One of the world’s largest shipping concerns is preparing to participate in a track-and-trace, radio frequency identification technology supply chain pilot in Asia with EPCglobal Inc., a non-profit organization spearheading RFID adoption. The move underscores an unprecedented wave of RFID adoption in the maritime industry.

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A new Ernst & Young survey of the UK’s leading retailers and FMCG companies has revealed that “plugging the leaks” across the entire end-to-end supply chain will come top of their agenda. The survey showed that 50 per cent of those retailers and companies questioned identify the loss of sales revenue across their end-to-end supply chain as more than 2.5 per cent, highlighting the scale and urgency of the problem. The most important area of value leakage was identified as shrinkage while counterfeiting and parallel imports, often seen as primary areas of leakage, were rated as the least important.

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Concert tickets, magazine adverts and cereal packets could feature interactive moving graphics by 2007, according to German electronics giant Siemens. Researchers at the firm have developed a printable interactive display with a similar thickness to paper.

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Transportation services company C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. posted a 45 percent increase in profits in the third quarter of 2005, ended September 30. The Eden Prairie-based company reported net income of $54.1 million, or 31 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2005 compared to $37.3 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period last year.

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FREIGHT and haulage heavyweight Exel has reported a strong trading performance as it finalises plans for a ?3.7 billion takeover by DHL owner Deutsche Post. The Bracknell-based firm said its contract logistics division - which manages company supply chains - boosted its showing for the three months to September 30. The business was lifted by recent acquisitions such as Tibbett & Britten and Power Packaging, as well as strong organic growth.

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Maersk Line, the combined shipping company of Maersk and P&O, will touch Nedlloyd by efficiency measures which foresees an reduction of 174 of the 800 employees; 84 at the former head office of P&O Nedlloyd in Rotterdam and ninety staff members at the agencies of P&O Nedlloyd in Rotterdam and Maersk Sealand in Rhoon.

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As more and more companies adopt a ?horizontally integrated? business model, they are seeking to perform in house only their core functions, while outsourcing the noncore activities. In manufacturing, this means shedding a company?s own plants and turning to domestic and international contract manufacturers. It also means sourcing from far-flung parts of the globe and relying on third-party providers for the necessary logistics support. This contrasts sharply with the old-world ?vertically integrated? approach in which everything from basic raw materials to end customer sales might be under the control of a single global enterprise.

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Electronic product lifecycle management (e-PLM) is an evolving and collaborative application suite that is building steam and gaining momentum thanks to e-business. However, most traditional product data management (PDM), computer-aided design (CAD) integration, and project management vendors cannot yet offer a complete suite of applications to meet all e-business requirements. Traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors with heavy investment in e-PLM may lead the way with only a few competitive, best-of-breed vendors.

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Vocollect’s Voice-Directed Distribution(tm) opens a two-way dialogue between your WMS and DC Team, that literally talks your DC team through their daily assignments. The end result is increased productivity, better accuracy and drastically reduced training time.

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Come February 11th, the world’s largest container shipping line will operate under a new name.

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