Supply Chain by the Numbers: Week of October 28, 2009
   
 

-October 28, 2009
   
 

This Week’s Supply Chain by the Numbers – Goodyear Inventory, Hours of Service, WMS at QKL Stores, Hanesbrands Factory Closure
   
 

The Supply Chain and Logistics Numbers Worth Knowing This Week: No Spare Tires at Goodyear, FMCSA Hours of Service Lip Service?, WMS Out of Cold Storage in Chinese Grocery DC, Hanesbrands Stuffs a Sock in Weeks Hosiery Plant
   
 
 
 

$1 billion

Goodyear’s reduction in inventory so far in 2008, part of which was related to lower demand but more from an aggressive supply chain program, the company announced in its Q3 earnings report this week.
 
 



 

10?

The potential number of hours per day a driver may be limited to, as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced this week that it was going relook at Hours of Service rules, in a deal with the Teamsters and others who were challenging the FMCSA in court over the matter. The FMCSA famously raised the driving limit from 10 hours to 11 hours per day in 2003, while shortening the total hours drivers may work per day from 15 to 14 hours.
 
 
211,000

The number of square feet in a distribution center that Chinese grocer QKL Stores says it will automate with a new Warehouse Management System (WMS – from Manhattan Associates), according to an announcement this week. The move is interesting because Chinese companies have generally been reluctant to invest much for hardware or software automation due to their low labor costs.
 
 
 
 
240

The final production jobs left that will be lost at Hanesbrands’ once famous Weeks hosiery plant near Winston-Salem, NC. The company announced this week it was shutting the 850,000 square foot factory, which once employed as many as 4000 workers, but had seen production and deployment decline rapidly of late. The plant was as much a victim of rapidly shrinking product demand for sheer hosiery as was of labor costs.