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China Shipping Container Lines Co (CSCL) has taken large scale ships to the next level, following the order of five ships even bigger than the enormous Maersk Triple-E, the world’s biggest containership which is due to start its maiden voyage on June 28th.

Reports this week claim the CSCL have chosen Hyundai Heavy Industries Co to construct five vessels that can each carry 18,400 20-foot boxes in the (approx) $683 million contract.

Whilst it seemed that the maximum container capacity was set by Maersk Line when it imposed its Triple-E series, which can carry 18,000 TEU containers, the Chinese shipping company have raised the bar with an order for five gargantuan container carriers which can hold a record breaking 400 TEU containers more than the Triple-E.… READ MORE

NHS Supply Chain has taken a unique path to optimising its product supply, following the successful launch of its new strategic sourcing programme, designed to reduce costs and deliver increased value across the healthcare supply chain.

With collaborative working and cost efficiency remaining key themes on the NHS agenda, the foundation stone of NHS Supply Chain’s strategic sourcing programme is working with suppliers to identify opportunities that drive efficiencies across the supply chain and deliver results. The programme will focus on a number of key areas, such as packaging optimisation to reduce costs and material waste, trailer fill to reduce product miles, and supply chain optimisation.… READ MORE

I wonder if there will ever be a business that rents “man caves” for guys who just need to get away from the house. I imagine these man caves to be about the size of a small storage unit and infinitely customizable. You'd have your big screen TV and Internet connections, of course. Beyond that, you can customize it with beer on tap, video games, moose heads, and whatever else your guy-brain desires. The basic items, such as seating and the large screen TV, would be directly provided and installed by the operators.… READ MORE

High street electronics retailer Best Buy says it is making significant savings by addressing one area that it has up to now ignored – returns. During the earnings call, where the company addressed the $81 million loss for the first fiscal quarter, the CFO, Sharon McCollam, said they will continue to cut costs and improve supply chain efficiencies. So far, these have generated over $325 million in savings.

One area that was highlighted was that of reverse logistics, commonly known as returns.… READ MORE

Incorrect product classification can have severe consequences and businesses are well advised to incorporate error-minimizing measures into their risk management strategy. SCM solutions provider AEB (International) dispels the most common myths about product classification requirements, importers’ obligations and available solutions in its latest white paper ‘The five most common myths about commodity codes and product classification’.

Cars, machinery, electronics, chemical products, and even daily consumer goods such as coffee, food, and textiles are all goods moving within the EU. These, and all goods traded with “third countries” outside the EU are assigned to “commodity codes”.… READ MORE

DP World London Gateway has launched a new apprenticeship scheme aimed at raising the profile of job opportunities at the new port development.

This week the hunt is on to recruit six apprentices to undertake a four-year programme combining study, training, and hands-on work experience in engineering. At the end of the programme, each apprentice will have gained nationally recognised engineering qualifications, setting them up to launch a career in mechanical and electrical engineering.

DP World London Gateway will pay an annual salary for six students to study at college and carry out work experience on-site over a four year period.… READ MORE

Careerbuilder, a global leader in human capital solutions, have released a study that gives an insight into hiring trends this summer. A survey of over 2000 human resources managers has found that 29 percent of employers report they plan to hire seasonal workers over the summer. Employers in leisure and hospitality (47 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), information technology (34 percent) and retail (33 percent) are the most likely to hire seasonal help this summer.

The majority of jobs will have hourly wages between $10 and $16, but nine percent will be over $20 per hour.… READ MORE

Author: Dave Alberts, Director, Crimson & Co

Creating an optimised global supply chain with appropriate outsourcing can provide significant cost benefits, create the platform for access to emerging markets, and enable global opportunities. That’s the theory – but an almost singular focus on lowering costs has meant that opportunities to leverage flexible resources, create innovation capability and achieve supply chain agility have not been accomplished.

So what’s in vogue – outsourcing, offshoring, near shoring or repatriation, and what choices should you make?… READ MORE

South Africa is experiencing a widening supply chain skills gap over a short time span, according to a recent survey, which concludes that the skills shortage is severely impacting the competitiveness of the country’s economy.

According to the 2012 Supply Chain Skills Gap Survey, conducted by University of Johannesburg researchers Rose Luke and Gert Heyns, employers are experiencing difficulty in filling tactical and strategic level positions.

“Employers have indicated that, although operational positions are relatively easy to fill (63% average over both years), around 65% indicated it was difficult to fill tactical level positions.… READ MORE

Today, in Silver Spring, Maryland, activists from the consumer watchdog organization, SumOfUs.org will be joined by concerned citizens to distribute chocolate milk to employees as they come in to work at the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They will also be delivering a petition of 116,000 signatures urging the FDA reject unlabeled aspartame in milk.

In April, the FDA decided to move forward with a petition from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) that seeks to drop the FDA requirement to label milk and other dairy products as “artificially sweetened” when they contain sweeteners, such as aspartame.… READ MORE

By Catherine Hernandez-Blades

Congratulations to our own Caroline Dowling, who was named one of the Top 50 Women in Technology recognized by ITLG and featured in the Silicon Valley Global. As President of Flextronics’ Integrated Network Solutions, Caroline leads an international team with unrivalled end-to-end supply chain solutions that can take someone’s vision and bring it to life like no one else in the world. Looking at the latest trends, Caroline believes the pace of innovation is moving faster than ever before and that the time between disruptive technologies is down to a half-life.… READ MORE

It is some 40 years since the barcode first created a ‘hyper efficient supply chain’, when the grocery industry first used the barcode and adopted global identification standards.

Today, the simple barcode is ubiquitous in virtually every industry and in the lives of billions of people, used more than 5 billion times a day across the globe. The Universal Product Code data incorporated into the barcode spans across continents, governments, economies, markets, and cultures to create a global standard of business, capable of identifying, capturing, and sharing information automatically and accurately.… READ MORE