Monday, December 9, 2013
TWIF Flattener #7 - Supply-Chaining
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-spring2014.blogspot.com/2013/12/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that supply-chaining was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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Wal-Mart in projects to make shoes, curtains, jars in U.S.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/31/us-walmart-manufacturing-idUSBRE99U0NF20131031
This article is about Thomas Friedman's main example for supply-chaining, Walmart. It explains that Walmart will be establishing factories and moving them closer to the U.S. to make new products that are in demand. It announced that it would be working on three new manufacturing projects by suppliers in the U.S. to produce footwear, curtains, and glassware as part of a commitment to "buy American". Walmart became one of the most successful supply chains by listening to consumers. However, Friedman explained that part of Walmart's flattening of the world was due to places like Japan adopting Walmart's business ways, and this article explains that Walmart is moving it's factories closer to the U.S.
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ReplyDeleteWalmart supply chain: warehouse staff agencies accused of wage theft
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/oct/18/walmart-supply-chain-agencies-accused-wage-theft
This article on The Guardian talks about how Walmart's enormous factories may be committing wage theft crimes. People are putting supply chaining at fault for the speculation of illegal activity happening amongst the biggest retailer in the world. One of the goals of supply chaining is use low value distribution in order to make the business more prosperous. However, the workers in Walmart that deal with production earn little pay and are being robbed. Law suitors are trying to get rid of supply chaining in order to crack down on wage theft. The World is Flat says that Walmart is one the reasons that the world is being flattened.This article disagrees with Thomas Friedman's support of supply chaining.
Wal-Mart Unveils Plan to Make Supply Chain Greener,http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/business/energy-environment/26walmart.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about the ways that Wal-Mart aims to make its large supply chains more green and environmentally friendly. Every year Wal-Mart sells over $400,000,000,000 worth in sales, which obviously requires quite a lot of packaging and trucks to ship all of that inventory around the country. One way they intend to become less environmentally dangerous is by looking at the products with the highest amounts of embedded carbon and trying to convince their suppliers to rethink how they source, make, package, and transport their items. Friedman talks about the ways that Wal-mart and its large efficient supply chains effect the world and in this article it shows how effective to the environment these same supply chains are.
UPS warns Christmas delivery woes hit bottom linehttp://money.cnn.com/2014/01/17/news/companies/ups-earnings-warning/
ReplyDeleteUPS was not able to deliver thousands of packages by Christmas time and these packages are still at the warehouses. Shares of UPS have also dropped rapidly as well. People that were expecting there packages by Christmas morning are receiving them to this day. The reason for the late delivery was a bigger than expected surge of online shopping and weather which slowed their shipment rate. Many people were expecting a just-in-time supply like the example given in the flattener supply-chaining. Like how Friedman gives an example of how Walmart has an efficient supply chain because its supply goes according to people's demand, also known as just-in-time supply. UPS had a poor supply-chain clearly during holiday season.