follow that tree!

Shippers track vehicles, equipment, and inventory all the time, but it’s not every day you hear about someone tracking an 85-foot blue spruce. Yet for the next few weeks, anyone with an Internet connection can monitor the progress of the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree as it makes its way from Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to Washington, D.C. In all, the tree is expected to travel some 3,000 miles.

The tree’s journey is being monitored by satellite tracking specialist SkyBitz, which attached a mobile tracking unit to the flatbed trailer carrying the giant spruce. The company has launched a Web site, www.trackthetree.com, that lets the public follow its progress. Along with the latest tracking data, the snowflake-bedecked Web site includes a photo gallery, a link to the tree’s Facebook page (actually quite entertaining, with photos, videos of the tree cutting, and posts from people along the route), and an explanation of how the company’s global locating system works.

The Capitol Christmas Tree left Eagar, Ariz., on a biodiesel-fueled, flag-painted tractor-flatbed operated by Southwest Industrial Rigging on Nov. 10 and will pass through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland before arriving at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Each year, a different national forest provides “the People’s Tree”— including decorations—as a gift to the nation.

Much has been made of the fact that Indiana University Professor Elinor Ostrom, Ph.D., is the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in economics. We’re all for that! But to our mind, the more exciting news is that co-recipient Oliver E. Williamson, Ph.D., has a supply chain connection.

Williamson, who is the Edgar F. Kaiser Professor Emeritus of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of California, Berkeley, is an advisory board member of the Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM). The quarterly journal is published for academic researchers and scholars by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

In addition to his advisory role at JSCM, Williamson contributed an article, “Outsourcing: Transaction Cost Economics and Supply Chain Management,” to the journal in 2008. The journal has made it available for download free of charge from the “Highlights” section at the bottom of its home page ( http://blackwellpublishing.com/jscm). Links to the journal can also be found on the ISM Web site: www.ism.ws/pubs/.

ISM is an association serving supply management professionals in 75 countries. The group offers professional credentialing through its Certified Professional in Supply Management program.

Nobel Prize winner has supply chain
connections

On the fence about going green? Jack Ampuja can’t see why anyone would still be dithering about it. Ampuja, president of the consulting firm Supply Chain Optimizers and director of the Center for Supply Chain Excellence at New York’s Niagara University, said his work with shippers has convinced him that the economic benefits of environmental programs usually outweigh the costs. “My on-site observations and discussions with clients lead me to conclude that the companies that are leading the field in green are also the ones with the lowest costs and greatest efficiencies,” he told attendees at the October meeting of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) New England Roundtable.

Anyone who needs a reminder of the financial benefits need only consider the freight savings that result from less packaging, said Ampuja, who’s something of an evangelist on the subject. He presented examples of million dollar savings among his own clients and cited Wal-Mart’s now-famous toy packaging redesign, which cut annual import shipments by 700-plus ocean containers. Such savings are not limited to the largest companies, he said. “It’s a lot of work to get this, but these kinds of opportunities are available to all companies if they work with suppliers on packaging and freight costs.”

Though packaging reduction programs can have a big payoff, there are some things to keep in mind, warned Ampuja. For example, shippers still have to make sure their products are adequately protected during transit and that the new packaging complies with the National Motor Freight Classification’s rules. Bringing logistics professionals into the packaging discussions can help in this regard, but companies don’t always do that, Ampuja noted. “The typical company does not consider packaging’s impact on supply chain management,” he said. “But wouldn’t you like your marketing people to know that if they pick a particular box, freight costs will go up by $1 million?”