Supply Chain by the Numbers: September 5, 2007

Supply Chain by the Numbers

-September 5, 2007

The Numbers Worth Knowing this Week in Supply Chain and Logistics

This Week: Intermodal Traffic Declines; Mission Accomplished in Iraq; Maybe Jimmy Hoffa Knows Where All the Unionized Laborers Have Gone; Most Companies See Supply Chain and Logistics As A "Specialist" Function



7.4%
Year-over-year declines in U.S. intermodal traffic last week, among very soft times for the rail industry. Total rail volumes are down 2.8% for the year, after several years of strong growth.

$10,000

The size of the first order of a U.S. retailer from a factory in Iraq, as Shelmar, a 51-store chain headquartered in Memphis, sourced about 2000 track suits and boys shirts from a government owned manufacturing company named Mosul Ready to Wear.


11.7%
The number of private sector/manufacturing workers in unions as of 2006 – down from 27.8% in 1983, as noted on this Labor Day week.




69%
The percentage of respondents out of 300 responders who said that supply chain and logistics is treated as a “specialist” function within the business, not an integral part of the company, according to SCDigest columnist Dr. John Gattorna. (See Living Supply Chains: It's People That Power Enterprise Supply Chains; But Where are the HRM Professionals?)