All North America articles – Page 52
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FeatureGlobal conference: regulatory impact on logistics
US automotive logistics executives complain that they are feeling the pain of regulatory increases across all transport modes, with the driver pool likely to shrink as well.American businesses have never been fans of regulation. In the automotive industry, it’s currently coming thick and fast, leaving OEMs, suppliers, and logistics businesses ...
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FeatureEditor's note: looking for smart guesswork
The Russian market has often confounded this magazine. Sales can change drastically between print and distribution. We’ve written about customs only for governments to reset policy. Today, amid escalating sanctions and shaky ceasefires, no one can guess the outcome for automotive (some are already forecasting plant closures, read more here).Imagine, ...
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FeatureLast mile: the end will be a start
Industries rise and fall, but logistics tends to remain.The Broening Highway moves in two lanes on either side, the road surface cracked into an asphalt web in parts, while elsewhere it is being expanded and resurfaced. It traces a landscape dotted with water towers, small factories, warehouses, empty yards and ...
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FeatureGeneral Motors: waste not, want not
GM’s executive director of global logistics, Edgard Pezzo, left, talks to Christopher Ludwig about cutting waste and cost in a multi-billion dollar supply chain.When Edgard Pezzo took over as executive director of global logistics and containerisation at General Motors, in May 2013, the top logistics purchasing management job came with ...
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FeatureUS trucking survey: loaded up for growth
Rising sales and rail disruption may have added to the challenges posed by driver and capacity shortages, but investment, better planning and increased collaboration are laying a solid base for further expansion in the sectorThe continued growth in new vehicle sales in the US has ushered in new opportunities for ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: relentless logistics at Ford, Honda and Chrysler
As Automotive Logistics Global came to a close in Detroit, a senior level panel of logistics executives discussed themes and thoughts from the event, and looked ahead to what challenges and innovations might be in store for the sector.Automotive Logistics' publisher and conference director Louis Yiakoumi seated left to right ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: Automotive is the benchmark for logistics in Mexico
While automotive is not the only industry with a focus on the development of Mexico as a production and export base, it seems customers from other sectors are looking to the logistics processes it employs as the benchmark for their own inbound strategies.“Companies have approached us in other industries and ...
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FeatureBMW’s Baltimore vehicle distribution centre opens
BMW’s latest vehicle distribution centre (VDC) at the port of Baltimore has officially opened.Between now and 2016, the German carmaker’s facility, which is being managed by logistics provider Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) under a new contract, will import around 166,000 BMW and Mini vehicles.The facility will provide a full range ...
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FeatureOut of the light and into the night
Extended delivery hours offer the benefits of less congestion and reduced dwell time, but they depend on dealer willingness, local laws and crime rates. Surprisingly, there has been a low uptake in Britain compared to parts of the USBack in 2006, a trial began within the British operations of Honda ...
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FeatureHow best to track the pack?
Recently developed RFID tags are becoming gradually more accessible to the masses, but do the benefits of this technology outweigh its initial expense.Track-and-trace technology enables users to locate and identify items throughout the supply chain. Methods adopted for such purposes on the returnable transit packaging used for moving automotive components ...
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FeatureIs there still a place for leaders?
The ‘lead logistics provider’ concept may be undergoing its biggest ever changes. The question is whether or not it is still working for today’s automotive industry. Co-ordinated from a ‘control tower’ based on the customer's site in Solihull, England, an extensive European supply chain feeds the three British vehicle assembly ...
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FeatureNorfolk Southern train derails with vehicle cargo
A Norfolk Southern train carrying finished vehicles eastwards between Ohio and Delaware in the US has derailed, damaging at least 200 units.The rail provider is working with the Federal Railroad Administration to discover the cause of the incident which saw 17 rail wagons leave the tracks on Saturday (20th), nine ...
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FeatureA stronger grip on the market
A shift towards local production and increased near-sourcing is improving the tyremaker’s logistics and order management in one of its main growth territories, reports Anthony CoiaBased in Milan, Italy, Pirelli & C SpA is the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, with 22 factories in 13 countries around the world. ...
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FeatureFinding ways to improve benchmarking
Despite a multitude of difficulties, many outbound LSPs are working to benchmark performance, but it will take significant co-operation between OEMs to really push the process forwardBenchmarking in finished vehicle logistics can be a fraught practice. The international scale of the automotive industry, myriad business models and varying company objectives ...
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FeatureWhen supply is a close run thing
Carmakers are showing a renewed interest in local supply networks, but do the benefits of supplier proximity balance the costs for both sides, or is there a middle distance to be found for a win-win? The evolution of automotive manufacturing has mostly been a story of dis-integration. Today’s car factories ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: Honda handling the lower tier supply of parts
Honda of America is managing the logistics behind the inbound supply of certain parts from its lower tier suppliers to those on the tier one and two level, and is currently running a pilot project with Transfreight for the delivery of those parts. The reorganisation also affects parts purchasing and ...
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FeatureDressing for a hot market in a cold network
The 15th annual Automotive Logistics Global conference, held at the MGM Grand in downtown Detroit, brought senior OEM, tier supplier and logistics provider executives to discuss ways of coping with the current growth and changes across the North American network. Most anticipated growing complexity, an increasingly important Mexico, and the ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: Ford is buying more boxes ‘off the shelf’
Ford Motor Company is making a global push to reduce the amount of specialised, bespoke racking and packaging that it uses to move components and parts, in favour of more ‘off the shelf’, standard equipment. The carmaker is also looking to take more ownership of containers and racks, rather than ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: lessons from the polar vortex
During the Automotive Logistics Global conference in Detroit, executives in finished vehicle logistics looked back at the impact of the ‘polar vortex’, which hit North America last winter, leading to wide-scale transport disruptions. Some tough lessons were learned, not least by the rail sector, about how to avoid the same ...
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FeatureGlobal conference: pressure is on for outbound innovation
“The enterprise that doesn’t innovate ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change, such as the present, the decline will be fast.” So said the management consultant Peter Drucker, and it should be a warning to the finished vehicle sector, according to Kirk Williams, president of car haulier ...