MHI
A new American national robot safety standard has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Developed by Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 standard has been updated for the first time since 1999 and is now harmonized with the International ISO 10218:2011 standard for robot manufacturers and integrators.

 

"We are excited to introduce the new standard," said Jeff Fryman, Director of Standards Development for RIA. "This has been a process which required the involvement of robotic industry leaders from across North America and all over the world. I’m proud of this new standard and thankful for efforts of everyone that participated." The adoption of the international standard allows systems designed and built in one country to be freely moved to other countries while maintaining compliance with safety regulations.

EBN
As Europe's recession drifts into its record sixth consecutive quarter, the electronics industry must continue to negotiate a bumpy economic road.

 

The euro zone economy contracted during the first quarter of the year, making the slump the region's longest in the postwar era and longer than the 2008 downturn that dragged down much of the world, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and Spiegel Online.

 

The gross domestic product dropped 0.2 percent in the euro area and 0.1 percent in the 27 European Union countries, according to data from Eurostat. In March, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew 1 percent in the euro area and 0.9 percent in the EU27. Industrial production fell 1.7 percent in the euro area and 1.1 percent in the EU27 from a year earlier.

DC Velocity
U.S-based third party logistics (3PL) providers posted 2012 gross revenues—revenues before the cost of purchased transportation—of $141.8 billion, a 6-percent increase over 2011 results, according to an annual report issued Tuesday by Armstrong & Associates Inc.

That figure is almost identical to the 5.9-percent increase in 2011 over 2010 totals but significantly below the industry's long-term growth rate, according to the Stoughton, Wis.-based consulting company's data. From 1996 through 2012, the 3PL market has grown at a 10-percent annual compounded rate, Armstrong said.

Material Handling & Logistics
If you want a quick answer to the question, "What's new with 3PLs?" 4PLs would be as concise as you could get.

While 4PLs have been around quite a while, the real news is the renewed attention they're getting. A "fourth-party logistics (4PL) provider" is one that may manage multiple 3PLs to take on a wider range of services for shippers. According to the 17th annual 3rd party logistics study performed by Capgemini Consulting in conjunction with Penn State, Panalpina, and EyeForTransport, while transactional, operational and repetitive activities tend to be the most frequently outsourced, as supply chain complexity increases, so do more strategic specialty services such as order management and fulfillment, IT services, supply chain consulting, fleet management and even sustainability management.

DC Velocity
In six months, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the first National Master Freight Agreement, which brought 450,000 truck drivers into the national Teamster fold and is credited by some with lifting more workers into the middle class than any event in U.S. labor history.

Today, there are about 30,000 workers in the pact, most of them at one company: YRC Worldwide Inc. Archrival ABF Freight System Inc., once a party to the agreement, withdrew last year. In fact, ABF may no longer exist if YRC pursues a proposal to buy it out, further consolidating the less-than-truckload (LTL) market.

Industry Week
Over the last few decades, increasing globalization and supply chain complexity have posed risks to pharmaceutical safety, ultimately impacting businesses and, most importantly, patients. Today, materials are procured from multiple countries, manufactured somewhere else, potentially packaged in yet another country and distributed and sold globally.

To successfully protect against these risks, proactive supply chain security must deliver actionable intelligence to mitigate those risks. Once implemented, this decision-based approach, utilizing information delivered in real time, allows for efficient business practices that not only protect a brand but also the many partners and people connected to that brand.

EBN
There are lots of challenges in the technology supply chain ranging from sourcing decisions to global supplier selection and from management to distribution planning, but one challenge we haven't talked about before in this column is international shipping.

With 96 percent of consumers worldwide living outside of the US representing two-thirds of the world's purchasing power, the importance of the international marketplace is impossible to ignore, particularly as technology companies look to grow and expand.

Apparel
Even if you're not an apparel professional, the concept of layers requires no introduction.

It's one of the best ideas ever to happen to fashion because rather than making one item of clothing 100 percent responsible for keeping its wearer warm or cool, it allows several items to work together to achieve the same end.

Effective logistics cost cutting is much the same.

At any given time, there are usually numerous opportunities to trim supply chain expenses at various levels – or layers – of an operation.  And each, no matter how large or small, can help create a better bottom line.

MHI
The Board of Directors of the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI) recently announced its 2013-2014 Scholarship Winners. This year, forty scholarships for a total of $135,774 were issued for this academic term.

This continued MHEFI's thirty-seven-year tradition of support to enterprising students at universities instructing in material handling and logistics sciences. MHEFI scholarships are awarded each year to students dedicated to entering the material handling and logistics field, either within MHI member companies or the user community.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive
Supply chain processes are complex environments that have little time for error. Yet disruptions do occur—the wrong product gets distributed, produce is tampered with in transit or a shipment gets delivered to the wrong retail location—and supply chain executives must deal with the repercussions, which often costs them additional time and energy that could have been utilized elsewhere.

With the development of technology that produces actionable data, environments that handle perishable items such as food or pharmaceutical drugs are able to more effectively monitor the data of goods at all levels of the supply chain—which ultimately improves operations to reduce cost and boost profitability.

Material Handling & Logistics
Overall new business volume in April for 25 companies representing a cross section of the $725 billion equipment finance sector was $7.5 billion, up 23 percent compared to volume in April 2012. Month-over-month, new business volume was up 10 percent from March. Year to date, cumulative new business volume was up eight percent compared to 2012. These numbers were reported in the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25).

Overall new business volume for April Receivables over 30 days were unchanged in April from the previous two months at 2.0 percent.  They were down from 2.7 percent in the same period in 2012. Charge-offs were unchanged from March at the all-time low of 0.3 percent.

EE Times
Apple Inc. topped Gartner Inc.'s ranking of the top 25 firms in supply chain leadership for a record sixth year in a row.

According to Gartner (Stamford, Conn.), Apple continues to outpace peers by a wide margin on all five measures used to evaluate the top 25. Apple was ranked No. 1 again by the peer voters, capturing 75 percent of the highest possible points a company can get across the voting pool.

This is the ninth year that Gartner has conducted its Supply Chain Top 25 research initiative is to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts the business. The winners were announced last week at Gartner's Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix.

Analyzing the financial accounts of 20 of the world’s largest publicly quoted express and logistics companies, the report tracks company performance in terms of revenues, profitability and other financial ratio indicators over the six years. The report reviews "mainstream" logistics activities on a combined basis as well as across three individual sectors – contract logistics, freight forwarding and freight and trucking. The report also evaluates the results of parcel operations in a separate section.

On an inflation adjusted basis, average revenues for the companies fell by over 15 percent at the depth of the recession. On the same basis, average revenues are now only 7 percent higher than they were 2007.

A new report warns that business growth is not keeping pace with resilience to natural disasters in many parts of the world.

The UNISDR/PwC report Working together to reduce disaster risk examines disaster risk management approaches and experiences in some of the world's leading global businesses.

Businesses taking part in the report participated in a pilot assessment of their risk management activities which showed that while good practices existed for disaster risk reduction for corporate-owned assets, the level of understanding and ability to manage risks in local supply chains was far lower.