Supply Chain by the Numbers
 

-October 30, 2008
   
 

The Numbers Worth Knowing this Week in Supply Chain and Logistics

   
 

This Week: The Fickle Finger of Compliance; Boeing Machinists Strike "Strikes" Hefty Blow to Bottom Line; Asian Outsourcing - Appreciating the Depreciation in Savings Over Time; Ocean Shipping Rates Challenge Shipbrokers to Break Even

   
 
 
 

475

The number of “compliance policy” changes this year so far in the 175 retailers tracked by VCF (formerly the Vendor Compliance Federation), according to Managing Director Mark Jones, on a recent Supply Chain Videocast from SCDigest and The Supply Chain Television Channel.

 
 



 

$100 million

The estimated revenue loss per day by Boeing as a result of the machinist’s strike that began in September but that appears to have finally been settled this week.

 
 
75%

The common reduction in net savings from Asian outsourcing initiatives after several years, as overhead and inefficiencies too often erode the initial cost benefits, according to an article in MIT’s Supply Chain Strategies newsletter.

 
 
 
 
982

 

 

The level the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of ocean shipping costs for bulk materials and commodities, fell to this week, putting the index below 1000 for the first time since August, 2002. At current rates, “You are getting very, very close to the cost of just crewing and running a ship,'' said Richard Haines, a senior director at London-based shipbroker Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd.
 
 
 
 
 
.