Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- Dec. 16 , 2010 -

   
 

Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of Dec. 16, 2010

   
 

Heineken"Draughts" Simpler Bottle Strategy; Trade Deficit Overstatement; UPS/FEDEX Make it Six in a Row; Containers Keep Coming

   
 
 
 

5

Number of bottle sizes that Heineken plans to use in its operations, down from 15 previously, as the brewer says it hopes to " to “remove complexity” from its global supply chain. The five different volume sizes in the new bottle design will be available in western Europe at the beginning of 2011 and across the rest of the world by 2012.
 
 



 

$1.9 billion

The amount the Apple iPhone contributed to the US trade deficit with China in 2009, according to official US government statistics.

However, a very interesting article from the Wall Street Journal this week showed how the methodology used is often faulty, because though the final assembled product came from China, most of that value was actually accrued by Apple and other component suppliers. The bottom line is that overall trade deficit numbers may be quite off, especially with regard to technology products, and not look nearly as bad in reality for the US.

 
 
 
15%

Estimated full year increase in container volume moving through US ports in 2010 over 2009, according to the latest the Port Tracker report released this week by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. The latest actual numbers available, from October, marked the 11th straight month to show an annual gain after a 28-month stretch of declines that ended in December 2009.

 
 
 
 
6

Number of consecutive years, including the just announced tariffs for 2011, that both UPS and FedEx have increase base rates year over year by at least 5%.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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