more than 1,200 stores. As part of its strategy to please customers, Adidas is implementing an omni channel strategy, allowing people to buy in a number of ways (on-line or in the physical store) any product that is available anywhere in Russia (whether in an Adidas shop, distribution center or warehouse), and for it to be delivered in any way (at home, at the store or at a pick-up point). This is possible thanks to the use of RFID identification chips, “ship from store” tools, a digital “click and collect” solution and “endless aisle” technology.
Initially, Adidas implemented a trial of click and collect in Moscow expecting that just a few consumers would choose this option – to buy on-line and collect the product at a store. They expected around 10 to 20 orders per week, but consumers embraced the idea and orders reached 1,000 per week. Adidas was forced to stop the experiment and build the supply chain infrastructure needed to support such demand. Today, up to 70% of online sales are through click and collect.
For Adidas Russia, the supply chain is no longer about reducing costs: It is – more importantly – about increasing sales. All of this is possible thanks to the technology being used in the supply chain. Most of these technologies belong to Industry 4.0, a high-tech strategy promoting the computerization of manufacturing. Adidas applies these technologies to the supply chain rather than just to manufacturing. This is why we call it Supply Chain 4.0, a term initially coined by supply chain professional Anne Wyss.
Executives have always known that improving supply chains ultimately improves sales. However, because the impact was very difficult to evaluate, companies traditionally approved investments in supply chains based only on the expected reductions in costs and working capital. The digitalization of supply chains, with the breadth of sales and ordering data available, now makes it possible to calculate by how much supply chain improvements are increasing sales and profits, and the numbers are often amazing.
In the case of Adidas Russia, one executive was both head of IT and supply chains – one executive with a holistic view of the business and with the goal of pleasing consumers and increasing sales. This combination made possible these developments. He justified investments by increased sales.
Source: Supply Chain Digital
Yes, according to a 2016 Gartner report. It predicts widespread drone delivery by 2020. According to researcher Ivar Berntz, we’ll likely see at least three “Uber for drones” drone-sharing platforms able to broker arrangements between drones and companies to move goods.
In March of 2016, Flirtey, a Nevada-based startup, beat drone enthusiast company, Amazon, in delivering the first FAA-approved package to a residence via drone—as well as the first pizza delivery by drone in New Zealand! Their initial package delivery included bottled water, emergency food and a first aid kit to a residence in Nevada which marked the first fully autonomous urban flight.
Much like Flirtey, forward-thinkers are envisioning the benefit of autonomous delivery of medical supplies and disaster relief. Countless humanitarian organizations, for instance, have experimented with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to deliver medical supplies in countries such as Malawi and Rwanda. They’ve also begun to utilize drones to revolutionize medical testing and treatment by delivering medical samples and test results.
In addition to medical supplies and the life-saving opportunities drone delivery can provide across the globe, UAS could also significantly transform the manufacturing and consumer goods industries for the better. One of the most obvious commercial applications for drones is autonomous delivery. Several major companies, from Walmart to Google to UPS, have requested permission from the FAA to test drone deliveries.
In 2015 for example, Amazon received permission from the FAA (with a special “experimental airworthiness certificate”) to begin testing their delivery drones in the U.S. By December 2016, the tech giant’s Prime Air initiative completed its first successful drone delivery. The package was transported to a customer and made it to their house in just 13 minutes after the order was placed.
Companies such as Amazon have been experimenting with UAS technology to deliver packages with incredible speed and precision in heavily populated areas. The potential to transform how companies ship products and the time it takes to receive them could revolutionize approaches to supply chain management. What’s more, the ability to receive an order with same-day service could forever change retail operations.
However, the FAA’s exemption to Amazon requires that the drones remain in line of sight of the pilot at all times. And operators must have a minimum of a private pilot’s certificate and current medical certification. Although restrictions like these may be necessary for initial testing, they could prevent the rollout of any scalable commercial operations if they remain in place, since they severely limit the use of autonomous drones over a meaningful distance.
The benefits of drone technology for delivery can be augmented further with operational intelligence (OI). However, how quickly we begin to reap the benefits of drone delivery will depend heavily on the regulations set to monitor this technology. Simulyze’s Mission Insight technology can help businesses move forward while remaining compliant and ensuring safety in the national airspace. Built on their OI platform, Mission Insight provides the situational awareness needed to fly over heavily populated areas and rugged terrain. While the platform can help businesses, restrictions still need to be relaxed to expedite critical tasks like emergency medical supply delivery, or commercial applications, like record-breaking delivery times for Amazon package deliveries.
Source: simulyze
