MHI Newswire

Material Handling Industry


MHI Blog -- There is mounting pressure on global supply chain professionals to not only to increase supply chain performance for commercial gain but also to ensure that their supply chains are having a positive environmental and social impact.




Major catastrophes such as the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, and evidence of child labor and unsafe working conditions in the extended supply chains of multinationals, have put significant pressure on corporations to ensure responsible supply chain practices.

Visit http://s354933259.onlinehome.us/mhi-blog/creating-competitive-and-conscience-supply-chains/ to view the full article online.

 

The Wall Street Journal -- Global supply chains will continue to expand in coming years, but at a slower pace than before, and in ways that follow different patterns, according to a new report from  Standard Chartered Bank.  




Low-cost manufacturing, for example, is moving westward from coastal cities as wages rise, leading to more goods produced in inland China, India and other Asian nations, the report said. Yet over time, inland wages are likely to increase as well, creating opportunities for other emerging economies.

Visit http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-supply-chain-growth-set-to-slow-amid-technology-labor-changes-1432852545?tesla=y to view the full article online.

 

CBC -- Trucks hauling cargo from Canada through the United States to Mexico and back navigate border crossings without the need for passports, visas or even a driver to steer them.




It's an idea that's not too far-fetched, says a group that met in North Dakota last week.




Marlo Anderson with the Central North American Trade Corridor Association says members are working to turn the idea into reality.

Visit http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/driverless-truck-corridor-from-mexico-to-manitoba-proposed-1.3086215 to view the full article online.

 

Reuters -- Union dockworkers at all 29 U.S. West Coast ports have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a contract agreement reached in February with shipping companies and terminal operators to end months of labor strife that snarled trans-Pacific trade.




Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union voted 82 percent in favor of the new five-year labor pact, which runs through June 2019, the union said in announcing the final tally of balloting that took place during the past month.

Visit http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/22/usa-ports-westcoast-idUSL1N0YD2MM20150522 to view the full article online.

 
Tauber Institute for Global Operations at University of Michigan
Vidir Inc.

Transport Topics -- Many high-tech companies have adopted a "right-shoring" strategy for their manufacturing supply chains, an approach that balances factors such as cost, quality and transit time, according to UPS Inc.’s fifth-annual Change in the (Supply) Chain survey. 




The survey, conducted for UPS by IDC Manufacturing Insights, polled 516 senior supply chain executives in the high-tech industry in North America, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America.

Visit http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplate.aspx?storyid=38403 to view the full article online.

 

Supply Management -- The proportion of container ships globally that made deliveries on time reached a 12-month high of 67.6 per cent in April, according to Drewry Maritime Research.




The figure is 4.1 per cent up on March and compares with the previous high of 64.3 per cent in October 2014.

Visit http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2015/global-container-ship-on-time-deliveries-reach-12-month-high to view the full article online.

 

EBN -- In the business world, seldom do you find widespread agreement on any topic. However, everyone seems to know that the Internet of Things (IoT) is important and getting more so—especially in the ways that organizations handle transportation and logistics.




"If you look at from supply chain perceptive, IoT is going to be transformative in connecting the physical world to digital world in a new way," Mark Wheeler, director of supply chain solutions at Zebra Technologies told EBN in an interview. "These technology allows intelligent assets to be visible in the cloud and accessible in a new way."

Visit http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3219&doc_id=277706& to view the full article online.

 

MHI Blog -- U.S. food companies need to adopt far stronger practices to use global water resources more efficiently, according to a report released today by Ceres. The report, Feeding Ourselves Thirsty: How the Food Sector is Managing Global Water Risks, ranks the nation’s 37 largest food companies on how effectively they are managing freshwater supplies.




Globally, food production is the most water intensive business on earth, using 70 percent of the world’s dwindling freshwater supplies. At the same time, surface water pollution from fertilizers, manure and pesticides is contaminating drinking water around the world and led to the shutdown of the city of Toledo’s water supplies last summer.

Visit http://s354933259.onlinehome.us/mhi-blog/major-food-beverage-firms-taking-the-lead-in-managing-water-sustainability/ to view the full article online.

 
Western Pacific Storage Solutions, Inc.
Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute

Internet Retailer -- The e-retailer puts out a fulfillment call that could, by one estimate, increase its warehouse workforce by 10%.




Amazon.com Inc. plans a fulfillment hiring binge that could increase its warehouse workforce by up to 10%, according to one estimate. The e-retailer, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, and which posted a 24% year-over-year North American sales gain in the first quarter, credits "growing customer demand" for the 6,000 anticipated new full-time jobs it plans to fill at 19 distribution centers around the United States.

Visit https://www.internetretailer.com/2015/05/27/amazon-needs-more-warehouse-workers to view the full article online.

 

Material Handling & Logistics -- In trying to understand the needs of what is now the largest generation in the American workforce, millennials, a survey was conducted to determine the status of their views on their working conditions.




The "lack of company support for training and development" is the top most surprising aspect of work in the "real world," according to a recent survey, Millennial Mindset Study by Mindflash.

Visit http://mhlnews.com/labor-management/millennials-managers-we-need-training-and-development to view the full article online.

 

The Wall Street Journal -- As contract negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and their employers slowed to a crawl late last year, another group of cargo-moving workers was growing increasingly restless.




Short-haul truck drivers, who carry containers from port terminals to nearby warehouses and distribution centers, have organized protests at several small trucking companies serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in recent months. And while their picket lines didn’t shut down port operations, they heightened importer and exporter concerns when labor strife was already snarling their supply chains.

Visit http://www.wsj.com/articles/port-truckers-revive-drive-for-employee-status-1432848972?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories to view the full article online.

 

MHI Blog -- As the 2015 MHI Annual Industry Report details, accelerating technology and innovation is leading to dramatic supply chain transformation. As supply chains become ever more complex systems to manage, hiring and retaining the talent it takes to manage them becomes a critical business advantage.




In the midst of this shifting landscape, some businesses are emerging as supply chain leaders, while others are followers. Increasingly, the difference comes down to the talent it requires to manage these more complex, next generation supply chains.

Visit http://s354933259.onlinehome.us/mhi-blog/supply-chain-talent-gap-is-a-growing-concern/ to view the full article online.

 
Engineering Innovation
Steel Guard Safety

Industry Week -- It’s that time again... the annual unveiling of the Top 25 Supply Chains of the year, at least according to analyst firm Gartner Inc. Every year for the past 11 years, Gartner has conducted a poll of its own analysts, as well as a peer group of 200 or so supply chain practitioners and experts, to determine which companies have the best supply chains.

Visit http://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/top-25-supply-chains-2015#slide-0-field_images-167391 to view the full article online.

 

Modern Materials Handling -- With 131,447 U.S. businesses selling their products online, revenues near $298 billion and an annual growth rate close to 6%, the e-commerce supply chain’s growing volume is complemented by increased complexity.




These are among the findings of the "E-Commerce Market Assessment" published this year by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, the owner and producer of the Pack Expo portfolio of trade shows.

Visit http://www.mmh.com/article/complexity_of_e_commerce_supply_chain_raises_the_stakes_for_manufacturers to view the full article online.

 

EBN -- Companies looking for a supply chain planning tools usually go one of two ways: They sign up with a best-of-breed solution provider for the tools they need, or they buy add-on modules to expand their existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities.




User satisfaction levels with a planning tool, however, seems to fall outside those clear-cut black and white lines.

Visit http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=1061&doc_id=277715& to view the full article online.

 
Material Handling Industry
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