Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- Feb. 25 , 2011 -

   
 

Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of Feb. 25, 2011
   
  Maersk Really Bulks Up; Robots in the DC; Nike Builds out China Distribution; Oil Prices and GDP Growth
   
 
 
 

68

The astounding number of miles that the total number of containers that can be handled in the new Maersk "Triple E" megaships, scheduled for delivery in 2013, would reach if each of them were laid end to end. The Triple E's, announced this week, will be able to carry 18,000 TEU's, up from 15,000 or so that today's largest ships can handle, which themselves are just a few years old and seemed amazing when they were first brought on-line. Only a few European and Asian ports are capable of ships of this size; no US ports are deep enough to handle the Triple E's. (See Megaship Era Enters New Period as Maersk Places Order for 10 18,000-TEU Ships.)

 
 
 



 

8

Number of palletizing robots that Panoramic, a maker of plastic packaging for the food industry, installed after the recession started to reduce labor costs in its distribution center, according to a USA Today article this week on the impact of productivity gains on job growth in the country. Each robot, which takes cartons off a conveyor and puts them on to a pallet, replaces 2-3 workers, the company says.

 
 
 
1500

The number of permanent jobs sports shoe and apparel giant Nike says will be created in new distribution center opened this week in in Taicang, Jiangsu China. The new DC is only 200,000 square meters big, which by our back of the envelop calculations seems to be a heck of a lot for a DC of that size. We're guessing that means there is not a whole lot of automation in the new Nike's China Logistics Center.

 
 
 
 
.3%

The generally excepted number for the amount of decrease in US gross domestic product (GDP) for every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, according to an economist this week in an interview on CNBC. That would mean a $30 increase in oil prices translates into a 1% GDP decline - which is a really big deal. The upward pressure move in oil prices is a huge threat to the nascent global economic recovery.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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