McDonald’s faces fries shortage in Japan
McDonald’s in Japan is facing serious supply chain disruptions. Due to the prolonged dispute between 20,000 dockworkers, terminal operators and shipping lines at 29 ports on the US west coast, there have been severe delays in imports of US frozen potato products. Further supply chain disruptions have been caused by shortage of equipment to handle cargo and rail service delays. To avoid the shortage of potato products, McDonald’s in Japan imported about 1,000 tons of frozen fries by air. More than 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants in Japan were forced to stop selling medium and large portions of fries. There are no restrictions of how many small portions a customer may buy, however, it is unclear when the larger portions will become available again. This supply chain crisis might force McDonald’s to reconsider their suppliers’ network in the near future.
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The largest tobacco company in the US bans children from working in fields
Producers of Marlboro cigarettes, Altria, which is also the biggest tobacco company in the US, banned children under 16 from working on the US tobacco farms. The new regulations will apply to contracts made with growers in 2015. The new labor standards also require parental consent for children under 18 working in tobacco fields. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, it was found that children working on the US tobacco farms are exposed to pesticides, nicotine and extreme heat. Even though one must be 18 to buy tobacco, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, children under 12 are allowed to work in tobacco farming. There is still a lot to be done in order to eliminate child labor from supply chains, not only in the tobacco industry.
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Free tool to identify food & drink supply chain risks
Cranfield University developed a free tool which helps identify potential risks in the food and drink supply chain. The initiative was part of Project SCALE (step change in agri-food logistics ecosystems) which aims to increase economic competitiveness and improve the social and environmental sustainability of food and drink supply chain logistics. The tool evaluates the effect of risks at the company level in three areas: people, profit and planet. Companies that want to use the tool have to provide details about their suppliers, estimate the likelihood of a particular risk and the impact it might have. According to the given information, a score between 1 and 25 is calculated, where 1 indicates low risk and 25 shows high risk level.
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Have a nice weekend!
