Supply Chain by the Numbers
 

-October 22 , 2008
   
 

The Numbers Worth Knowing this Week in Supply Chain and Logistics

   
 

This Week: United Stationers Reduces Slow-Moving Inventory with Manhattan Inventory Optimization Software; Toyota Uses Idle Time Wisely; Asia to US - Sinking Demand Reduces Ocean Vessel Shipping; Chinese Toy Manufacturers Out of Business

   
 
 
 

25-30%

Reduction in slow moving inventory office products that wholesaler United Stationers has been able to achieve after implementing inventory optimization software (Manhattan Associates), according to Ron Berg, Sr. VP of Inventory Management for the company, during a SCDigest Videocast this week.

 
 



 

$35 million

The amount per month Toyota is spending on idle workers at its two US truck plants that have been shuttered since September due to plummeting demand for large vehicles. Rather than laying the workers off, however, Toyota is using the time for training, brainstorming, and other activities.
 
 
20%

The level of vessel capacity from Asia to the US that ocean carrier APL said this week it was planning to idle in response to strong reductions in demand. The figure is 25% for APL’s Asia to Europe routes.
 
 
 
 
3631

 

 

Staggeringly, the number of Chinese toys manufacturers said to have gone out of business in 2008, the victims of concern over the Mattel toy quality fiasco by Western buyers, rising labor and other costs, and the rising value of the yuan, according to a Chinese government report last week.
 
 
 
 
 
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