Monthly Archives: May 2014

Surging prices for railcars as demand runs up against supply shortages

Posted on May 30, 2014 by

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 30,2014) titled “Driller’s Pain is Railcar Owner’s Gain”, describes 33% price increases for tank cars, 50% increases for cars hauling sand and 40% increases for grain hoppers. These price increases reflect the … Continue reading →

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Volvo’s concept of “Roam Delivery” that deliveries online orders to your parked car

Posted on May 24, 2014 by

An article in BloombergBusinessweek (February 27, 2014) titled “Volvo wants your parked car to accept deliveries”, describes a system that would permit a one time key option to open parked cars to deliver packages to Volvos. Online shoppers would place … Continue reading →

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Will drone ships become a reality anytime soon ?

Posted on May 24, 2014 by

A report in Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/rolls-royce-drone-ships-challenge-375-billion-industry-freight.html) on February 25, 2014, titled “Rolls Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375 Billion Industry”, suggests that drone ships controlled by land based captains can disrupt existing maritime shipping. By eliminating crew quarters and associated services, ships … Continue reading →

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The supply chain for cordovan leather and shoe prices and availability impact

Posted on May 24, 2014 by

An article in the Wall Street Journal on May 24, 2014 (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303468704579572141307216318?mg=reno64-wsj) titled “Cordovan Shoes for Men Play Even Harder to get”, describes the over $2400 price points and six month wait times for cordovan leather shoes. The leather is … Continue reading →

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Is Amazon using Pre-order levels as a tool in negotiating higher margins from publishers ?

Posted on May 24, 2014 by

An article in the Wall Street Journal on May 23, 2014 (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303749904579580052135901452?mg=reno64-wsj) titled “Amazon-Hachette Dispute Heats Up”, describes a complaint that no pre-orders for books by J L Rowling at Amazon.com’s website were being taken, while other sites continue to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Panasonic’s plans to move production back to Japan

Posted on May 23, 2014 by

An article in the Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b22e772a-e1a2-11e3-9999-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz32YPzdZCV) titled “Panasonic considers bringing production back to Japan) describes the weak Japanese yen (which has fallen 20% since 2012 against other currencies) improving the economics of production of rice cookers, washing machines and … Continue reading →

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Can Walmart get store customers to deliver online orders ?

Posted on May 19, 2014 by

An article published by Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/28/us-retail-walmart-delivery-idUSBRE92R03820130328) titled “Wal-Mart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers”, describes an idea where store customers could sign up to deliver orders to customers in their route in return for a discount on … Continue reading →

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Will “botsourcing” bring manufacturing back to the US

Posted on May 15, 2014 by

An article in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network (http://blogs.hbr.org/) titled “Robots are starting to make offshoring less attractive” describes how use of automation and robots is increasing the attractiveness of US manufacturing. Foxconn’s decision to build iphones in Pennsylvania, … Continue reading →

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Nike’s water footprint across the supply chain and reduction efforts

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

Nike’s Materials Sustainability Index discussion (http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/water) focuses on the 217 billion gallons of water consumed across its supply chain, with 7% generated by raw material production and cotton accounting for 87% of that use. A focus on reducing the absolute … Continue reading →

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Solar Roadways hopes to charge cars as they run on roads

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

A company called Solar Roadways (http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml) claims to have a prototype installation of solar panels embedded in roads that can charge cars as they drive. Given that vast road network that can be harnessed with embedded solar panels, the company … Continue reading →

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