inbound
Here’s our monthly roundup of recent community service and charitable activities by material
handling and logistics companies:
TQL’s experience delivering equipment for a
playground named for one of the Sandy Hook
school shooting victims inspired the program’s
creation.
b For the fifth straight year, NAIOP New
Jersey, the commercial real estate development
association, will conduct a food drive and volunteer day with the Community Food Bank of
New Jersey. Among other activities, volunteers
will sort incoming donations and repack food
and household items.
b Sixth-grade teacher Deborah Belflower
received the inaugural Lowcountry
Environmental Educators Award from the
South Carolina Ports
Authority. The award
recognizes an educator
who exemplifies environmental leadership
by engaging students
in real-world environmental topics.
b Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and The
UPS Foundation have awarded more than
30 Community Tree Planting Grants totaling $160,000 for tree planting initiatives in
urban and suburban areas, including the torna-do-damaged community of Moore, Okla.
b Penske Truck Rental has extended its
#OneWay4PVA fundraising effort to benefit
Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Mission: ABLE
campaign for a second year. Consumer rental
customers can choose to donate $1 to support
Mission: ABLE when they rent a one-way truck,
and the company will match each donation. To
date, the program has raised $403,000.
Material handling, logistics
companies give back Just about every kind of product you can imagine passes
through warehouses and distribution centers. As a recent news-
letter from custom conveyor and storage specialist Lauyans &
Co. noted, that could be anything from nuclear waste to frozen
chicken, to cite two of the products handled by the company’s
customers. Some of these applications can be so demanding
and complex that a standard conveyor won’t stand up to the
task. A customized solution is required.
As an example, Lauyans cited the case of a custom conveyor
it designed to transport axle blanks that had been heated to
2,000 degrees F to robotic machining stations in a manufacturing plant. The heat may be what gets the casual observer’s
attention, but temperature variations are an important consideration. That’s because in operation, the conveying equipment
will start off relatively cool, be taken up to the operating temperature, and then be brought down to ambient temperature.
In this example, the conveyor had to function reliably over
a temperature range of approximately 35 degrees F to 2,000
degrees F.
Accordingly, the custom conveyor was designed not to
deform during cooling or heating, or in production. It also
required special fasteners to prevent loosening during heating
and cooling as well as special coatings to protect the conveyor’s
surfaces from jamming and rusting.
If they ever need conveyors in hell …
Supply chain management (SCM) professionals have been
known to complain that they’re expected to know something
about everything. But it appears that expectation isn’t entirely
unjustified. In June, a supply chain consultant demonstrated
on national television that perhaps SCM professionals do know
something about everything.
Julia Collins, who holds a master’s degree in engineering in
logistics and supply chain management from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and an undergrad degree in art
history from Wellesley College (now there’s a diverse range
of interests), won 20 consecutive games on the TV show
“Jeopardy,” the second-longest winning streak in the game’s
history. She was number three in terms of winnings, with a
grand total of more than $428,000.
According to Collins’ LinkedIn profile, she previously was
a senior consultant at Capgemini Consulting, a global supply
planner at Zebra Technologies, and an import associate at Crate
& Barrel. The 31-year-old Chicago-area resident is currently
seeking a position in supply chain management.
Maybe SCM professionals do know
everything
