Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- July 2, 2015 -

   
  Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of July 2, 2015
   
 

Unilever Collaborates on Network Design; Solar Energy Expected to Rise Rapidly; Transports Costs have been Headed Up Sharply for CPG Companies; Breakthrough Advance in 3D Printing?

   
 
 
 

10-20%

That the share of annual logistics savings that Unilever North America expects to get over the next few from "collaborative network design" with its trading partners. That according to company logistics exec Matt Algar, during a panel discussion last week at the LLamasoft SummerCon user conference in Park City, UT. Algar said Unilever is already seeing 5-10% of its improvement from such efforts, but expects that to double over the next 2-3 years. In fact, Unilever has set up an "Innovation Lab" that will have as a core component the ability to jointly model the combined supply chains of Unilever and its customers and suppliers, which recently identified the potential for 20% transportation savings with one trading partner from joint network changes.

 
 


 
 
 

26%

That's the share of global electricity generation that will come from solar technology in 2040, up from just 2% in 2012. That is recent prediction from the Bloomberg New Energy Finance research group, which says solar energy production both at the utility company level and individual/business level ("rooftop solar") is likely to explode as the price-performance curve continues to significantly improve. "The price of solar power will continue to fall, until it becomes the cheapest form of power in a rapidly expanding number of national markets," Bloomberg says, adding that the lifetime cost of a photovoltaic solar-power plant will drop by almost half over the next 25 years . Solar power will eventually get so cheap that it will out-compete new fossil-fuel plants and even start to supplant some existing coal and gas plants, potentially stranding some areas in "a fossil-fuel infrastructure" that will be much higher cost.

 
 
 
 
 
100

That's how many times faster a new 3D printing technology from researchers at the UK's University of Sheffield can be in some applications versus the current state of the technology, according to reports from the research team there. The new approach, called high-speed sintering (HSS), uses an infrared lamp and an ink-jet print head. The print head rapidly and precisely delivers patterns of radiation-absorbing material to the powder bed. Subsequently exposing the powder to infrared light melts and fuses the material into shapes as controlled by the 3D design. That is similar in a sense to the current laser sintering technology operates, but it is much faster, holding the promise for making large quantities of parts cost effectively, which really isn't possible today. Last Fall, HP announced it was developing new 3D printing technology that may deliver similar improvements in speed.

 
 
 
 

14%

That's the average rise in logistics costs just since 2012 for consumer packaged goods companies, according to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Rates are rising in the trucking sector due to a combination of asset discipline by carriers in the face of growing freight volumes and the continuing driver shortage. In addition to rising costs, survey respondents indicated that the growing capacity tightness is also impacting customer service, saying they're finding it increasingly difficult to meet demand because their products simply can't get to where they need to be on time. Congestion issues are also playing a role, respondents said, with on-time arrival industry-wide falling by nearly 5% from 2012 to 2014, according to the survey.


 
 
 
 
 
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