Supply Chain by the Numbers: Week of January 22, 2009
 

-January 22, 2009
   
 

This Week's Supply Chain by the Numbers - CSX Q4 Price Increases, Compliance Fees, Commodity Prices, Out-of-Stocks

   
 

The Supply Chain and Logistics Numbers Worth Knowing This Week: The Cost of Doing Business; Reduced Fees are Sure to Please; Beware of Falling Rock; Mind the Gap

   
 
 
 

6.5%

Q4 2008 price increases maintained by rail carrier CSX despite slowing volumes, according to the company’s earnings call this week.
 
 



 

$0.12

The surprising level that Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club Chain has reduced its penalties (down from $2.00-3.00 for manufacturers for failure to RFID tag incoming pallets to its distribution centers, as it moves the financial penalties in-line with its true incremental costs for tagging. See Wal-Mart Finds Do-It-Yourself may be Easiest Path for RFID Enablement.
 
 
15-20%

The drop in overall commodity prices still to go before we hit bottom this year, according to New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis. He expects oil to stay in a range of $30-40 per barrel in 2009, and further falls in other commodities.
 
 
 
 
15.4%

The amazing difference between the grocer with the lowest level of out-of-stocks (Ahold, at 7.4%), using an expanded definition of OOS that includes more reasons than an empty shelf for a consumer to not purchase a product, and the worst performers (A&P and Food Lion, at 22.8%) according to recent research by IHL Group, a retail industry analyst firm. See Just How Big is the Out-of-Stock Problem in Retail?