Category Archives: Operations Management

Content Claim Standards by the Textile Exchange and benefits

A recent announcement by the Textile Exchange of their Content Claim Standards (CCS http://textileexchange.org/sites/default/files/te_pdfs/integrity/Content%20Claim%20Standard_v1.0.pdf) suggests a scheme to verify chain of custody across the textile supply chain. The goal is to verify claims regarding specific content e.g., organic cotton, recycled … Continue reading →

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Walgreen’s Jupiter warehouse controlled substances shipments shut by US agents

An article in the Wall street Journal (September 15, 2012) reports that controlled substances shipments from Walgreens Jupiter warehouse were shut amidst government claims that shipments were diverted to addicts. The government accuses Walgreens of having insufficient controls over sales … Continue reading →

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Should The Japanese and European governments assist automakers with demand growth ?

An article in the Wall Street Journal (September 15, 2012) describes a request by the CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, to the Japanese government to intervene to make the yen exchange rate more favorable to local production and encourage alternate … Continue reading →

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Viruses inserted during manufacturing due to insecure supply chains

An article on the BBC website (13 September 2012) describes new computers built in China with viruses already installed. These viruses crept in when the manufactruers installed illegal software with malware, thus compromising user data from the moment the machines … Continue reading →

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Smuggled HCFC-22 foils ban on the refrigerant in the US

An article in the New York Times (September 9,2012) describes the smuggling into the US of HCFC-22, a refrigerant that the US has banned due to its link to global warming. As production of the product gets phased out, its … Continue reading →

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Intel’s lowered forecasts for chip revenues and supply chain impact

An article in the New York Times (September 9,2012) describes Intel’s lowered revenue forecasts as orders from OEMs like HP and Dell soften. The company had bet on sales growth of ultrabooks, which are between tablets and laptops. But OEMs … Continue reading →

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Apple cuts chip orders to Samsung

An article in the New York Times (September 9,2012) claims that Apple has cut orders for memory chips sourced from its long time supplier, Samsung. Current patent disputes regarding the similarity of Samsung’s phone and the iphone have caused friction … Continue reading →

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The potential supply chain impact of eliminating agency pricing for ebooks

An article in the Wall Street Journal (September 8,2012) describes a settlement by a set of publishers and the department of justice and elimination of the scheme whereby publishers set retail prices and paid a percent of retail price go … Continue reading →

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Health care waste in the US estimated at $750 billion

A report released by the Institute for Medicine in September 2012, titled “Best Health Care at lower Cost:The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America” , suggests that the US health care system had 30% of wasted expense or … Continue reading →

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The high cost impact of choices made for the GM Volt hybrid vehicle

An article by Reuters (September 10, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/10/us-generalmotors-autos-volt-idUSBRE88904J20120910) describes General Motors as losing $ 49,000 on each Volt it builds. The costs are due to developmnt and tooling costs, number of unique parts in the battery pack and motor as … Continue reading →

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