Staying up to date on supply chain news as well as developments in the fields of inventory management and demand planning is a vital part of supply chain management. Having an eye on the news can provide insight to potential threats to the supply chain and allow managers to make adjustments accordingly. Therefore we have decided to start a weekly wrap-up of some top news stories and blog entries from around the world. We will provide a short summary as well as a link to the full story. This is to serve as an added feature to the original content we will be posting here on this blog.
So we will begin the series with two stories that were in the headlines this week, one of which had a massive impact on global supply chain managers:
Port strikes in California:
An 8 day strike by clerical workers at the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors came to an end this week. The strike left cargo ships stranded along the California coast and tied up billions of dollars of shipments. Michael R. Blood of the Associated Press warns that the end to the clerical strikes could mark the beginning of a new stand-off between dockworkers and management, as management continues to search for ways to cut costs. Click on the following link to read the full story:
“Ports strike may set stage for wider 2014 labor standoff with management”
Apple coming home:
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook announced that a portion of production of the Mac will return to the USA in 2013. The exact products to be produced in the US were however not revealed. The hope is that Apple’s step back toward the US will create a trend for other large companies, but analysts remain skeptical as moving manufacturing supply chains back to the US seems unlikely. Click on the following link to read the full story:
“Apple to return some Mac production to US; bringing back manufacturing jobs”
Feel free to leave a comment with your top stories of the week. We are also happy to discuss the potential supply chain impacts of further port strikes in California and/or Apple’s step toward the US for its Mac production.
Have a great weekend.
