Quick News : Thursday 22 Dec 2005
StrategyPage.com talks about America’s modern day army being able to shop at stores the world over and have the goods shipped by air.
Each day, one or more B-747 freighters lands in Iraq carrying stuff the troops have ordered, or parcels from home. Well, the parcels from home are nothing new, but the massive amount of shopping, usually via the Internet, is. Over 6,000 tons of mail, most of it parcels (email has replaced a lot of the letters), is delivered to the troops each month. That’s over 70 pounds per month per soldier in Iraq. The troops get a break on the air freight, with a U.S. address being used for those sending stuff to military personnel in Iraq (or anywhere else overseas). Air conditioners were a big part of that tonnage early on, but now the troops sell (or give) their personal A/C to their replacements. Combat related gear is popular, everything from special sleeping bags to electronic gun sights. Electronics are also popular. Troops who did not bring a laptop with them, often order one pretty quick. Access to the Internet may be limited (rationed), but a laptop is also great for game playing, DVD viewing and mission planning (there is software available for working out convoy or combat operations).
Honduras will get a boost in its logistics infrastructure with construction of its “logistics corridor” project to begin in Jan/Feb:
The corridor links the Panamerican highway with Cortés port.
The announcement was made during the signing of the construction contracts with Mexican construction company Caapsa for the corridor’s first 1-B stretch and with Sweden’s Per Aarsleff for the corridor’s third stretch. They are worth US$25.7mn and US$33.6mn, respectively.
“The logistics corridor is divided in stretches 1-A, 1-B, 2 and 3. The minister has signed the construction contracts for sections 1-B and 3 of the corridor,” Honduras’ transport and housing ministry (Soptravi) official Alma Luz Hernández told BNamericas.
The 100km long corridor links Honduras’ northern Cortés port with the country’s central Villa de San Antonio town in the Comayagua department continuing further south until the country’s Valle department, next to the border with El Salvador.
“The corridor significantly diminishes the distance for traveling to El Salvador and Nicaragua from the north of the country and vice versa,” Hernández said.
I love stories like this. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics delivered toys to 90 kids hospitalized at the New Orleans Children’s Hospital:
Reaching out to 90 young patients hospitalized at the New Orleans Children’s Hospital and to the hundreds of other out-patients that visit daily, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, one of the world’s leading logistics providers, has chosen to brighten the Holidays of these children, many of them displaced after Hurricane Katrina, through a program put together by the company’s employees.
With its headquarters for the Americas in Miami, FL. the German company created a program called “Put a smile on the face of a child,†the first toy drive organized by its employees, who purchased the toys donated to the children. The program was deployed with the help of giant toy manufacturer Hasbro, who offered the gifts at a wholesale price, and the New Orleans Children’s Hospital, which is part of the Children’s Miracle Network, a non-profit organization that treats around 17 million kids a year in the USA and Canada.
On December 8th, the logistics company transported 514 toys from its headquarters in Miami to the Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. The toys were then handed out to the patients in a special ceremony on December 13th. A representative of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics was present along with the Children’s Hospital’s vice president of marketing. The faces of the ailing children were filled with delight upon receiving the presents. Their memorable reaction deeply touched the executives who were in attendance.
“Every child deserves the right to imagine, dream, invent, play and have fun with toys throughout the Christmas season,†said Frank Scheibner, President and CEO for Hellmann USA. “We are very pleased to be part of a program that brings joy to these kids’ especially after all they’ve gone through with Hurricane Katrina.†For the executive, the transportation of the freight and all the effort involved is worth a child’s smile.
I have been a huge advocate of paperless logistics for a long time, but am well aware of the many difficulties involved with implementation. IBM is making headway with their own supply chain, successfully implementing paperless logistics involved with their inbound cargo from Guadalajara :
To make a further dent in solving its problem, IBM set up a pilot project that made use of its Guadalajara Lane (an inbound trade lane that uses selected air, land and sea freight carriers as needed).
The Guadalajara Lane moved IBM goods, such as IBM xSeries eServers, across borders, through a freight forwarder and through other import partners. They did this with their paperless system. The results of this innovative supply chain pilot were encouraging enough to plan the opening of an Ireland Lane beginning in mid-January 2006. In that effort, they are joined by Panalpina, the large freight forwarder and customs broker, which sees an advantage for itself by the venture. Panalpina will go online with this solution.
The results of the Guadalajara Lane showed substantial savings, including document delivery time slashed to 25 hours from 15 days; census error resolution time to two hours from two days; classification error resolution time to two hours from one day; and reduction of missing documents to 0% from 25%.
For more about the future of paperless logistics, check here.
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