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Eaton Corp CEO: Hybrid truck technology industry is ramping up

The logistics giant was the winner in five categories, including received two of the regional Best Practices awards, comprising Manufacturing Logistics Service Provider of the Year and Green Logistics Service Provider of the Year.

STATING THE OBVIOUS: Shouldn’t “Blogs in Logistics” be about or pertaining to BLOGS in Logistics? I recently joined the Ning group http://blogsinlogistics.com/ and found (as far as I can tell) that I’m the only blogger on there. It appears to be basically a job posting board that has zero recruiters within SCM, Transportation, and/or Logistics on it so I’m still debating my “membership”.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Unifying and controlling complex, globally-distributed value networks in turbulent, unpredictable times requires real-time operational insights down to the product level, accurate sourcing and sell-through intelligence, and relentless dedication to eliminating waste in all areas of the go-to-market process,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the BPM Forum.

I AGREE!: ”Simply put, few global problems can be solved by the U.S. or China alone. And few can be solved without the U.S. and China together,” Geithner and Clinton wrote in an article published July 27 in The Wall Street Journal.

Fidelitone Works With Xerox On Ready To Run

Friday July 24, 2009

Xerox has found an answer to the problem of the installation of new equipment and the removal of old document technology equipment. In the past third-party carriers delivered equipment to customer sites, but waited for the supplier to install the equipment. Finally the carrier made a second trip to remove the old equipment. This process was lengthy and hardly cost effective.

Xerox has introduced the Ready to Run solution, which involves training the carrier’s drivers to assemble, power up, and provide a brief demonstration to the customer while removing of used equipment on the same visit. The program saved Xerox the lost time and expense of sending a service representative to complete installs, ultimately resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Third-party logistics provider, and Xerox partner, Fidelitone Logistics has successfully completed the Ready to Run training. Each of Fidelitone’s branch locations has enabled its fleet of drivers to install new Xerox equipment and remove old equipment on the same day, resulting in Xerox’s customers being able to do business faster with less disruption.

Companies as large as Xerox aren’t known for logistics management, so it only makes sense that they’d contract out to a 3rd party to handle a task they’ve identified as a candidate for a continuous improvement process.

I chose this for Loving Logistics because as an office professional by day, I really appreciate what Xerox is doing for their customers here. Some time ago when we installed the new copier/scanner/hole puncher/collator it was a miserable 2 day process and training came a couple of days after that. It was wretched.  It shows fantastic customer focus and powerful use thought leadership to take into account the customer experience to the point that they’d completely reorganize a process into a more Lean looking one. Next time I am asked for suggestions as to what types of office document handling technology I suggest, which happens more than people think, I will remember Xerox’s Ready to Run program and at least let the person asking know that it’s an available service.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will help the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) swap 6,500 old vehicles with a mix of hybrids, flex-fuel and four-cylinder replacements with the help of stimulus funds.

It is the first time USPS has received vehicles from the GSA as part of its federal fleet upgrade strategy implemented at the direction of President Barack Obama. The agency ordered 14,105 fuel-efficient vehicles last month at a cost of $210 million. Since April, the GSA has spent $287 million on orders of more than 17,000 new vehicles.

The one-for-one vehicle replacement, which will cost USPS nothing, includes 900 hybrid, 1,000 flex-fuel and 4.600 four-cylinder vehicles. The line-up includes:

Hybrid
Ford Fusion sedans               
Flex-Fuel
Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks
Dodge Caravan minivans            
Chevrolet Malibu sedans             
Four-cylinder
Ford Focus sedans               
Pontiac G-6 sedans               

USPS will evaluate the gas mileage of the vehicles once they are placed in service, according to USPS spokeswoman Darlene Casey, who believes the GSA plans to accelerate new car purchases for the government fleet by investing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

USPS operates a fleet with more than 43,000 alternative fuel vehicles. At nearly 220,000, its fleet is the largest civilian fleet in the U.S. USPS has set a goal of trimming petroleum fuel consumption by 20 percent over the next five years through fuel-efficiency and use of alternative fuels, which has increased 41 percent since 2006.

While I personally believe protectionist mentalities are dangerous to the global economy on a larger scale, I believe updating this fleet is far more important than to focus on the fact that all of the vehicles manufactured for this new USPS green fleet are US based.

Glad to see my tax/stimulus dollars going to a good cause – TRANSPORTATION!

This is beautiful news!  Yesterday President Obama along with the other members of the G-8 set a lofty goal to reduce global carbon emissions by 50% by the year 2050. Along side that wonderful news was this:

UPS, according to their annual sustainability report released Tuesday, plans to replace many of their old airplanes with a new, more eco-responsible fleet that will reduce their carbon emissions by 20%!

This significantly adds to their overall carbon emissions reduction which is  cumulative reduction of 42% since 1990.

 I think it’s extremely important that transportation companies continue to be on the forefront not only of national sentiments regarding carbon emissions and taking action on that but also to be seen as ‘part of the team’.  Environmental sustainability requires a large amount of teamwork due to the simple fact that many small actions of a large number of people equals large scall change.

I generally don’t prefer UPS for our courier services but this definately makes me reconsider. UPS and FedEx have been tracking their emissons but I have yet to see a commitment like this come from FedEx.

IN THE NEWS: $9 billion allocated to building high speed rail service starting September 2009! I am extremely excited for this service, I love taking trains.

STATING THE OBVIOUS: “Although a 3PL can manage your logistics tasks, you still have to manage the 3PL. ” I would be concerned if a company savvy enough to use a 3PL was fine with letting the 3PL run with no oversight.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

 “I was tapped on the shoulder at a bar in Mission Valley, California, and asked what it takes to move a traditional manufacturing company—with a conservative approach to policies, politics and principles—into a more aggressive position so they can hire more Millennials through social media tools. The company blocks access to Twitter and Facebook—which is timely because so does China and Iran. That’s awesome company to keep. “

Not only did that make me completely LOL, but it evoked rather strong opinions from me. I’ll say it: It’s time industry and SCM stepped into the 21st century to embrace web 2.0/ “new media” or face functional obsolescence .

I AGREE!: “LinkedIn profiles maintained by a candidate are more accurate than the Resume maintained by the same candidate…”This is especially important in SCM as there are a lot of people out there that, in my opinion, have no idea what they’re taking about 80% of the time.

Earn A Professional SCM Certification

Thursday June 18, 2009

The International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA) has announced a program where unemployed supply chain management professionals in US and Canada who can demonstrate their expertise will earn a professional certification for the nominal fee $50. Supply chain professionals can attend an educational review session and take the exam required to earn the Certified Supply Chain Analyst (CSCA) designation. The fee for the CSCA is normally $250 and the reduced fee of $50 has been made possible by contributions from a number of organizations.

Dates for the workshop include June 24 in Rochester, MI, June 25 at Cleveland State University, Ohio, June 30 in Dallas, TX, July 7 in Hamilton, NJ and July 9 in Marlborough, MA. If you are interested in this program you can register on the ISCEA website.

“”Inventory optimization (IO) is now among the top three priorities for many supply chain organizations as they seek to create increased efficiencies during the continued global recession, according to a new report from IDC Manufacturing Insights.”

Which, to me, is pretty run of the mill. What caught my attention was this at the end:

“These applications can also provide the ability to create what-if quantification of the impact of certain business decisions on overall inventory management.”

It scares me to think that some  manufacturers aren’t able to use data this way already and frightens me to think situations like this even exist in the first place. Talk about flying blindly!

- I LOVED this article from Interorganisational about trendspotting called “Trendspotting: what is hot and what is not“. I really appreciate the approachability in the “voice” of this article. I mean, where else can I read about Supply Chain Management “hotties”? So excited to see ‘Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and green/reverse supply chains’ at #2!

I have been in the logistics industry for 7 years now, for my entire employment history for the most part, having been in positions ranging from freight clerk in a tiny warehouse office to the working in Operations full-time for a 3PL. Never have I thought in my years that something as pervasive as the waybill would go paperless. To my surprise, D.W. Morgan Company has done it; With iPhones no less!

This is a great opportunity to show other logistics, 3PLs, owner/operators that paperless is not just some elusive ideal. Companies, specifically those with Lean intentions, I suspect, will very quickly latch onto this technology and run with it.

Read more information at the below links:

http://www.dwmorgan.com/en/publications/press-releases/Morgan_iPhone.pdf

http://logisticstoday.com/operations_strategy/firm-goes-paperless-9994/

APICS and SCC Join Forces

“We are pleased to be working with the Supply Chain Council (SCC),” said Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE and chief executive officer of APICS, the Association for Operations Management. “This collaboration brings together the expertise of both organizations to develop the knowledge of the members of APICS and SCC and deepen the skills sets of supply chain and operations management professionals.”

 

“APICS and SCC offer complementary products. APICS education and training programs provide a foundation for the supply chain improvement activities that SCC promotes. We are excited about the possibilities presented by this alliance,” added Joseph Francis, executive director of SCC.

 

Through this agreement, members of SCC are eligible for member pricing on APICS certification exams and educational events, and APICS members will benefit from access to SCORmark®, SCC’s benchmarking offering, and will receive member rates for SCC events. In addition, SCC will conduct Webinars for APICS members.