Supply Chain by the Numbers
 

-April 10, 2008

 
     
 

The Numbers Worth Knowing this Week in Supply Chain and Logistics

 
     
 

This Week: Caterpillar Develops Hunger for Chinese Investment; Archer Daniels Midland Accuses Rail Carriers of Collusion; Brawny's Muscle Man Goes on a Diet; Potential Death Toll from Tainted Heparin Continues to Rise

 
     
 
 
 

300%

The level by which equipment giant Caterpillar plans to increase its capital spending/investment China over the next three years versus the past three, according to CEO Jim Owens this week. 

 
 

 

$250 million

The amount Archer Daniels Midland says it has spent on rail fuel surcharges since 2003, as the agricultural giant filed suit last week accusing the five major rail carriers of price fixing on fuel surcharges.

 
 
11

The reduction (in feet) that the basic roll of Brawny paper towels has recently seen, as the Georgia-Pacific brand joins many other consumer packaged goods that have shrunk standard product sizes to combat rising commodity and energy cost pressures on the bottom line. 

 
 
 
 
62

The number of deaths in the US now potentially associated with tainted ingredients used in the blood thinning drug Heparin distributed by Baxter International, according to the Food and Drug Administration this week, triple previous tallies. Though no direct link has yet been conclusively established,the FDA said last month that a cheap and apparently contaminated heparin substitute made from animal cartilage was used to supplement real heparin imported from China and used in heparin products from Baxter. 

 
 
 
 
 
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