Category Archives: Supply Chain Issues

The direct to consumer farmers market sales

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 21, 2012) describes the move by farmers to sell direct to the consumer in farmers markets – now accounting for 2 % of US farm sales. Since retail prices are often four times the price … Continue reading

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Including the pesticide in the paint to fight malaria

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 21, 2012) describes a microcapsule technology to embed pesticides in paint developed by Inesfly Africa – a Spanish company. The technology embeds a mix of pesticides in microcapsules and releases them slowly – thus decreasing … Continue reading

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A New Pentagon lab and better gas mileage for cars

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 21, 2012) describes a new Pentagon lab in Warren, Michigan to test alternate fuels, improve energy efficiency of parts amd thus improve tank designs. But the same technologies may assist automakers trying to increase their … Continue reading

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The ripple effect of auto sales on the supply chain

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 21, 2012) describes the growth in auto sales to 2008 levels (14 million) – back to 2008 levels – and its ripple effect across the supply chain. Tooling and ficture manufacturer Apex Tool claims growth, … Continue reading

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Lost opportunity for Pakistan’s textile mills ?

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (April 30,2012) describes Pakistan’s textile industry as one of the world’s largest,employing 20% of the country’s labor and $14 billion in exports. But in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad, that produces 50% of the output, power … Continue reading

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Dealing with rising prices of “down”

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 8,2012) describes the impact of rising prices of goose down ($12 per pound in 2009 to $28 now) and duck down ($9 to $19). The driver of these price increases range from … Continue reading

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Amazon’s fashion plans

An article in the New York Times (May 8,2012) describes Amazon.com’s plans to sell more fashion product, with the logic that shipping costs are independent of item price and thus fashion goods offer greater margin. Amazon does not plan to … Continue reading

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Target pulls Kindles from its stores in a spat with Amazon

An article in the New York Times (May 3,2012) describes a decision by Target to stop selling Amazon’s Kindles in its stores. The article describes worries by Target that “showrooming” – a practice of scanning items in the store to … Continue reading

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Figuring out if Chinese solar panel manufacturers are dumping in the US

An article in the New York Times (May 16, 2012) describes possible countries whose cost structure could be used to estimate costs in China. In the past, costs in India i.e., labor, material, rent, electricity have been used as a … Continue reading

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Will Exxon Mobil be less competitive by being more transparent ?

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 14, 2012) describes efforts by ExxonMobil, among others, to eliminate a 1305 requirement under the Dodd Frank bill requiring timely disclosure of payments to countries when oil is extracted by US corporations. Such data would … Continue reading

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