Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of March 6, 2014

Supply Chain by the Numbers

- March 6, 2014

India Plans to Connect Auto Manufacturers and Suppliers Electronically; US Manufacturing Recovery is There for for Some, but not All; Greenpeace Literally Raises Flags About Palm Oil Policies at Procter & Gamble Headquarters; Apple Adding to Its Asia Supply Chain Staff Big Time



750
Approximate number of manufacturing plants and suppliers in India's automotive supply chain that will be part of a new data communications program that will connect suppliers and OEMs via EDI, based on Cloud-based technology from IBM. Currently, communications between suppliers in such areas as purchase orders, invoices, forecasts and more are still manual/paper-based, slowing down the supply chain and leading to errors. With this new program, driven by two key automotive industry associations in the country, a supplier will simply have to create just a single EDI transaction per document type, and the IBM platform will translate that into the specific formats and data structures needed by individual OEMs.

Number of US manufacturers sectors among the 29 tracked by SCDigest whose output in 2013 was larger than it was in 2007, the baseline year for Federal Reserve data and the biggest production year in US history. Overall in 2013, total US manufacturing output was still some 2.8% below 2007, though the index appears poised to finally exceed that level in 2014 – some seven years later. To see more detail, including the list of sectors and their 2013 output levels, go to Manufacturing Recovery Continues On - but Varies Dramatically by Sector.



	60 Feet
Length of two massive banners unfurled by nine activists from environmental group Greenpeace from the 12th story of consumer products' giant Procter & Gamble's iconic "twin towers" in downtown Cincinnati, protesting how P&G handles palm oil sourcing. The activists, later arrested and charged with several crimes, managed to get past security and move to the 12th floor, where they broke window locks and used zip lines there for window washers to repel down the buildings. While P&G condemned the tactics, it said it is looking closely at recent Greenpeace allegations that many of the company's palm oil suppliers are destroying rainforests in Southeast Asia.




Hundreds
The number of engineers and supply chain managers Apple is now hiring in China and Taiwan, according to a report this week from the Wall Street Journal. Why the current hiring binge? Apple believes it needs more local talent to speed up processes at component suppliers and contract manufacturers to meet market requirements for faster cycle times and new product introductions and for Apple to expand its product portfolio. The total number of Apple engineers and supply chain staff in China now exceeds 600, the WSJ said, and hundreds more are being added in Taipei.