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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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- Jan. 7, 2022
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Graphic Packaging Bets Big on Green; US PMI for January Strong Again; McDonald's Japan French Shortage; Important Milestone in Autonomous Trucks |
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$600 Million |
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| That is how much a company called Graphic Packaging is spending on a new production line that will convert recycled cardboard into paperboard suitable for greener forms of packaging - the first new paperboard production line built in the US in decades. That according to a report last week by the Wall Street Journal. The company plans to offer more environmentally friendly packaging so that the consumer goods companies can offer a Greener supply chain to investors and consumers. Once Graphic shuts down four smaller, less efficient machines, including one at its Kalamazoo complex that is 100 years old, it will use a lot less water and electricity, it says, and emit 20% less greenhouse gases. The Journal says it’s a bet on “a future without foam cups, plastic clamshell containers or six-pack rings.” September, Graphic sold $100 million of so-called green bonds to help pay the project. |
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| That was the level of the US Purchasing Managers Index for December, as reported this week by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). While that mark was down 2.4 percentage points from the November reading, it was still well above the 50 level that separates US manufacturing expansion from contraction. The December reading also indicates expansion in the overall economy for the 19th month in a row, after last contracting in April 2020. The New Orders Index was down 1.1 percentage points, but at a level of 60.4 it was still well above the 50 mark, in a good sign for future US manufacturing activity. In other good news, while still strong at a score of 68.2, the Prices Index was down 14.2 percentage points compared to the very high November reading of 82.4, indicating some relief from inflation in the costs of components and materials. |
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That’s how many 747 cargo aircraft McDonald’s just leased through US freight forwarder Flexport to fly potatoes to Japan, according to Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen in a tweet last week, without providing details. Why the rush? Apparently, McDonald’s briefly faced a severe French fry shortage in the country. McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan said Dec. 21 that it would only offer small sizes of fries after flooding at a Vancouver port and the Covid-19 pandemic cut off key supplies. Footage from a local television report showed customers forming long lines at one of the stores in Tokyo to get their last orders of the larger portion fries before the rationing went into effect. The McDonald Japan's announcement also said said that despite the supply disruption, it was proactively seeking "alternative measures such as arranging airmail," to continue to serve what is called their the "McDonald's Potato." |
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That’s how many miles a truck outfitted with the autonomous driving system from TuSimple travelled without any human driver support in December - the first such trip for a Class 8 autonomous truck that interacted naturally with motorists on open public roads. TuSimple announced the news last week of the December test of its Autonomous Driving System (ADS) that navigated 100% of the trip that included surface streets and highway driving between a railyard in Tuscon, Arizona and an undisclosed distribution center in Phoenix. The trip occurred under good weather conditions and between the hours of 9 PM to midnight. TuSimple said after this test that in the past 18 months it has performed 1,800 runs and driven its trucks about 150,000 miles on the same I-10 highway, but previously with human oversight. Are we getting closer to an autonomous truck world?
