Group items tagged

RFID is being used to manage products through production, distribution and retail. Manufacturers can especially benefit from implementing RFID applications in supply chains because they can decrease costs associated with product tracking and inventory management and increase the accuracy and timeliness of inventory data.

Planning for the eventual end-of-life management of electronic products generally takes a backseat to performance and price considerations when making purchasing decisions.

Guidance on environmentally preferred procurement practices.

Moving forward, as consumers and shareholders both demand transparency and ask for more accountable businesses, sustainability within the supply chain will evolve from just "greenwashing" to become the foundation of great business. "Today, sustainability has replaced cost, value and speed as the dominant topic of discussion among purchasing and supply professionals," asserts the authors of one Oracle white paper. In 2007, Mattel spent $110 million on product recalls and saw its share price drop 5. 8 percent in just two months after its Tier 2 Suppliers used unsafe levels of lead paint in Mattel toys. "Even though Mattel has excellent supply chain management, one slip-up cost them in terms of reputation loss," says Diane Osgood, Ph. D. and founder of Osgood Sustainability Consulting. "Better transparency could have saved them.

Greenpeace released its latest rankings today, showing HP moving ahead three to the top spot. It's a big leap considering that just six years ago HP was targeted by Greenpeace as one of the worst tech companies for using fire retardant materials suspected of being hazardous. At the time, Greenpeace members stood outside of HP's headquarters and handed out fliers that said "HP: Harmful Products."

Today's electronics design and manufacturing landscape is very different than that of even just a few years ago. Increased globalization and pressure to outsource has increased the distance between engineers and production facilities. Consolidation of semiconductor suppliers has become an industry trend. Coupled with a desire to rationalize supplier bases, this has made design houses and manufacturing companies more reliant on a smaller number of supply partners, which can result in greater risk to supply disruption.

The Sustainability Consortium develops transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives. The Sustainability Consortium advocates for a transparent process and system, not individuals or organizations.

Tempe, AZ

A Few Powerful Buyers Could Create a Sea Change in Production

California's troubled factory sector could be ready for a comeback. A survey of California purchasing managers shows a remarkable surge in confidence and suggests that production and employment will pick up during the first three months of the year ...

Manufacturing technology can help improve visibility and control over operations, correlate suppliers to product quality, optimize resources and improve quality - the holy grail. There are technologies that can make you leaner and more efficient and improve decision-making. One such technology is enterprise test software.

United Nations Standard Products and Services Code

The recent Toyota brake pedal disaster is an example of a massive failure in product design magnified by supply chain lead time.

Report from BPM Forum and E2open covers the priorities, progress and pitfalls that supply chain and finance executives are facing in product development environments.

With @Remote Green Reports, users can track month-to-month trends in energy and paper consumption of their Managed Ricoh @Remote Compatible document output devices, allowing them to monitor fleet performance and the possible environmental impact device usage operations have on such areas as CO2 emissions* or conservation of forests**. This tool collects data from Ricoh networked multifunctional products (MFPs) and securely transmits the information to a Ricoh data center. The data is then processed into green reports that are made available to users via a secure, password-protected Web site.