All IT articles – Page 17
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Global news in brief
Norbert Dentressangle closes on TDG takeoverNorbert Dentressangle’s €223m takeover of logistics provider TDG is due to be complete on 28 March following its announcement last November. Following the buyout of shares from TDG’s holding company Laxey Logistics, 53% of Norbert’s business will be in road transport with €1.95 billion in ...
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The central nervous system
The long road to RFIDTracking transportA Babylon of IT linksBLG depends on a highly advanced and organised IT system to link its distribution, port handling and technical services. Marcia MacLeod finds out what makes the vehicle logistics giant’s system tick.In 2009 BLG Automobile handled 4.6m finished vehicles at its 13 ...
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Tier ones wake up to IT
Tier one suppliers face many challenges in making the most of their supply chain IT, but new offerings by suppliers and a new openness in the industry may deliver much.Garbage in, garbage outShining light into a black holeIn the new normalDon't buy, rentLimitations of a legacyIt is quicker, cheaper and ...
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RFID to reduce loss on returnables
The Joint Automotive Industry Forum (JAIF) has drawn up a new set of guidelines for RFID tracking and tracing of returnable containers in the supply chain. The Global Guideline for Returnable Transport Item (RTI) Identification is the result of a project looking into problems affecting ownership, maintenance, losses and special ...
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Freight audit on the rise in Europe
Long an outsourced service in the US, Europe-based manufacturers are beginning cotton on to the benefits of freight audit and pay, and other e-commerce tools to tighten their supply chainsEurope is complicatedTier suppliers sold on freight audit and payBorn in the 1950s out of US legislation standardising freight rates and ...
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Can social media help logistics?
When Iceland’s volcano erupted earlier this year, closing most of European airspace for weeks, social media web sites found a new purpose as airlines began to channel passenger updates through Facebook and Twitter. Air Berlin and Air Baltic, for example, said they received millions of requests for information via Twitter, ...
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GM supply chain will benefit from HP contract
General Motors has renewed its contract with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services for the supply of technology infrastructure services across the company, including those supporting its product development, manufacturing and supply chain operations. As part of the contract, which is valued at more than $2 billion, HP will provide network and ...
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ICO switches to Inform system for ro-ro
International Car Operators (ICO) has signed a contract with German software provider Inform for a new terminal operating system at the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge that is designed to improve compound management for vehicles at port compounds. The system, which will be fully operational by the beginning of ...
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Rolf rolls out Vehnet iTracks in Russia
As hinted at during last month’s Automotive Logistics Russia conference in St Petersburg, Rolf SCS has now implemented Vehnet’s iTracks yard management system at its newly-built Lobnya finished vehicle terminal 17km outside of Moscow. Vehnet, a finished vehicle software specialist, is providing full visibility of stock across all activities at ...
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Making plans reality
The dividing line between IT vendors offering planning systems, and those offering execution systems may no longer hold.The split between planning and executionDownturn brings the two sides togetherBuild-to-order productionIn April, as the Icelandic volcano filled European air space with ash clouds, leading to much of its closure, the assembly lines ...
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Pound Gates awarded for risk management services
Pound Gates Vehicle Management Services has taken this year’s Risk Service Provider of the Year Award at the seventh annual StrategicRISK European Risk Management Awards, held last week at London’s Vinopolis venue in the UK. The event, which is open to service providers across all industries in Europe, is judged ...
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It’s not how you track it, it’s who will pay?
The enduring barcode popularityThe RFID fanbaseWhat about the satellite solution?Information overloadMore attention is being paid to tracking vehicles in the outbound supply chain than ever before. Marcia MacLeod finds out what is really needed and asks who is willing to stump up the cash?It may have taken a while for ...
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Can ERP play a greater in the auto supply chain?
The automotive industry has typically lagged beyond others in the use of ERP systems, particularly for functions beyond accounting or demand management. That is starting to change, with India and China leading the wayAn historically limited use of ERP in automotiveConfigurability more than customisationIndia and China are moving ahead of ...
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Ford’s Asian vista
Expanding in Asia Pacific Africa, Ford is growing the smart way with a push toward stronger electronic communication across its supply chain here, including the rollout of its European order-to-delivery system, Vista.Forecasting freight and dutyFlexible manufacturing and supplyBeing the first to build-to-order vehicles in AsiaSupply chain IT: champagne taste, a ...
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Another win for VW and Inform
Inform and Volkswagen are the joint winners of this year’s elogistics Award from AKJ Automotive for an inbound control and appointment system being used at the carmaker’s Wolfsburg plant in Germany. AKJ Automotive is a body made up of experts and executives from the automotive and supply industry and each ...
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Sovereign offer solution to supply chain visibility
Day two of last week’s Automotive Logistics Europe conference in Bonn, Germany, took the form of workshops where delegates focused on a range of interests including information systems, service parts and the impact of the recession on the logistics and supply chains of tier suppliers. Discussions focusing on outbound movements ...
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Iveco extends RFID solution to Madrid
Following Iveco’s renewal of its contract with Kuehne + Nagel for European aftermarket supply (read more here), the commercial truck and bus maker is expanding the RFID system it uses at its Italian distribution centre in Turin to its Madrid facility in Spain. The system, which has been developed in ...
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Supply chain partnership gets underway
Supply chain software provider ProAct International is now working with rail information management specialist RMI to provide enhanced supply chain management services for the automotive sector in the US, Canada and Latin America. The agreement, which was first announced last August, brings together ProAct’s multi-modal supply chain technology and RMI’s ...
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Grooming the yard
Specialised software on the riseTagging to trackIncreasing productivityThe road aheadIT systems, whether hardware or software, are beginning to be more sophisticated for managing flows in and out of vehicle yards. Jim Romeo reportsWhile the automotive inbound and outbound supply chain has become more complex, the IT systems used to track ...
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Track & trace: do we need the ‘next best thing’?
The automotive industry has been talking up the potential of RFID for decades, but with budgets strapped, there appears to be no rush to bin the barcodeAuto's enduring affair with the barcodeRFID still only used in fragmentsTrack what is sensibleThe future is now... or soonAt the end of the production ...