All SCM articles – Page 30
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FeatureGlobal round up
Grimaldi terminal to bolster Med servicesItalian ocean carrier and shipowner Grimaldi is strengthening its provision of short-sea services in the Western Mediterranean with a new terminal at the port of Barcelona in Spain. The company was awarded a 15-year concession by the Barcelona Port Authority (renewable for a further ...
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FeatureWorking on the build-to-order dream
Despite the obvious complications that build-to-order brings, carmakers are still interested in the principle. An analysis which considers the global changes in the industry, and whether building such a car in just a few days can ever become a reality?In middle of last September, helped by her father, 18-year-old UK ...
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FeatureGM's winning students propose future supply chains
A competition to encourage business students to look positively at careers in the automotive supply chain unearthed a wealth of innovation and opportunity. GM's Bill Hurles (left) with the winning team was made up of: Caleb Harshbarger, a junior from Botkins, Ohio; Xianwu (Ken) Lin, a junior from China; ...
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FeatureChristine Krathwohl and the global power player that is GM
GM’s intercontinental material shipments have risen dramatically, changing the dynamic of logistics management and purchasing at the carmaker. Christine Krathwohl, executive director of global logistics and supplier diversity, tells how she is looking for global logistics engineering from providers and increased visibility to keep costs and flows under control.General Motors’ ...
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FeatureCollaboration in China - also known as 'huddling for warmth'
Ellen Hua finds China’s logistics providers keen to pull together as growth in the country slows, putting an emphasis on building partnerships between larger and smaller providers and carmakers.With China’s economic growth and its integration into the global supply chain, logistics service providers in the country’s automotive sector have had ...
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FeatureEditor's Note: Supply chains and purchasing
About five years ago, OEM executives described buying components in places like Southeast Asia as ‘low-cost country’ sourcing. A few years later, they started calling it the more cheerful ‘best-cost country’ sourcing. I always thought of this change as a PR cleanse – an obfuscation of the short and clear ...
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FeatureWork together through the uncertainty
Last week’s Automotive Logistics India conference in Pune revealed that carmakers were willing to work together to make the best of a situation where market volatility, inching regulatory change and huge gaps in infrastructure continued to make things difficult for the automotive industry there to compete globally.Prem Verma, chief ...
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FeatureThreats on horizon for logistics superpower?
Last week’s BVL Congress in Berlin celebrated a German logistics market that is on pace for another record year in 2012, buoyed largely by strong exports and manufacturing, including automotive. The leader of the opposition Social Democratic party proclaimed the country a “logistics superpower”. But with further ...
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FeatureGlobal round up
Yusen opens Russian Far East branchYusen Logistics’ Russian division has opened a branch in the Russian port city of Nakhodka in response to “the growing demand for logistics services in the Far East”. Situated on the Trudny Peninsula, 85km east of Vladivostok, and near the Vostochny intermodal container terminal, ...
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FeatureBuilding on the bridge to Turkey
What suppliers and logistics providers in the Turkish market are doing to localise automotive production and improve logistics costs for the total supply chain. Marcia MacLeod reportsTurkish automotive production is growing again, with opportunities in logistics for both established third-party logistics providers and new entrants to the country. Turkey’s ancient ...
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FeatureToyota shows its colours in Europe
Toyota Motor Europe’s head of logistics, talks exclusively about how the global sales leader has been redesigning its supply chain and logistics as part of a strategy to improve costs and shorten order-todelivery cycles for regional productionA Strategic change;The inbound network;Mapping Toyota's flowsDiversifying the carrier base;Centralising packaging;Shortening the order-to-delivery cycle;Outbound ...
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Case study: Forecasting for ‘long tails’
Faced with evidence of lost sales, rising inventories and lowerthan- desired order fill rates, the UK-based manufacturer Electrocomponents, supplier of high-tech electronic and maintenance products, knew that something had to be done to improve its bottom line and make its supply chain more efficient. And the path that it eventually ...
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FeatureThe Mexican parts rush
With car production jumping across the border to Mexico, manufacturers are making increasing use of the country’s developing intermodal services, writes Anthony CoiaFord's load factor improvements;Intermodal investment;GM's intercontinental material network;Visteon at the border;Consolidating networks;Nissan's four pillars;VW and synchronising supply;3PL developments.Mexico is resurgent as a manufacturing and export base for the ...
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FeatureLogistics in the front line of crisis response
Levent Yuksel, Toyota Motor Europe’s head of logistics, on how the global sales leader has been redesigning its supply chain and logistics as part of a strategy to improve costs and shorten order-todelivery cycles for regional production. He talks to Christopher Ludwig.Although Toyota has roared back to the top of ...
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FeatureThe right pick and mix for Meritor
Production and logistics network;Monitoring costs with a TMS;Aftermarket logistics;Global transport management.While manufacturers are often keen to stress their ability to monitor their supply chains and logistics to achieve the best cost and efficiency, many tend to leave much of the execution and administration of this to third-party logistics providers, from ...
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Tax advantages keep auto investment in Poland
There are new developments being discussed for an automotive cluster in the Silesia region of Poland near GM’s Opel’s plant in Gliwice, which lies at the heart of the Katowice Special Economic Zone (KSEZ). It reaffirms the importance of the automotive industry to the region since Opel decided in 1996 ...
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FeatureChina slowdown prompts supply chain network changes
An ever-changing picture. How logistics providers are relentlessly developing their networks despite the slowdown in Chinese productionDelphi aims to take control;Lear tackles logistics cost issues;Fiat-Chrysler's export network;Gefco builds on joint ventures;Go west, 3PLs.Although the world’s largest vehicle-producing nation has experienced a slowdown in manufacturing over the past year, carmakers, tier ...
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FeatureBuilding on the bridge
Marcia MacLeod reports on what suppliers and logistics providers in the Turkish market are doing to localise automotive production and improve logistics costs for the total supply chainTurkish automotive production is growing again, with opportunities in logistics for both established third-party logistics providers and new entrants to the country. Turkey’s ...
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FeatureCan outbound keep up with North America’s changes?
Rail and road capacity better than expected Move to hub-and-spoke distributionReducing empty backhaulsDynamic ETA and visibilityElectronic data sharingA new associationA flexible futureDelegates at Automotive Logistics Global debated the implications of vehicle production growth in Mexico, and whether the industry will offer enough direct services and capacity to handle changing vehicle ...
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FeatureShifting markets mean a sea change for logistics
With US domestic freight trends weak, inventory lagging on production and exports from the US to Europe and China slowing, the forecasts from the opening session at this week’s Automotive Logistics Global conference in Detroit sounded like more bad news for the transport and logistics industry. But while ...