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SCM Newz roundup

1. Schneider Logistics Expands International Sales Team

Schneider Logistics, Inc., an international lead logistics provider and part of the Schneider National enterprise, today announced the appointment of Michael Squadrille as team vice president of international sales. The new addition to Schneider’s world-class sales team supports the company’s commitment to further develop and expand its global business initiatives.

And further highlighting their overseas connections,

As team vice president of international sales, Squadrille will focus on international development, working closely with the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, American Overseas Logistics, and with Schneider’s growing international freight forwarding networks in Europe and China. Schneider acquired American Overseas Logistics, an international freight forwarder and a licensed United States Customs Broker, in February 2006.

2. Dubai Ports Company Selling Off U.S. Operations
Earlier this year, this deal was the focus of major political brouhaha and it looks like the final dice has been cast in this case.

Dubai Ports World, the company whose planned takeover of major U.S. port operations ignited a political firestorm earlier this year, has agreed to sell those operations to AIG Global Investment Group.

The company announced the deal Monday. The operations at six major U.S. seaports in New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, Tampa and New Orleans were valued at approximately $700 million, but DP World did not disclose the sales price.

3. First Major Storm Of The Season Slams Midwest, But Not The Supply Chain
The first major snowstorm of this season was during the beginning of December and among the publicized accidents,

The first major snowstorm of the season has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the Midwest and caused a Fed Ex cargo plane to slide off the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

However, the article reports,

According to Cliff Waldman, Economist at the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, winter storms are just part of doing business.
“The weather can slow things down a bit, but manufacturers are better equipped to handle storms now than 10 years ago,” Waldman said. “The ‘have it when you need it’ mentality of lean manufacturing helps to minimize inventories and improve the technology of the supply chain system.”

This is wrong-headed to say the least. Unless, the firms that are likely to be affected by storms have not proactively changed their inventory target levels, routing guides or supplier collaboration to account for disruptions, the supply chains are going to take a hit when a storm intervenes. If anything, excess inventories provide a wasteful method of buffering a firm from uncertainties – so how does minimizing inventories help ride out a storm, Lean or No-lean?

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About me

I am Chris Jacob Abraham and I live, work and blog from Newburgh, New York. I work for IBM as a Senior consultant in the Fab PowerOps group that works around the issue of detailed Fab (semiconductor fab) level scheduling on a continual basis. My erstwhile company ILOG was recently acquired by IBM and I've joined the Industry Solutions Group there.

@ SCM Clustrmap

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