Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

How will blockchains impact supply chains ?

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Toyota Unit Joins R3 Blockchain group” (June 23, 2016) describes Toyota’s plan for use of blockchain, an online distributed ledger technology, for non-monetary transactions. The article claims that blockchains can track auto … Continue reading

Posted in Collaboration, consumer, Cost, disruption, emb2021, Global Contexts, logistics, manufacturer, Supply Chain Issues, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 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

The rising role of Supply Chain Finance

An article in the Harvard Business Review by Rogers et al (“The Rise of FinTech in Supply Chains, June 22, 2016) describes the increased role of payments processing across a supply chain. They describe the flexibility for suppliers to access … Continue reading

Posted in competitiveness, Cost, delivery, ordering, Prices, Supply Chain Issues, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The productivity benefits from Amazon ‘s Kiva robots

An article in Quartz (http://qz.com/709541/amazon-is-just-beginning-to-use-robots-in-its-warehouses-and-theyre-already-making-a-huge-difference/) claims that the “click to ship” time at Amazon has decreased from 60-75 minutes with human operators to 15 minutes using Kiva robots. In addition, with robots, warehouse inventory can increase by 50%, thus decreasing … Continue reading

Posted in competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, Operations Management, productivity, Service Operations, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 161 Comments

Shopping cart robots at Walmart ?

An article in the website geek.com (http://www.geek.com/news/walmart-is-turning-its-shopping-carts-into-robots-that-follow-you-1658786/) describes a partnership between Walmart and Five element Robotics to assist Walmart shoppers using a personal robot. The goal is to have the robot gather things in the shopper’s shopping list and freeing … Continue reading

Posted in competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, Operations Management, productivity, Service Operations, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Are droids better than drones for last mile delivery ?

An article in the Chicago Tribune (April 19, 2016) titled “Droids, not drones, are the future of e-commerce deliveries”, describes plans by Starship Technologies to develp mobile delivery robots to do home deliveries. The company claims that its robots weigh … Continue reading

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$3 billion worth cancer drugs wasted due to package size ?

An article in CNN.com titled “Why is $3 billion worth of cancer drugs being thrown away?” describes the 100 mg doses of the drug Keytruda, sold by Merck, and the 140 mg treatment requirement for a single patient, that leaves … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, consumer, Cost, hospital, ordering, Prices, product, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Product of Italy” or “Made in Italy” labels

An article in the New York Times (February 28, 2016) titled “Italy Growers Wary of Olive Oil Fraud as New Law is Weighed” , describes details of the “product of” law for olive oil as requiring use of Italian know … Continue reading

Posted in consumer, Cost, Global Contexts, labeling, manufacturer, Prices, product, Sustainability, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Will managing delivery logistics help Amazon improve service?

An article in the Wall Street Journal (December 23,2015) titled “Amazon Seeks to Ease Ties with UPS” describes the close relationship between the two companies evolving into one in which Amazon is now attempting to control it’s logistics costs, which … Continue reading

Posted in Capacity, competitiveness, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | 2 Comments