Trying to create the shortest supply chain possible, a supermarket in Brussels is selling produce grown on its own roof only hours after being harvested.
The first batches of batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting retirement age, yet they aren’t bound for landfills. Instead, they’ll spend their golden years chilling beer at 7-Elevens in Japan, powering car-charging stations in California and storing energy for homes and grids in Europe.
Target, Tesco and CVS Health have joined Walmart in an agreement to collect data from suppliers, through non-profit CDP, regarding their overall environmental footprint.
Challenge: A manufacturer of top-tier athletic apparel and footwear is also a supplier for its own retail and wholesale channels. As a global company, it lacked visibility into purchase orders and struggled with shipment tracking. This led to restrictions in the company’s ability to collaborate with a supplier base of several hundred vendors and factories — as well as limited end-to-end visibility.
Challenge: Nearly 10 percent of the world’s drug supply is counterfeit, prompting many countries to set rigid guidelines to track and trace pharmaceuticals across the supply chain. Achieving compliance is often a huge undertaking for pharmaceutical manufacturers and 3PL providers.
Elon Musk has few days to make good on his pledge that Tesla will be pumping out 5,000 Model 3 sedans a week by the end of the month. If he succeeds, it may be thanks to the curious structure outside the company’s factory. It’s a tent the size of two football fields that Musk calls “pretty sweet” and that manufacturing experts deride as, basically, nuts.
