Category Archives: productivity

The benefits of recycling robots to enable recycling efficiency

An article in techcrunch.com, titled “Recycling robots raise millions from top venture firms to rescue an industry in turmoil”, describes challenges faced by US recycling companies as a result of China’s lowering of the contamination threshold for recyclable content combined … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, competitiveness, Cost, productivity, recycling, Sustainability, technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Reducing complexity and returning to profitability at PSA’s Opel division

An article in BloombergBusinessweek (August 29, 2018) titled “The Stunning One-Year turnaround of GM’s German castoff” describes a focus on reducing part variety. The article describes reduction of the 57 possible infotainment systems for the Corsa hatchback to 10. It … Continue reading

Posted in consumer, Cost, Operations Management, productivity, Variety | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mass faintings at Cambodia factories producing shoes for Asics, Nike and Puma

An article in The Guardian (June 24, 2017) titled ‘Cambodian female workers in Nike, Puma and Asics factories suffer mass faintings” lists the 10 hours per day, 6 days per week schedule faced by workers with short term contracts that … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, consumer, Cost, Global Contexts, Liability, Operations Management, productivity | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Are “slow growth chickens” the future ?

An article in the New York Times (May 1, 2017) titled “A Chicken that Grows Slower and tastes better” describes a plan by Perdue Farms to develop chickens that take 25% more time to mature, get more time to run … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, chicken, consumer, Cost, disruption, Operations Management, productivity, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Reducing Emergency Room queue time using telemedicine

An article in the Wall Street Journal (March 27, 2017) titled “Can Tech Speed up Emergency Room Care?” describes the increased use of remote care by emergency room doctors at New-York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine.  The Express care program offers emergency … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, consumer, Cost, productivity, queue, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 28 Comments

Agristats and possible chicken supply coordination

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (February 15,2017) titled “Is the Chicken Industry Rigged” describes the increasing profits for chicken manufacturers and a lawsuit about possible coordination. The industry participants subscribe to an information sharing service, Agristats, owned by Eli Lilly, that … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, Collaboration, competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Liability, Operations Management, ordering, productivity | Tagged , , , , , | 53 Comments

Should food delivery focused restaurants be structured differently ?

An article in Forbes (July 1, 2016) titled “How Food Delivery startup Maple Moves Fast by starting from Scratch” describes production choices made by Maple, a company focused on food delivery. The article claims that focusing on delivery and using … Continue reading

Posted in consumer, Operations Management, ordering, Prices, product, productivity, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Choosing queues to minimize wait time

An article in the New York Times (September 7,2016) titled “How to pick the Fastest Line at the Supermarket” describes how choosing a line with one person with 100 items may be faster than a line with four people with … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, emb2019, imm2018, Operations Management, productivity, retailers, Service Operations, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 24 Comments

The productivity benefit of tiny wireless in TSA queues

An article in the Wall Street Journal (August 16, 2016) titled “How Tiny Wireless Tech Makes Workers More Productive” describes use of wireless tracking in a test in Atlanta to speed up security screening by Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Passengers place … Continue reading

Posted in consumer, emb2019, imm2018, productivity, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Alternate Future Scenarios for US trucking

An article in FleetOwner.com by Sean Kilcarr titled “Logistics outlook:last mile a major Choke Point” on June 22, 2016 describes four technology adoption scenarios outlined in the State of the Logistics report for 2016.  The technologies listed include the internet … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, competitiveness, Cost, delivery, logistics, Prices, productivity, technology, truck, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 24 Comments