All North America articles – Page 103
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Feature
Handling cars with a little less human touch
Chock full of vehicle sizesProtect only where it countsDesign the terminal rightLooking to Asia as a guideA group effortSixthSeventhEighthWhile OEMs spend significant amounts of money on protective products, the most important measure that can be taken is training staff and developing careful processes for handling and inspecting vehicles. Carmakers and ...
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FeatureCan one size ever fit all?
Flexible and adjustable equipment stands outDesigning the perfect car carrierA divided EuropeWhat to tell your carriersCarmakers are gravitating towards similar standards and technology for road carriers, but the recession has made investment tougher than ever. Carrier builders and customers speak about how much cutting-edge technology and processes countThe purchase of ...
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FeatureDesigning a group logistics strategy for SAIC
A family of logistical differencesLooking abroad, cautiouslyGetting stronger at homeA tale of two AnjisThe sprawling Chinese conglomerate is growing quickly across its indigenous brands and joint venture operations, which include truckmaker subsidiaries and an in-house logistics company, Anji Automotive Logistics. Namrita Chow takes a look inside the group to see ...
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FeatureGetting the sea legs back again
Circling the globe to find growthRussian headacheShort-sea outlookCapacity conundrumPredicting the right balanceOcean carriers are sailing just a bit steadier as they emerge from the stormiest of seas this past year, with at least a mild recovery anticipated for Asian trade lanes in 2010. Finished Vehicle Logistics charts their course.The global ...
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FeatureToyota to providers: ...let’s talk about price!
Road carriers need to speak up if they want to slow downA missed opportunity and deferred risk?But it’s still business as usualA closer look at the networkHave other OEMs changed more, or just said so?Time for a change for TPS?The door is open for providersEighthToyota’s recent struggles in Europe had ...
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FeatureA new year, with new (old) locations?
Since the late 1960s the geography of the automotive sector has been fairly fixed, with most car production in the region where the cars were sold. That strategy remains the mantra of many supply chain executives at OEMs today as well.The exception to this of course has been Japan and ...
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Feature
Logistics recession lessons
Nobody likes a downturn, but sometimes in business, as in personal life, you have to learn the hard way. Automotive Logistics Publisher Louis Yiakoumi presents his six essential lessons from the hard timesNo rest for the wicked. Despite the downturn – which led to vehicle stockpiles, shutdowns, parked or scrapped trucks, ...
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FeatureTrack & 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 ...
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FeatureBack in the fast lane
Premium freight services nearly disappeared at the outset of the financial crisis. Now recovery and inventory cautious-carmakers have brought back the need for speed, but under new terms.Off a cliffSigns of recoverySame shipments, different dayCentralised purchasingLower cost optionsA cautious recoveryWhat will electric vehicles mean for air refight?To reduce inbound inventory ...
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FeaturePacking a punch
We sort through the tiresome marketing jargon to identify the real innovations in packaging for automotive, and report on the benefitsInnovation is among those words editors should always treat with scepticism (other bugbears include optimisation, continuous improvement and synergy). A purchasing manager or logistics executive should use no less caution ...
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FeatureGiving logistics in India a new name
Mahindra & Mahindra’s chief operating officer, Rajesh Jejuriker (pictured right), believes logistics and ‘demand’ chain management have improved the carmaker’s customer satisfaction ratings. Christopher Ludwig speaks to him and head of supply chain, SK Krishnan (pictured left), about M&M’s groundbreaking order-to-delivery system.Logistics ranks high in the management chainThe production and ...
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FeatureThe sleeping giant reawakens
Signs of relief have finally come to American shores, and OEMs at this year’s conference promised big changes for the supply chain from lessons learned along the way. But what will it all mean for LSPs?American on the outside, global insideWill the supply chain be electrified?Low inventory... for a moment ...
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FeatureGlobal outlook: fixing the dam for 2010
Automotive logistics companies were breathing easier at the end of 2009. Earlier, global light vehicle sales were projected to drop 14% to around 58m units. Production, which corresponds closely with the revenue for 3PLs, had been predicted below 50m.But incentives, a rebound in Asia, and gradual recovery have led forecasters ...
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FeatureIn Profile: Ford's Matthias Schulz
Matthias Schulz’s career with Ford began just two days after he received his Masters degree in 1987. His path toward leading Ford’s logistics in Europe has a somewhat unexpected origin; he is a mathematics expert, with studies in areas similar to that of Stephen Hawkins.He started at Ford as an ...
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FeatureHonda's Performance Excellence winners
American Honda has announced the winners of its 2009 Performance Excellence programme – the carmaker’s logistics operations performance recognition awards. The winners are CSX, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) and Selland Auto Transport. Logistic vendors in each category are evaluated monthly on their performance in logistics quality, speed and vehicle ...
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FeatureTime-critical recovery to continue next year?
In just over a week the annual time-critical movement of consumer goods par excellence will be getting underway from the North Pole for the budget price of a glass of egg nog, or milk and cookies left by the chimney. But time-critical movements of automotive parts have also seen a ...
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FeatureMercedes growth in shipping to China
The strong growth of Mercedes-Benz models in China has resulted in new export contracts from Europe and the US between the carmaker and finished vehicle carriers K-Line and NYK. Starting in January, K-Line and NYK will be working on a 50:50 split of movements of Mercedes’ S-, E-, C- A-, ...
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FeatureMercedes will handle BMW in Baltimore
Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) will process BMW and MINI vehicles through the Port of Baltimore from March 2010 under a new five-year deal between the two companies. MBUSA will provide pre-delivery inspection services including processing and repair at its facility at the port for an annual movement of 50,000 BMW and ...
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FeatureLogistics savings sway C-Class move
Daimler is planning to shift production of the next-generation Mercedes C-Class for the US market to its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from Sindelfingen in Germany in 2014. At the same time it will move C-Class production for the European market from Sindelfingen to Bremen. In return, SL production will move ...
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FeatureCanadian govt takes action over CN dispute
Canada’s federal government imposed back-to-work legislation on Monday for 1,700 locomotive engineers at Canadian National Railway (CN), the country’s largest freight operator, who are striking over contract and wage issues. The strike action, which began at midnight last Saturday, has threatened vehicle movements in the country, with CN forced to ...