Tag Archives: Supply Chain

Uniqlo’s global expansion

An article in the Economist (March 24, 2012) describes the Japanese retailer’s expansion into the US and China. The company focuses on producing large volume, low cost items that are sold across the season. Given that weather patterns in China … Continue reading

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Inditex’s supply chain as it goes global

An article in the Economist (March 24, 2012) describes the fact that future growth for the parent company of Zara will come from Asia and the US, rather than the current 70 % of sales in Europe. Zara, known for … Continue reading

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Using the US Strategic Petroleum reserves

An article in the Economist (March 24, 2012) discusses a plan to use the US Strategic Petroluem Reserves to dampen US oil prices. The reserve was set up to provide an inventory buffer against emergencies and has been used after … Continue reading

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The Impact of New Emission rules for power plants

An article in the New York Times (March 28, 2012) describes new EPA rules that limit the CO2 emissions of power plants to 1,000 lbs per KWh. The new rules are easy to meet for new natural gas fired plants. … Continue reading

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Increased recycling by manufacturers to help themselves and municipalities

An article in the New York Times (March 23, 2012) describes plans by Coca Cola to recycle 100 % of its cans by 2015 and by Starbucks to enable paper cup recycling at 100 % of its outlets by 2015. … Continue reading

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The global supply chain for outsourced services

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (March 19,2012) describes new locations for higher level outsourced work – accounting, research, marketing etc. New locations in Argentina, Guatemala, Poland and Brazil, enable these tasks to be performed closer to the customer, despite being more … Continue reading

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Nike’s knit shoe design and global supply chain impact

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (March 19,2012) describe the flyknit shoe design by Nike – whose upper is knit from thread as one piece, thus saving 35 parts and 66 % less waste. The reduced labor intensive assembly also makes US … Continue reading

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Green jobs in the US Economy

The New York Times (March 22, 2012) describes a US government report that claims that there were 3.1 million green jobs in the US economy. Green jobs were defined as those involved in activities that either decrease energy consumption or … Continue reading

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The forest food chain and noise pollution

An article in the New York Times (March 26, 2012) describes the impact of noise pollution on the forest food chain consisting of pinyon pine trees and their pinyon nuts, scrub jays, mice and hummingbirds. Noise pollution seems to drive … Continue reading

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The impact of post office cost and rule changes

An article in the New York Times (March 26,2012) describes how different industry sectors might be impacted by decisions made by the post office. Greeting card manufacturers and drug distributors claim that increased post office rates will decrease their demand … Continue reading

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