Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- August 23, 2012

   
  Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of Aug. 23, 2012
   
 

Samsung Plans Billions for Texas; ILA and Port Negotiations - that Didn't Last Long; Your Electric Razor - Human or Robot Made? Most Sectors Improved Inventory Management in 2011

   
 
 
 

$4 Billion

How much Samsung Electronics is investing in its current Austin, Texas factory to boost output of processors increasingly used in smartphones and tablet computers. The investment will help convert the production of memory chips to logic products, including processors that power mobile devices, Samsung said in a statement this week. The company plans to complete the conversion and start mass production in the second half of 2013. More jobs for Texas.

 
 



 
 
 

20

Number of minutes it took for the latest round of negotiations this week to break down between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance, which negotiates with the union for 13 East Coast and Gulf area ports. That according to a statement from global forwarder DSV Air & Sea on Thursday, and other sources. The contract ends Sept. 30, just a few weeks away. DSV said that many shippers have already made preparations to ship early or divert cargo to alternate ports. Growing automation at the ports and related job security are the big issues.

 
 
 
 
 
59%

The percentage of industry sectors that were able to reduce Days Inventory Outstanding in 2011, according to our just completed analysis based on the annual data from REL. Unlike its sister measure of inventory turns, lowering DIO, all things being equal, is a good thing. 29 of the 49 sectors we looked at reduced DIO, 19 saw DIO rise, and one was flat. You can find our detailed analysis by company and sector here: Detailed Inventory Performance Numbers for 2011 by Company and Sector.

 
 
 
 
 
128

Number of robots used in a Philips Electronics factory in its home country of The Netherlands to make electronic razors – while a sister plant in China does the same job with several hundred human beings. That, according to an article in the New York Times last week chronicling the rapid rise of industrial robots. The Dutch factory has just several dozen workers per shift, about a tenth as many as the plant in the Chinese city of Zhuhai. "This is the future," the paper says.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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