inbound
Here’s our monthly roundup of charitable works by compa-
nies in the logistics and supply chain business:
Good deeds
Be a smart (freight) shopper
PHOTO COURTESY OF DHL
▪ Employees of Lucas Systems Inc., a provider of voice-directed picking systems, raised funds this summer to help
hundreds of children from disadvantaged backgrounds participate in Promise Camp, a weeklong camp run by Family
Guidance Inc. In addition to monetary donations, employees
contributed food, sporting goods, and craft supplies to support the camp, which is held annually in Western
Pennsylvania’s Beaver County.
▪ Logistics and transportation services provider C.H.
Robinson Worldwide Inc. is assisting Tempur-Pedic in providing beds to Ronald McDonald Houses in the United
States. The mattress and bedding maker recently delivered the
5,000th bed to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Since the
effort began in 2009, C.H. Robinson has developed the distribution plans for the beds and donated the associated transportation and delivery costs.
▪ FedEx held its eighth annual FedEx Cares Week Sept.
10–14, 2012. More than 4,000 FedEx volunteers worldwide
donated their time and talents to serve organizations in the
communities where FedEx employees live and work. This
year’s FedEx Cares Week service projects included painting,
organizing, and landscaping a playground in Denver; constructing basic transitional housing for families living in
extreme poverty in Latin America; collecting used clothes for
the homeless in the Czech Republic; and cleaning and landscaping a park in Guangzhou, China.
▪ Houston-based Cat Lift Trucks recently donated a hand
pallet truck to the Houston-area Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat will use the 5,500 pound-capacity truck to help move
floor tiles, paint, drywall, and other construction materials.
▪ More than 4,000
DHL employees and
their families turned out
for DHL Family Day in
August to raise over
$12,000 for the
Cincinnati-area Make-A-Wish organization.
The event supported
two children diagnosed with life-threatening medical conditions: Sierra (age 8, who has sickle cell disease) and Daniel
(age 11, who suffers from desmoid tumors).
▪ NACCO Materials Handling Group Inc. donated a Yale
GLP040 lift truck to First Born Community Development
Center (FBCDC). FBCDC is a member agency of the Food
Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. The local Yale
lift truck dealer, Dougherty Equipment Co., assisted with the
delivery of the new lift truck. ;
If your job involves buying freight service, you’re
no doubt always under pressure to cut costs while
maintaining service levels. And you’re probably
always on the lookout for new ways to do that. If
so, a special program from the University of
Denver’s Intermodal Transportation Institute
(ITI) may offer some help.
The two-day program, developed in cooperation with the Intermodal Association of North
America (IANA), will teach attendees how to
develop the optimal mix of freight modes—one
that will allow them to move their goods in the
most efficient and cost-effective way. Topics to be
discussed include intermodal network processes,
economic trends in the intermodal freight market, and how to integrate intermodal into the
supply chain and then analyze its success.
The program will be held Nov. 13–14 in
Anaheim, Calif., in conjunction with the IANA
Intermodal Expo. The instructors are two well-known and respected academics in the supply
chain field: Chris Norek, Ph.D., of the ITI
Executive Masters Program, and Brian Gibson,
Ph.D., a faculty member at Auburn University.
For more information or to register, go to
www.du.edu/transportation. ;
Did you know that the word “logistics” has been
around since at least 1898? Or that IBM developed an early version of material requirements
planning (MRP) back in 1961? Do you know who
coined the term “supply chain management”?
(Hint: not surprisingly, it was a consultant.) Or
what year the U.S. government finally recognized
“logistician” as an official job classification?
The answers to those questions and other tidbits are presented in an infographic called
“History of Logistics and SCM” on the blog
“SCM-Operations: All Things Supply Chain
Management” ( www.scm-operations.com). The
blogger behind the graphic, a Thai logistician
named Ben Benjabutr, missed a few important
organizations, people, and publications. But all
in all, it’s an excellent overview presented in a
concise and graphically attractive package. For
those of us who’ve been around a few decades,
it’s a virtual walk down memory lane. ;
Great moments in SCM history
