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POPS100 Percent Cargo Inspection: Part Deux Congress apparently didn't read my article of April 7th, 2007 on the practical difficulties of 100 percent cargo inspection called for under House bill HR-1. HR-1 requires 100 percent cargo inspection of all air and ocean cargo. Forget that we don't have the current technology to perform the scanning. Forget that there is no clearly defined mandate for what's to be scanned. Forget that it will take a loooonnnngg while to figure out the union rules on how this will take place. The one concession I can see in the passed bill is that rather than implementing this deal by the end of 2010, it has a 5 year implementation window with the ability of the government to extend the deadline 2 years...
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POPSNails on ITWO i2 Technologies took a beating on Wall Street last week, losing 30 percent of its share value after announcing earnings of 13 cents a share on revenues of 65 million dollars. Analysts had expected earnings per share in the 22 cents range. i2 subsequently announced the retirement of CEO Michael McGrath as a result. The column below is by Lenny "Nails" Dykstra, who is now a columnist for TheStreet.com. I find it entertaining that a guy who played "all out" for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets is now a Wall Streeter. The most vivid memory of Dykstra I remember was the 1993 World Series when TV cameras showed Dykstra, then with the Philadelphia Phillies, sitting in the dugout next to manager Jim Fergosi. Dystra was smoking a cigarette and chewing tobacco...at the same time! The dude was crazy then and may still be. He things i2 is a good buy. Maybe I'm crazy too. I agree with him! i2's product line is solid and they continue to grow in customer base.
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POPSLogistics Talent: Growing your Own
I recently posed a question to my LinkedIn network requesting opinions on which US universities had the top supply chain and logistics programs. The answers I got weren't suprising. Stanford, University of Tennessee, Michigan State and Penn State featured predominantly. The article below from Logistics Management Magazine highlights an increasing desire by senior supply chain managers to grow their own internal talent rather than hire newbies straight out of the academic halls. The University of Michigan has a Master of Supply Chain Management degree that takes seasoned employees from other parts of a business, and combines their manufacturing or engineering backgrounds with an advanced supply chain degree. The thought is that these cross trained employees will bring a faster ROI than younger "supply chain only" employees whose background is only based on university learning. Whats your opinion? Is it better to cross train from inside than hire new grads?
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POPSCrave the Open Road? Theres a job for YOU. There is a crisis in America that gets bigger every day. As the baby boom generation gets older, fewer and fewer workers from that generation are available to drive the trucks that move almost all of the products we consume every day. For that reason, the American Trucking Association is conducting a wide ranging and diverse hunt for new drivers. Lost a job recently to downsizing? Crave getting out of that Dilbert cube you work in? Maybe you are just home from the Middle East and want out of the Army. Trucking could be for you. Supply chain demand is way up, and drivers are hard to find. That means premium opportunity for those who want to try their hand at the open road. The ATA says there are 20,000 openings now for drivers. In 7 years time, in 2014 that figure jumps to over 110,000 jobs.
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POPSSupply Chains in Space! Leave it to the brainiacs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to think about the provisioning of interplanetary fixed based stations. Engineers at MIT, Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi have created a tool called SpaceNet, which models movement of freight between Earth and stations on the moon. With transit times of up to 9 months on a mission to Mars, supply chain execution in space would be difficult. Perhaps the moon will serve as a staging area for the future! Now how long until FedEx or DHL start advertising interplanetary Express services? When it absolutely positively has to get there...in 10 months!
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POPSInbound Logistics: The Indian Logistics Goldmine. Logistics and transportation companies always follow the freight. If sourcing origins change, so do liner vessel routes. Warehousing, forwarding, consolidation and other 3PL services also go where the business is. Behind China, India is the second most important Asian sourcing and manufacturing location. India boasts of a highly competent technical work force, low labor costs and abundance of low cost manufacturing. The key to Indian growth for the long term however will be continued investment in supply chain infrastructure. The article below from Supply and Demand Chain Executive outlines the challenges and opportunities.
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POPSNRF: Container Traffic Starting to Build at Retail Ports The National Retail Federation issued a press release highlighting container traffic growth at major ports used by major US retailers. The NRF's "porttracker" follows activity at the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle on the West Coast, and New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the US East Coast. Container traffic growth for February, typically the lowest volume month for the year, is up 10 percent over February 2006. This years peak season volume should reach crescendo in July, 2007 based on current projections. The National Retail Federation is the largest Retail Trade Association in the world.
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POPSWeather affects Rail Traffic in February Snow and Ice in the mid-west and northeastern United States hampered rail operations in February. No surprise as truck traffic and parcel carrier hubs located in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were similarly impacted during the winters worst storms.
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POPS2007 Rate Negotiations: Opportunities Exist in Certain Modes As 2007 rate negotiations continue, shippers are finding more flexibility in rate discussions depending on mode of transport. Parcel carrier rate increases seem to be sticking, along with new fee structures based on dimensional weight. Truckload carriers are more rate competitive based on available capacity. Rail rates continue to increase while air carriers continue to be impacted by the price for fuel. Check out the clip below from Logistics Management magazine for more information.
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POPSThe Truck Driver who Reinvented Shipping Malcolm McLean was a pioneer in ocean transportation. He founded McLean Trucking, then ported that experience into founding Sea-Land Service Company, then sold that to take over United States Lines. A great man who revolutionized a business. Without his singular invention, the ocean container, the China Import revolution couldn't have occurred. Wal*Mart would still be a sleepy general store in Arkansas.
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POPSUSPS: Genius at Work This is news from the Bizarro World. The US Postal Service has decided to fix long waits in line at the local post office by..removing the clocks. The theory is people won't know how long they waited, therefore it won't seem so long. Thats our government at work folks. I guess postal workers haven't heard of watches, or mobile phones or PDA's with chronometers. I wonder what the government did with those 37000 clocks? I bet they gave them to the IRS. Check this clipmark to find out.
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POPSChina is the Market... Investment in Chinese supply chain infrastructure continues rapid expansion with DHL announcing a new multi-million dollar investment and FedEx spending 400 mil to buy out their general agent DTW. Walmart meanwhile buys a China hypermart chain with 89 locations. China is the market..no longer just the export factory location.
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POPSTop Supply Chain Opportunities in 2007 Nice article discussing possibilities of manufacturing coming back "onshore" and trade agreements etc. What goes around comes around. Especially if China floats its currency.
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POPSDHL expects 10 million flowers on Valentines DHL expecting bumper crop of flower shipments for Valentines this year. Formerly a FedEx dominated market, DHL has made significant inroads into the shipment and handling of transit sensitive perishable goods like flowers and pharmaceuticals.
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