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New Addition To Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2006 Pros To Know list
Recently Charles Ballaro, director of product management , SciQuest, Inc., was added to the Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2006 Pros to Know list. The list constitutes of leading supply chain practitioners and providers.
DBusiness News reports:
Ballaro was recognized as a Provider Pioneer in developing web-based applications for e-procurement. Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2006 Provider Pros to Know list consists of individuals from a software firm or service provider, consultancy, analyst or research firm who exhibit deep domain knowledge and innovative thinking within the industry.
Subscribe to the comments for this postConfidex introduces new testing system
Confidex, an RFID product and service provider has introduced a new testing system for UHF RFID inlays and labels. This new system is called MR01 and is amongst the first industrial testing and coding system that offers quality control for manufacturers of Gen 2 labels. RFID Solutions online reports:
MR01 has a read testing speed of up 200 000 tags / hour (C1G2) and a write testing speed up to 18 000 tags / hour (C1G2). The system provides two separate inline testing points - a feature which has been specifically developed to serve the needs of the RFID manufacturing and label converting.
Warehouse decides to adopt RFID
The advantages offered by integrating RFID technology in existing supply chain systems are being increasingly recognized. Following a study carried out with the assistance of IBM, The Warehouse, has also taken a decision to adopt the technology. Stuff.co.nz reports:
A pilot is being set up and the information gleaned from RFID readers would be integrated with The Warehouse’s point-of-sale system and its database of inventory.
This would mean staff could be automatically alerted if stock on the shelves was running low.
IBM acquires Viacore to strengthen BTO capabilities
IBM, one of the world’s largest information technology company, recently announced that it would be acquiring Viacore, Inc., a leading provider of business process integration solutions for real-time supply chain visibility. This is a part of IBMs strategy to strengthen its Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) capabilities for supply chain optimization and management services.
Market Wire reports:
The Viacore acquisition expands IBM’s capabilities, specifically in the electronics and retail industries, by enabling a client and its supply chain partners to easily exchange information on capacity, inventory, production, sourcing, delivery, forecasting, and planning in real-time. This ability enables communities of supply chain partners to reduce costs, improve responsiveness to customers and forge more tightly integrated relationships.
The world’s smallest and thinnest RFID chip
Hitachi recently introduced the worlds smallest and thinnest RFID chip so far. This chip, based on Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology is 7.5 micrometer thin and measures 0.15×0.15mm.
I4U News reports:
Hitachi’s current model available in the market measures 0.4×0.4mm. The new chip can wirelessly transmit a 128 bit unique ID number.
SaviTrak to increase efficiency at ports
To manage cargo shipments at the port of Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China, SaviTrak technology, has been deployed. This technology is based on RFID, and is from Savi Networks, a joint venture between Savi Technology Inc and Hutchison Port Holdings. Itnews.co.au reports:
SaviTrak, a web-based information service, provides automated alerts and reporting, including status of container contents and shipments. Automation at the ports is expected to ease space and capacity constraints, and assist to smooth supply chain kinks.
Anywhere Appliance Edition from iAnywhere
iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., recently announced the release of a new RFID product called, Anywhere Appliance Edition. This product provides RFID hardware manufacturers with embeddable software components that enable them to build ‘smart’ readers.
These readers possess all the essential security features, support a variety of communication protocols and have the ability to execute logic on-device, remote management and upgrade capabilities.
These readers can be easily managed and therefore significantly reduce the cost incurred. They drastically reduce time consumption as reader configurations are restored at a high speed and that too, automatically. This also helps in the reduction of administrative overheads incurred.
Further, the ‘logic on device’ feature ensures that the data is filtered according to the requirement prior to transmission. This greatly reduces network data volumes.
Overall, the new product from iAnywhere boosts the efficiency of the organization thus making it more competitive. It has also been announced that RFID Anywhere Appliance Edition will be embedded into AWID’s MPR 3014 CE intelligent readers.
Understanding SCM
What is supply chain management(SCM)? Ask ten people and you can rest assured that you would get ten different answers. In the end, you would still be wondering, what is SCM?
SCM can defined as a well thought out strategy that aims to integrate operations across the organization in order to remove any extra costs and reduce time wastage while ensuring that the end consumers gets the best possible service.
It is essential to understand that logistic management and SCM are not the same. In fact, logistic management is just a part of SCM. Further, supply management is also a part of SCM. An organization will definitely benefit from proper SCM but that is not sufficient to ensure 100 per cent efficiency. A lot more goes into getting the best out of an organization.
As part of its logistics program, Kimberly Clark selects Alien ALR 9800
Kimberly-Clark Corp., health and hygiene brand manufacturer, in compliance with retail industry mandates requiring the use of RFID technology in the supply chain, has selected the Alien ALR-9800 Enterprise RFID (radio frequency identification) Reader as part of its logistics program. To ensure the selection of suitable RFID hardware equipment the decision to pick Alien ALR-9800 Enterprise RFID Reader was taken after extensive research and evaluation. Supply and Demand Chain Executive reports:
The company selected Alien ALR-9800 for its exceptional read performance and scalability, easy-to-manage data collection and its potential for low total cost-of-ownership. Kimberly-Clark will deploy Alien ALR-9800 Readers initially in key manufacturing and transport locations across North America.
AIO expected to grow at a rate of 12.6%
With advances in every sector and technology stepping in to ensure maximization of efficiency, the field of supply chain management can also feel the tremors. And with that accepted, it does not come as a surprise to know that the Advanced Inventory Optimization (AIO) is expected to grow at a rate of 12.6 per cent in the next five years, as per a study conducted by Dedham, Mass.- based ARC Advisory Group.
According to ‘Advanced Inventory Optimization Worldwide Outlook: Market Analysis and Forecast through 2010′, the market stood at $99.2 million in 2005. This is forecasted to reach $179.6 million in 2010.
Going into the minute details that make a world of difference, AIO is different from the traditional supply chain planning solutions, as it simultaneously calculates how much inventory should be held across the network of locations. Traditional solutions use single stage inventory calculators to determine inventory targets for a single node in the supply chain.
Further, due to the complex nature of AIO, this software solution would generally be outsourced as it requires very high skill levels for implementation.