January 3, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

There's an interesting white paper available here which seems to be coining a new supply chain-related buzzword: the "Waste Chain."

Clearly the Green movement that started and accelerated rapidly last year is forcing companies to take another look at their impact on the environment, but here, the idea is to establish a new segment of the suppy chain to handle waste. The report suggests that recycling could not just be good for the planet, but could save a company money, too. If the recycled materials are worth something to another company's manufacturing operation, they could be sold, not just scrapped.

December 17, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

There's an interesting eight-minute video found here that says a lot about the future of materials handling. True, it's not a warehouse - it's a grocery store. Still, it's been said that technology filters down into "everyday" hands as soon as it gets cheap enough. 

If that's true, much of what you see in this stylish 3-D video will surely be in stores before long. Warehouses have been known to use much of this automated technology already. The video, which has a relatively quiet soundtrack with no narration or loud sound effects (perfect for viewing in the office without headphones), depicts a "Grocery Store of the Future," and how a customer decides what to buy, finds it, and pays for it. 

By far the most ...Read More

December 5, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

If the green movement will keep going through the supply chain next year (which it probably will), any tools to help understand a company's impact on Mother Earth will be helpful, and potentially profitable. A new report, titled "The Inefficient Truth," clearly a play on the title of the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," has been released by Global Action Plan, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in the UK.

The full report, available for free here, has plenty of appeal to a mainstream audience and seems to be focused primarily on the UK, but supply chain managers worldwide who are looking for places to "green up" their operations could learn a lot from it, too, especially those with a goal of hav...Read More

November 27, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Ok, whether this is a truly viable alternative to conventional propulsion for ocean-based freight is, well, debatable, but this article is still worth a look. This unusual freighter uses a sail. That's right, an honest-to-goodness, wind-driven sail as a primary form of propulsion(Ok, they call it a "kite," but it's the same principle.) With a big blue canopy the size of a football field, this thing gives the phrase, "Nice day for a sail!" a whole new meaning, but the Beluga Shipping Company, based in Germany, is taking it seriously. On a good day, the sail can apparently cut fuel consumption up to 50 percent, and may cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent.

...Read More

November 14, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I spent the day in Boston, taking in the first half of AMR's annual two-day Executive Leadership Conference. I have to admit this year's theme, "The New IT Story," makes a lot of sense. In short, the theme is a cry for a greater involvement of IT in your business model. The firm encouraged corporate leaders to treat their CIOs with more respect than the proverbial red-headed stepchild of the boardroom, or worse, someone you only want to see when something breaks.

There was also a warning that leaps forward in communication are being hidden by generation gaps, with quite a few references to technology that pretty much everyone who bought the LP version of the White album when it came out, owned a "Frankie Says Relax" T-shirt, or drank "new" Coke at their high school graduation parties have ei...Read More