Grill, baby, grill
Here’s something to think about the next time you head out to the local
burger joint: According to researchers at the University of California-Riverside, commercially cooked hamburgers emit more particulate matter
than 2007–2010 model year clean-diesel trucks.
“An 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the
freeway to put out the same mass of particulates as a single charbroiled
hamburger patty,” said Bill Welch, the principal engineer on the study, in a
statement. The UC-Riverside research was funded by the South Coast Air
Quality Management District and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
The research results certainly provided, er, food
for thought. “I will say this
is an extremely unusual
comparison,” said Allen
Schaeffer, executive director of the Washington,
D.C.-based nonprofit
Diesel Technology Forum,
which has been publicizing the study results.
“Generally, clean diesels are matched up against natural gas, hybrids, or
electric vehicles for emissions … tests. This is the first time we’ve gone
head to head against fast food.”
Schaeffer credits the trucks’ strong showing to the shift to ultra-low-sul-fur diesel fuel (which became available in 2006) and adoption of advanced
emissions-control devices. “Because of the investments in new technology,
it now takes 60 of today’s [high-technology] trucks to emit the same level
of particulate matter emissions as one truck built in 1988,” he said.
And if you’re worried about the eco effects of firing up the backyard barbeque, relax. The study also found that grilling burgers produces fewer particulates than charbroiling. ;
That’s the (competitive) spirit!
Want to boost productivity in your warehouse or DC? According to
researchers at the London School of Economics, maybe all you need to do
is tell associates where they stand relative to their co-workers.
In their paper “Tournaments Without Prizes: Evidence From Personnel
Records,” researchers Jordi Blanes i Vidal and Mareike Nossol outline how
a German wholesaler saw warehouse workers’ average productivity jump
6. 8 percent after it began privately informing them of how they ranked
among their peers on pay and performance.
“We find that merely providing this information leads to a large and
long-lasting increase in productivity that is costless to the firm,” the
researchers wrote. ;
inbound
Tech pioneers get new
owners
It’s been a busy fall when it comes to
mergers and acquisitions in the supply chain technology world. Three
recent buyouts were particularly
notable because they involved companies that are acknowledged pioneers
in their respective niches.
On Oct. 1, Motorola completed its
acquisition of Psion PLC, the global
manufacturer of rugged mobile computing devices. One of Psion’s claims
to fame is its unique “Ingenuity
Working” collaborative environment
for users and product developers
worldwide. Motorola said it acquired
Psion to expand its mobile computing
portfolio, noting that Psion’s products
complement Motorola’s own offerings
and will allow it to expand its presence
in warehousing, cold chain, port, yard,
and specialized modular applications.
That same day, enterprise software
giant SAP AG announced it had completed its acquisition of Ariba Inc.,
developer of what Ariba says is the
world’s largest Web-based trading
community. SAP said it would consolidate all of its cloud-related supplier assets under Ariba, which has long
been a mainstay in the area of supplier and procurement management.
And just a week earlier, Savi
Technology was acquired by affiliates
of LaSalle Capital Group, a specialist
in buyouts of mid-market companies.
Savi, which pioneered the use of active
radio-frequency identification (RFID)
technology in the military and in
remote, infrastructure-poor regions,
says it operates the world’s largest
RFID network, spanning more than 50
countries. Savi was acquired by
Lockheed less than a decade ago but,
citing a lack of growth prospects in
defense markets, Lockheed announced
in 2011 that it was seeking a buyer. ;
