HP has published a list of the 195 smelters that have been identified within its supply chain. The move is designed to achieve a conflict-free supply chain for itself and to encourage the entire industry to move toward greater utilization of conflict-free smelters and refiners.
Energy consumption in the U.S. manufacturing sector decreased by 17 percent from 2002 to 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It notes that manufacturing gross output decreased by only three percent over the same period.
Once we were discussing how supply chains are designed when someone made an insightful comment: "The vast majority of supply chains are not designed. They just happen. Their current form is the cumulative result of hundreds of mostly uncoordinated individual decisions made over many years or decades." The same could be said about enterprise application integration for many companies, in spite of the earnest efforts of enterprise IT planners and architects.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, says that after a fire at a Bangladesh factory last year killed 112 people it is making its biggest push yet to try to improve conditions at factories that produce its clothing.
Businesses today are just as committed to cost reduction as they were in the depths of the global recession. The main difference now is that many are focused on cost-cutting as a way to drive growth, rather than as a way to survive or avoid insolvency. This was one of the key findings from Deloitte's third biennial cost survey of companies in the Fortune 1000.
Most procurement functions are covering the basics of incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) processes, but this effort is more tactical than strategic. According to a recent Procurement Leaders study, 82 percent of procurement functions have managed to include CSR in their supplier selection and evaluation criteria.
The chip manufacturing story has some compelling and awkward moments. For instance, Samsung managed to land Apple as its first massive computation chip customer when the original iPhone was heading to market. Apple needed someone to make the ARM chip that would give the iPhone its low-power consumption and zip, and Samsung said it was up to the task. Of course, the two companies are competitors now.
The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly $9bn was lost by merchants in returns fraud in 2012. And according to a report from ThreatMetrix, online fraud resulted in about $3.5bn in lost revenue in North America last year.
