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Best Buy Adopt Supply Chain Efficiencies

Thu, 23 May 2013 02:59:03 +0000

High street electronics retailer Best Buy says it is making significant savings by addressing one area that it has up to now ignored - returns. During the earnings call, where the company addressed the $81 million loss for the first fiscal quarter, the CFO, Sharon McCollam, said they will continue to cut costs and improve supply chain efficiencies. So far, these have generated over $325 million in savings.

One area that was highlighted was that of reverse logistics, commonly known as returns. Many companies do not deal efficiently with returns and as such can miss significant benefits. Best Buy management indicated that due to their outdated processes, over $400 million is lost by the company each year. Other supply chain efficiencies such as vendor rationalization and consolidating freight are also seen as ways in which the company can become more efficient and return to profitability.

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Seasonal Hiring

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:21:22 +0000

Careerbuilder, a global leader in human capital solutions, have released a study that gives an insight into hiring trends this summer. A survey of over 2000 human resources managers has found that 29 percent of employers report they plan to hire seasonal workers over the summer. Employers in leisure and hospitality (47 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), information technology (34 percent) and retail (33 percent) are the most likely to hire seasonal help this summer.

The majority of jobs will have hourly wages between $10 and $16, but nine percent will be over $20 per hour. This ties into the types of employment that will be available; 27 percent will be office support, 22 percent in customer service, 20 percent in information technology, and 18 percent in engineering.

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What's In Your Milk?

Tue, 21 May 2013 02:59:24 +0000

Today, in Silver Spring, Maryland, activists from the consumer watchdog organization, SumOfUs.org will be joined by concerned citizens to distribute chocolate milk to employees as they come in to work at the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They will also be delivering a petition of 116,000 signatures urging the FDA reject unlabeled aspartame in milk.

In April, the FDA decided to move forward with a petition from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) that seeks to drop the FDA requirement to label milk and other dairy products as "artificially sweetened" when they contain sweeteners, such as aspartame. Food labeling is very important for consumers, and this request by the IDFA and NMPF does appear to be counter to the progress that has been made on informing the American consumer on what is exactly in their food.

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What Next For Bangladesh?

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:59:41 +0000

The number of victims of the Bangladesh factory building that collapsed now totals over 1100. Since 2005, at least 1,800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh, according to the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF). The country has over four million garment workers, and over 80 percent are women earning as little as $35 a month. The garments being produced in the building that collapsed as well as countless others were probably destined for the US. Most of the countries largest retailers use Bangladesh as a cheap labor source.

So after this massive tragedy will US companies do anything to help improve the working conditions for the four million Bangladeshi garment workers? After the disaster some firms tried to proposal to have public disclosure of factory inspections and company-paid renovations. However this has faltered as the government is has been unwilling to allow the formation of trade unions without prior permission from factory owners. If real changes are not made in the near future, memories of the Bangladesh disaster will fade, along with the hopes of the garment workers of ever receiving better wages and working conditions.

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Voice Picking and Scanning

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:59:42 +0000

Voice command operations in the warehouse are becoming more common and Vocollect has introduced a new device that should increase productivity in the warehouse. The Talkman A700 solution has an integrated voice and scanning in one wearable device. It allows hands-free scanning for when operators are scanning totes or bins, but has all the features of a voice operated device.

The new A700 device can be used by any company that already uses Vocollect Voice for their warehouse operations. The device can be paired with the voice headset so that the operations are in sync. The user does not have to remove the device; they can pass a barcode in front to collect the data. This leaves the user to use both hands to complete the process, reducing any risk of injury to the user or damage to the goods.

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Compostable Packaging

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:59:03 +0000

Packaging can be especially wasteful when we look at small amounts of food encased in large amounts of packaging. Children's single serve food items top the list for waste as the amounts are very small. According to Greener Package, one company has come up with a novel idea to deal with this situation. Mighty Oats instant cereal for kids, from Little Duck Organics, contains compostable serving cups and a plantable inner carton liner.

Each of the single serving packages is made of a plant starch-based plastic resin with a coconut shell powder inclusion for improved rigidity. The cup is certified as being compostable in municipal and industrial aerobic composting facilities. It's not just the US where compostable packaging is beginning to become more acceptable. In Australia, Natureworks Packaging has a complete range of food packaging that is biodegradable and compostable. The packaging is made from biomass, which are organic compounds and completely renewable. Companies are looking at this type of packaging as it removes waste from crowded landfills, as well as requiring less than half as much energy to manufacture.

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Air Cargo Operators Need To Be Heard

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:59:27 +0000

In the UK there is a great deal of discussion over the expansion of London's Heathrow airport or creating a new airport to the east of London. Heathrow has seen a twenty percent decline in the number of destinations served due to runway restrictions, and building new runways at the airport may not be possible. Meanwhile other European airports have been expanding, such as Paris. The air cargo industry is concerned that it will not have a voice in the discussions despite the fact that in 2011, goods worth £116 billion ($177 billion) were shipped via Heathrow, between the UK and non-EU countries. This amount is 35 percent of the UK's non-EU trade by value.

The arguments for and against any runway expansion at Heathrow has been raging for decades. As far back as the early 1970's a new airport in the Thames Estuary to the east of London has been proposed. The first was for an airport at Maplin Sands in 1971, but was abandoned in 1974 in favor of the expansion of Stansted airport. The latest Thames Estuary airport has been proposed by the Mayor of London, to build a new airport just off the Isle of Grain. However this has already been rejected by a government committee which is in favor of a third and perhaps fourth runway at Heathrow.

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Maritime Accidents

Tue, 14 May 2013 02:59:57 +0000

There has been a spate of maritime shipping accidents in the last week, with terrible accidents in Italy, Greece, and China. In Italy, a cargo ship crashed into a dock and pushing a control tower into the harbor, at the port of Genoa, killing seven. Authorities are investigating how the 40,000 ton container ship hit the dock when water and weather conditions were perfect.

In Greece, two seamen died and eight went missing after two freight vessels collided and sank in the Aegean Sea. The "Piri Reis" sank as it was transferring fertilizers from Algeria to Ukraine. It was hit by another freighter despite good weather conditions.

In China, eighteen crew members of a ship were rescued shortly before their vessel sank in the Yangtze River after hitting a bridge pier. The ship was transporting 12,500 tons of limestone when it hit the pier in the early morning.

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Boeing Reduces Production

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:29:06 +0000

The Boeing 747 has been a major part of the Boeing fleet since 1970, but its latest incarnation, the 747-8 with a longer body and new engines, has only has a total of 31 sales to commercial airlines. The freighter version of the 747-8 was scheduled to be launched in 2009 but due to issues along Boeing's supply chain, the eventual launch eventually occurred in 2011.

The 747-8 has a unique feature that it can open its nose door to load abnormally sized items as well as being loaded and unloaded quickly. But, unfortunately for Boeing the miserable sales of the 747-8F, as well as increased competition from its own 777 aircraft and freighters from Airbus, has forced Boeing to 1.75 airplanes a month from two a month. Boeing believes that air cargo demand will pick up in 2014 and that includes more sales of 747-8F over the next twenty years.

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Warehouse To Process One Million Orders Per Day

Fri, 10 May 2013 02:59:43 +0000

British online shoppers will be happy to know that long-time bricks and mortar staple, Marks and Spencer, (M&S) are updating their online fulfillment process with a new fully automated 900,000 square foot warehouse that will be able to handle an estimated one million orders per day. Current systems have meant that the fulfillment centers could only process a few hundred orders per day. The company had seen online orders jump some 22 percent, but the aging and inefficient warehouse systems were restricting any future growth for online sales, including any international sales. M&S had been selling only 15 percent of items online, compared with other companies selling more than 35 percent.

M&S have been spending towards £1 billion ($1.55 billion) on technology improvements. The new warehouse will not only improve online sales, but the speed in which items get to stores. It will also reduce the amount of stock the company needs to hold, and cut costs by rationalizing the current fifty warehouses down to three distribution centers.

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