Nestlé – saving water in Mexico one factory at a time
Last week Nestlé officially opened a factory in Mexico that does not use any external water sources. Instead, the factory relies on milk. The waste liquid, extracted from milk when it is powdered, is reused to run the factory’s operations. Previously, the factory used around 1.6 million liters of water every day (about the same amount which is used by 6,400 people daily) to produce 60,000 tons of Nido infant formula. This innovation will help Nestlé cut total water consumption in its 13 factories in Mexico by 15% annually.
As the population in Mexico has drastically increased, saving water resources became vital for the local population. The unique Nestlé water treatment-plus-filtration process, according to the plant manager, is more costly than using the well water, however the savings were realized by eliminating transportation costs.
To read the full story, click here.
Reshoring – is it time to come back home?
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recently published a study of 252 large US manufacturers’ (with sales larger than $1 billion) intentions on reshoring. According to the survey, interest in reshoring production to the US and the number of companies taking action to achieve it has increased, however not drastically. About 20% (up 3% from last year) of correspondents stated they will consider reshoring in the near future. There has been a 3% increase (from 13% to 16%) in the number of companies which are already bringing manufacturing back to the US. As a result, the number of correspondents in the final reshoring decision stage decreased by 7% (from 17% in 2013 to 10% in 2014).
The main advantages of moving the manufacturing back to the US would be the creation of shorter and more responsive supply chains, reduced transportation costs and closer control of supply chain processes.
To read the full story, click here.
H&M bans a supplier over child labor reports
H&M decided to ban all the products from a spinning mill in southern India after a report was received about child labor and terrible working conditions. Even though H&M does not have a direct agreement with the company in question, it prohibited its suppliers to use any products made by Tamil Nadu-based Super Spinning Mills Ltd. The report covers five mills, one of them is the aforementioned Super Spinning Mills Ltd, which denies the allegations of using child labor or breaking any regulations. Regardless of this, H&M made the smart move to prevent any further scandals and make their supply chain more transparent.
To read the full story, click here.
Have a nice weekend!