Tag Archives: Design

Boeing design choice for the new 737 and Airbus announcement

A Wall Street Journal article (28 July 2011) describes Boeing’s CEO McNerney defending Boeing’s plan to offer an upgraded design for the 737 versus an anticipated new design.   Many in the industry had anticipated a newly designed 737, and this … Continue reading

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54.5 mpg by 2025

A Wall Street Journal (28 July 2011) describes an agreement between the auto manufacturers and the US government to double the average mileage from 27.3 mpg to 54.5 mpg. Attaining this mileage can involve use of solar panels, battery power, … Continue reading

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US Auto supply chain recovery from tsunami related glitches and growth impact

A Wall Street Journal article (July 27, 2011) links the impact of the tsunami, and part shortages, on US auto production (a drop of 5.9 %) and thus dampened growth of the US economy in the second quarter 2011 (1.9 … Continue reading

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Heavy Equipment monitoring and Energy Savings

An article in the Wall Street Journal (June 1, 2011) describes the use of electronic monitoring of heavy equipment (bulldozers, dump trucks etc) to decrease costs.  One contractor claims that his excavators were idling 48 % of the time in … Continue reading

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Adjusting Apparel features to balance margins with appeal

An article in BloombergBusinessweek (May 30, 2011 page 18) describes efforts by designers to balance the needs of designers, who want clothes to be appealing, with manufacturers who want to produce them and maintain margins. This tug-of-war has become even … Continue reading

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Automobile OEM custom chips and Japanese supply bottlenecks

An International Herald Tribune article (April 27, 2011) describes the impact of the earthquake caused destruction to chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics with a 40 % market share of automobile microcontrollers.  The company was formed by the merger of three chip … Continue reading

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Profitability and Sustainable Supply Chains

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek (April 4,2011, pg 25) describes efforts at Pepsico’s Walker potato chip plant in England to condense the 80 % of water that escapes as steam, reuse it to wash potatoes and water herbs, and save … Continue reading

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The “value of a human life” and Supply Chain Choices

A New York Times article (February 20, 2011) describes estimates of the value of a human life across US government agencies – $ 9.1 million by the EPA, $ 7.9 million by the FDA, $ 6 million by DOT, and … Continue reading

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