Kelli Saunders, Author at Morai Logistics Inc.

A Closer Look at the Tianjin Explosions and Chemical Logistics

https://morailogistics.com/a-closer-look-at-the-tianjin-explosions-and-chemical-logistics/

We would like to begin this post by saying that our thoughts go out to those affected by the Tianjin explosions, today is definitely a more somber topic but we feel that bringing light to these events might help prevent future occurrences and prepare companies to mitigate risk and such tragedies in the future.

A little over a week ago, over a hundred people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in a series of massive explosions. The first explosion measured a magnitude of 2.3, equivalent to three tons of TNT. This was followed by eight more secondary explosions as fires raged over the following days.

Explosions occurred at a container storage station at the Port of Tianjin which is located in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, China.

A Quartz article has a description of Ruihai International Logistics, the warehouse in which the explosions started,

The explosions took place in a warehouse of Ruihai International Logistics at Dongjiang port, which accounted for 70% (link in Chinese) of the “hazardous goods” shipments in Tianjin last year. A company website, no longer working, said the firm was established in 2011 and is licensed to transport hazardous goods. It has 70 employees, posts annual revenue of over 30 million yuan ($4.7 million), and can handle about 1 million tons of cargo a year.

Source: BBC World Asia

Along with the hundreds of people killed and/or injured, the explosions also:

Caused the buildings of seven more logistics companies to be destroyed
Incinerated over eight thousand cars from Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Renault, and Toyota
Damaged apartment buildings located up to 2 km away from the site and,
Led to sodium cyanide (an incredibly toxic material) leakage being reported in the sewers

The Safety Precautions at the Ruihai Logistics (or Lack Thereof)

An article published last year from InboundLogistics.com explored the business of storing, transporting, and safe-guarding dangerous chemicals and products.

The guiding philosophy for representatives of the North American 3PLs they visited could be summed up with “safe and secure from start to end”.

The people interviewed spoke about how every facet of chemical warehouses, from design to operation, was designed with the type of chemicals they’d be handling in mind.

Each chemical carries unique storage requirements, so safety protocols and conditions vary from product to product. For example, some chemicals must be stored in temperature-controlled rooms, while others shouldn’t be stored next to one another because the vapors can interact and cause problems such as harmful fumes.

From the investigations into the Tianjin tragedy, this attention to accountability wasn’t given importance in the Ruihai facilities.

From the earlier Quartz article:

In March 2014, the Tianjin government held an emergency drill (link in Chinese) on highly toxic and hazardous chemicals at Ruihai International Logistics. A government inspection between November and December 2013 reported that five of the more than 4,300 containers on site were improperly encased (link in Chinese)

There also reports that dangerous chemicals were handled without a license.

The investigations have also exposed other warehouses in the Tianjin area that are also in violation of China’s law stating that warehouses storing dangerous chemicals need to be at least “1km from public places, transport networks and residential communities”.

That’s it for us this week! If you liked this blog post, why not subscribe to our blog? If you’re interested in what we do as a 3rd party logistics provider, don’t hesitate to check out our services (as expressed above, we are very pro finding you the lowest total cost!). We’re also in the twittersphere, so give us a follow to get the latest logistics and supply chain news!

Mexico’s Railroad Ride to Logistics Success

https://morailogistics.com/mexicos-railroad-ride-to-logistics-success/

Last Friday, a new international rail bridge between the United States and Mexico was finally operational. The project took 15 years to complete, and had a price tag that ran over $120 million according to an article in the San Antonio Express news.

This new international bridge, of a sort not built in over one hundred years, is impressive but it is only a small part of Mexico’s rapidly developing rail ways and intermodal capabilities.

The combination of recent labor disputes at the U.S. West Coast, and rising costs on goods shipped to the U.S. from China (due to high oil prices and rising wages) has made Mexico very popular for international trade and companies seeking to convert to nearshoring as their logistics strategy.

It should be no surprise then that the aforementioned article quoting census data, writes that in the first six months of 2015, Mexico topped $262 billion in trade.

An excellent InboundLogistics.com article on the topic covers Ferrocarril Mexicano’s success, the country’s largest railroad, as a case study for the growing demand for rail transportation both domestically and between Mexico and the United States. This railroad had its carload volume increase by 6.6 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, and revenues increase by 13.9 percent.

Mexico’s central location, and the country’s commitment to improving security across its entire rail system are the other reasons InboundLogisitcs attributes to the railroad renaissance.

A similar article on LogisticsViewpoints.com emphasizes that Mexico has received a lot of investment from private companies to improve the Mexican rail system (over 5 billion U.S in fact).

This, according to the article, has created a system that is compatible with those of both its northern neighbours: “rail transportation, including bulk, general cargo and intermodal, has been a key factor in the expansion of trade between the U.S. and Mexico”.

Bringing it all back home

Stronger, more secure, and better supported rail ways are not the only things Mexico has to offer. Along the Mexico-Texan border, an area traditionally filled with warehouses, a home for “reshoring” is being created. U.S manufacturing companies are moving back home.

CoStar.com gives the example of the $8.1 billion purchase by IndCor Properties of 18 buildings with a combined 2.13 million square feet in El Paso, TX, as evidence of this. The article also discusses why goods shipped to West Coast ports have declined by 30% thanks in large part to the ongoing labor disputes there (which is because of ongoing labor disputes there).

The best way to conclude this blog post, is to again quote from the InboundLogistics article:

Investments in better processes, connectivity and operations will continue to increase capacity, expand intermodal ramp operations, improve service and increase train speed within the growing Mexican railroad network. This, combined with the improvements made over the past 20 years, are making rail and intermodal a sustainable, viable and long-term transportation solution for both cross border and intra-Mexico supply chains

10 Summer Beer Logistics Facts

https://morailogistics.com/10-summer-beer-logistics-facts/

With the summer heat being in full effect here in North America, we decided to share some facts about one of the world’s oldest, and most popular beverages – beer! Beer, in particular, requires greater attention to reverse logistics processes when it passes sell-by dates and kegs have to be transported from the reseller back to the bottler.

Beer production, marketing, storage, and distribution is difficult despite it being such a globally common product. This is why some beverage companies are turning to 3PLs to help manage distribution to market. This article from Inbound Logistics goes into more detail between beer companies and their heavy logistics needs. So after enjoying our top 10 beer facts, why not serve yourself a beer on a hot summer day and have a read?!

10 Summer Beer Logistics Facts

Could Jet Soar Over Amazon?

https://morailogistics.com/could-jet-soar-over-amazon/

Ever since Amazon made it big on the e-commerce market over 20 years, there have been countless competitors, start ups, and imitators that have tried to take a piece of the trillion dollar plus pie.

Enter Jet.com, a new start-up by Marc Lore (former founder of Diapers.com) which aims to be a blend of Costco and Amazon. Costco with its membership benefits, and Amazon with its selection of goods.

What is Jet?

Jet.com is the brain child of Marc Lore, who has something of a history with Amazon. Prior to Jet, Lore was the co-founder of Quidsi, the parent company of a family of websites as Diapers.com and Soap.com. In 2011, the company was sold to Amazon for whopping $545 million. After the sale, Lore worked for Amazon for two years before heading for other pastures.

Lore’s goal for the budding company is ambitious. Jet is projected to incur heavy losses until 2020, by which point Lore expects the company to sell $20 billion worth of products annually “ a threshold he expects to hit by 2020. Only Amazon, eBay Inc. and Apple Inc. have higher online “gross merchandise volume” in the U.S”, writes this Wall Street Journal article, quoting analyst Matt Nemer:

Membership fees will be Jet’s sole source of profits, since it says it will relentlessly undercut rivals on product prices and offer free shipping on orders of more than $35 and free returns. Overhead expenses alone are expected to climb to about $150 million a year

As for Jet.com business model, it requires a $50 annual membership. With it, customers would be able to buy diapers, cleaning supplies, sporting goods and more.

This article on CNNMoney goes into detail as to what the service offers and doesn’t yet offer:

It costs $50 a year to join. That’s slightly less than a Costco membership, and half the price of Amazon Prime.
Like Amazon and Costco, Jet allows individual retailers to sell products through its platform.
You can buy anything from groceries and appliances to furniture, books, clothing, and gadgets on Jet.
On average, Jet says you can expect to save $150 per year.
Discounts are applied based on a few factors.
Shipping and 30-day returns are free for orders over $35..
Deliveries arrive in two to five business days
Jet currently doesn’t offer same-day delivery service.
Jet offers a rewards program
Jet will only serve customers in the U.S.

Although Jet has incurred heavy losses, and projects to continue incurring heavy losses, it has still managed to obtain the highest valuation ever among e-commerce start ups according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. At the time of writing this article, Jet has managed to raise $225 million in capital.

Jet’s Projected Path to Success is Not Without Obstacles

Of the 10 million products listed on their, only 25,00 are from Jet’s own warehouses. The rest of the items are bought from other companies and then shipped directly to the customer, which is expensive for Jet as it often ends up paying high shipping costs plus any difference between its advertised price and the amount charged by the outside website.

Also, it’s business plan to undercut all its competitors is something to be cautious about as even e-commerce giant Amazon with all its volume, generally loses money.

Despite these barriers, its hard not to get excited about what Jet promises to customers. Who doesn’t want cheaper goods?

The articles linked to in this post admit that there are already things about Jet that should at least give way to at least cautious optimism about the company.

Prime Example of Bad PR or Bad Logistics?

https://morailogistics.com/prime-example-of-bad-pr-or-bad-logistics/

Blowing up Big, But Not as Expected

“Prime Day is a one-day event held on July 15, 2015, where Prime members can find more deals than Black Friday” announced Amazon on its North American sites prior to the event. It wouldn’t be just an unofficial commercial holiday, but a “global shopping event” the company stated in a press release.

However, shortages in popular sale items and mediocre to miniscule discounts on other items led to a strong social media backlash to Prime Day which included hashtags such as #UnhappyPrimeDay, #AmazonFail, #GoBackToSleep, and #PrimeDayFail.

Some of those tweets can be seen here:

You better hope that robbery works out, because with 76% off black balaclavas, you missed a real steal #PrimeDay pic.twitter.com/lHkQi405rl
— Danny O’Dwyer (@dannyodwyer) July 15, 2015

Turns out #PrimeDay was better than expected! I thought I would waste hundreds but ended up spending nothing at all.
— Morgan C. Besmer (@MorganBesmer) July 15, 2015

My favorite thing about #PrimeDay is looking at what people are buying. There’s a wait list for an electronic pencil sharpener. In 2015.
— Kelli (@ksnedegar) July 15, 2015

#PrimeDay IT IS WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED! pic.twitter.com/srcajDuHMD
— Admiral Bahroo (@AdmiralBahroo) July 15, 2015

Ah yes, my favorite electronic: Flintstones vitamins #PrimeDay pic.twitter.com/zElkUXy167
— Evan Thomas (@EvanDerekThomas) July 15, 2015

An article on TechCrunch.com which cited data released by Adobe which aggregated counter sales across over 4 million social mentions on blogs, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Reddit, Foursquare and elsewhere, gave interesting details regarding the nascent holiday.

By late afternoon on Prime Day, the event had 90,000 social mentions, but by the same point, Black Friday 2014 had seen 20 times the number of mentions during the same time period (or 1.6 million)
Half of the social media mentions in the U.S expressed sadness as many of the negative tweets it found were pointing to less-desirable items, like socks, microfiber towels and Adam Sandler movies
Sentiment for the #PrimeDay hashtag went from 10% negative sentiment before the sale to 24% negative once sales launched
Combined @Amazon and the #PrimeDay hashtag have had a sizeable dip in sentiment since the sales launched receiving a combined 41,434 negative mentions from users

All Style, But Where’s the Substance?

Amazon obviously put a lot of time and money into promoting their Prime Day event. The company hoped it would eclipse Black Friday as the premier shopping holidays.

In their effort to make Prime Day big, Amazon seems to have forgot a simple logistical concept regarding inventory management 101 – knowing what they had.

As an article on Entrpreneur.com points out, the reason for ho-hum attitude of some customers had to do with lower-than-expected inventory for popular items, and unimpressive “discounts” such as these.

Damn been waiting for the PS4 to go down 10 cents #AmazonPrimeDay pic.twitter.com/eIiThMX9IT
— lupe (@cherryyyybomb) July 15, 2015

The frankly bizarre items with massive discounts was neither here nor there, but it did lead to some amusing screen captures and captions.

Boom or bust for Amazon?

Amazon did well. Very well in fact. Hiroku Tabuchi, wrote in this New York times article,

Independent data confirmed the sales surge. ChannelAdvisor, which tracks third-party sales on Amazon, said that Amazon’s sales on Wednesday jumped 93 percent in the United States and 53 percent in Europe compared with the same day of the week last year

Despite the sales number, many analysts agree that Prime Day has been a PR disaster for Amazon, a fact made worse because as of this article, the company has offered no apologies.

“In the long run, that means Amazon’s decision to ignore the backlash could have longer-lasting effects beyond the Prime Day sales boost”, writes Sarah Perez of TechCrunch.com. “Consumers who were on the fence about the value of Amazon Prime may think poorly of Amazon’s brand following the bad social media buzz”.

The question now is: “Can those spurned Prime members muster enough goodwill to stay signed up after their trial expires?”, only time will tell.

Until then, we’re left with some amusing tweets.

Lego Bricks Go Green

https://morailogistics.com/lego-bricks-go-green/

The Lego Group, the privately-held Danish makers of Lego, have recently announced that they taken steps have towards reducing their product’s carbon footprint.

According to a news report by the Curbed, Lego is investing $150 million in research and development over the next 15 years.

This article from RealtyToday.com provides more information,

In addition to establishing a new facility that’s dedicated to the cause, the company will be hiring a team of 100 employees to develop a new environmentally-friendly ‘recipe’ for the Lego toy, they would be seeking to hire a range of scientists for the project, including chemists, materials specialists, engineers, and parts designers

The company’s aim is to ultimately move away from the (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) plastic materials that they have been using in their toys, and instead make its iconic plastic building blocks better for the environment. While Lego will remain plastic and still look the same after all of this is over, oil won’t be used to make them.

At present, according to news reported by the Cen Acs.Org, Lego currently uses 77,000 metric tons of raw materials to create more than 60 billion Lego.

Building Towards a Sustainable Tomorrow

Although Lego is only one brand that moving toward being more environmentally friendly, the cultural presence and thus its ability to influence other companies towards more eco-friendly manufacturing cannot be understated.

Lego have been around in their earliest incarnation since 1949. From pop culture franchise themed sets, museum housed art exhibits, to a Lego constructed fully-functional car, the famous plastic bricks have played a large role in capturing the imaginations and free time of millions of children and adults alike.

Just last year, Lego had a powerful impact on the cinema world with the runaway success with both critics and audience with their The Lego Movie. This means that no matter the cause, Lego will have a very visible impact in any venture it takes on.

Being Green Isn’t Just for the Small and Stackable

Lego isn’t the only company that is moving toward being as eco-friendly as they can be.
There are many advantages that are to be gained. According to an article on Chron, they are:

Public Relations
Cost Savings
Healthier Workplace
Tax Credits
Consumer Demand

A quote by Roar Trangbaek, press officer for Lego Group, in a online publication by Atten.com, described the green move as a “logical” way to help improve the environment as a company.
“You could say that it’s a logical place for us to find a way of reducing our environmental footprint,” Trangbaek said. “If you look at our CO2 footprint as a company, the majority of our impact comes from offscreen activities—basically what happens before we receive any raw materials in our factory … We’re looking at every opportunity out there that’s more sustainable”.

As 2015’s “World’s most powerful brand”, Lego’s move toward greener bricks will hopefully be the building block necessary to encourage other popular manufacturers toward environmentally-friendly products.

eBook: Getting Started on Your Logistics Career

https://morailogistics.com/ebook-getting-started-on-your-logistics-career/

Hello everyone! This week we are going to focus on what it takes to stand out when you’re thinking about going into a career in the logistics and supply chain industry. I’ve been to cocktail parties where there are still people who are unsure what I do as someone who runs a third-party logistics (3PL) provider company.

We hope this eBook helps you see the massive amount of options and opportunities available to you in this “little” niche of a field!

Getting Started on Your Logistics Career

Morai-Logistics-Career-in-Logistics-ebook

Logistics Companies are Lacking the “Social” in Social Networking

https://morailogistics.com/logistics-companies-are-lacking-the-social-in-social-networking/

Social media and social networking are two key trends are reshaping how businesses conduct their affairs, communicate with vendors and customers, and even their organizational structure. However, the logistics industry has largely been slow in adopting these technologies and strategies, despite many studies indicating that supply chain managers acknowledge the importance of doing so.

In a 2013 study conducted by Adrian Gonzales, 45 percent of the supply chain professionals surveyed said that “social networks will make supply chain processes more efficient, responsive, and cost effective” over the next five years. Another 30 percent said that “social networks will transform supply chain processes (for the better) in ways we can’t imagine today”. A similar study conducted by Fronetics Strategic Advisors found that of its respondents, 68% reported that their company has realized benefits by participating in social media.

Although the positive attitude toward social networking is there, of the supply chain managers surveyed, 30% of the reported blocking access to social media sites. From the supply chain professionals that responded, 62% said that their companies hadn’t implemented a social networking solution yet, while another 27 percent didn’t know.
The study concludes that the cognitive disconnect between supply chain manager believing in social networking, and the action of moving towards greater adoption has to do with the inability for companies to quantify the business value of using social networking technologies.

There’s a similar finding in the Business Opportunities: Social Media 2013 paper which found that transport and storage companies are underutilizing these technologies the most, whereas other segments such as airline transportation make more extensive use of social media and count some interesting and innovative initiatives and projects in place.

Proactive or SMART use of Social Networking?

As mentioned, the biggest barrier at the moment to greater adoption of social networking is that it’s very difficult to quantify its business value.

There are two contradicting philosophies when it comes to this topic.

The first one, as described by the aforementioned study by Adrian Gonzales, is that trying to measure the direct ROI of something as ethereal as social networking technologies is the wrong approach all together.

It cites the example of GE, which took a proactive approach to social networking by creating a platform that they “can track usage, adoption, how people are using the system, and what their connections are”. What it doesn’t do, is create the direct correlations between usage and business numbers that are needed for ROI. And according to its CEO Ron Utterbeck, “Going and spending money on ROI would be, honestly, in my opinion, just a waste of money because your true value of this is people are coming back”.

The second philosophy is that of the SMART method which involves having specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, and timed goals as they relate to social media and social networking.

The Benefits of Expanding Social Networking Efforts

The research found in the Business Opportunities: Social Media 2013 paper lists a number of opportunities that logistics companies could benefit from if they used the tools for “expert collaborative communities”.

Managing procurement and logistics using Social platforms, which allow instant communication between different parties on complex supply chains.
Improving organizational performance by streamlining communications and enhancing collaboration, both internally within the enterprise and outside with contractors, partners and suppliers.
Facilitating collaboration and co-creation, reducing the time spent in unnecessary in-person meetings, and helping share internal knowledge and best practices.
Accelerating the integration of new staff, contractors and outside partners into teams.

If the logistics industry is to better adopt and grow its social media presence, it will, as an industry, need to change any misconceptions it has toward the key trend.

“Social networking is not really about socializing, but about facilitating people-to-people communication and collaboration” writes Adrian Gonzalez, “social media can – and should – play a central role in supply chain management”.

Real Jurassic Park Problems from Logistics and Supply Chain Experts

https://morailogistics.com/real-jurassic-park-problems-from-logistics-and-supply-chain-experts/

Source: Forbes

The long awaited Jurassic World (the latest installment in the Jurassic Park film series) opened last Friday to generally favorable reviews from both critics and audiences. The consensus among both groups is that although it lacks the inventiveness and imagination of the original, the spectacle of seeing 65 million year old creatures revived on the screen provides the thrills to make the film worth watching.

As this is a blog about logistics, we’d like to focus on one of the most interesting parts of the series (other than the dinosaurs of course). How would such a place need to operate to turn a profit?

Twitter Gets on the Case

Back in November when a teaser trailer was released for Jurassic World, two friends used the Twitter hashtag #realjurassicparkproblems to call out some (hilarious) barriers an actual Jurassic Park would encounter. What followed was that the hashtag exploded into a popular meme on the social media platform as more and more people started using it as well, including real life paleontologists who also joined in on the fun.

Here are some of tweets:

#realjurassicparkproblems Park power goes off once a day & dinos rampage as Windows security patches are automatically installed.
— skullsinthestars (@drskyskull) November 24, 2014

Visitors ripped to pieces, distracted by whether that fluffy toothed thing is a bird or a theropod (it’s both!) #realjurassicparkproblems
— Lisa Buckley (@ShamanSciences) November 24, 2014

New documentary “Dino-Size Me” debuts due to portion sizes served in the resort. #RealJurassicParkproblems
— TSV (@tattoosandbones) November 24, 2014

Scientific access to dinosaurs limited indefinitely because all are “under study” by high profile researcher #RealJurassicParkProblems
— Andrew A. Farke (@AndyFarke) November 24, 2014

Paleobotanists lobby for the inclusion of the Jurassic botanical gardens. #realjurassicparkproblems
— Aly Baumgartner (@kyrietree) November 24, 2014

“We have all the problems of a major theme park and a major zoo”

This line by Ray Arnold in the original Jurassic Park summed up the basic problem that a real life Jurassic park would face (other than the impossibility of resurrecting creatures long extinct).

At 30,500 acres (approximately the same size as San Francisco), and with an annual attendance of over 55 million, the Walt Disney World Resort is the closest real world equivalent to the theme park side of a real Jurassic Park.

Both the day to day and annual logistical hurdles for the smooth operation of the Walt Disney World Resort are extensive as a then-Walt Disney World president Al Weiss revealed in a 2004 Orlando Sentinel article. Some of the details he mentioned were:

More than 5,000 cast members are dedicated to maintenance and engineering, including 750 horticulturists and 600 painters.
Disney spends more than $100 million every year on maintenance at the Magic Kingdom. In 2003, $6 million was spent on renovating its Crystal Palace restaurant.
The streets in the parks are steam cleaned every night.
There are cast members permanently assigned to painting the antique carousel horses; they use genuine gold leaf.
There is a tree farm on site so that when a mature tree needs to be replaced, a thirty-year-old tree will be available to replace it.

Given that the movies, Jurassic Park is set on the fictional Isla Nublar, an isolated islet located near Costa Rica, the park would have the extra logistical problem of transporting supplies by sea which can have its own obstacles in itself.

The other logistics problem the park would face is with the animals themselves. Nevermind the massive budget it would need to even create and maintain the technology needed create the technology needed to produce the creatures in the first place, it would also effective logistical management to take proper care of the creatures.

Chesterzoo.org explains the barrier when discussing modern zoos,

Record keeping is essential for effective management, particularly when considering the many different species in a zoological collection, and the need for consistent monitoring of individual health, welfare, breeding and mortality. It is therefore vital that all animals are individually recognisable (e.g. markings, features, tags) and permanently identifiable (micro-chips)

Now imagine that level of record keeping and the cost of specialized personnel required to take care of creatures so “exotic” that the Earth has not seen their kind since the late Cretaceous.

That’s a logistics management position we wouldn’t envy…

Taking a Closer Look at 3D/4D Printing

https://morailogistics.com/taking-a-closer-look-at-3d4d-printing/

Last week, Frost & Sullivan published the 2015 Supply Chain Foresight report which analyzed key megatrends impacting (or predicted to impact) industry stakeholders. More importantly, the survey
A key point of the survey was that the findings were based on how the industry leaders who participated felt about the impact (or possibility of impact) the emerging megatrends would have on their supply chains, businesses and industries.

3D/4D printing and copying was given a low ranking, whereas technology innovation, the rise of African and Asian economies, device connectivity and big data, e-commerce and robotics were cited as the most pressing megatrends.

In our view, the assessment and ranking of the emerging megatrends by the study’s participants isn’t incorrect. However, we feel that it lacks some imagination and that the full implications of this technology is not being fully appreciated from a supply chain and logistics perspective.

3D/4D Printing’s Effect on Manufacturing & Transportation

One of the many appeals of the potential of 3D/4D printing as a technology is that if it were to continue its drop in price, it would then be financially feasible to incorporate into a manufacturing facility in mass. Such an action could effectively localize the entire production process, affecting the transportation and manufacturing sectors in profound ways.

“While manufacturers benefit from the operational efficiencies 3D printing can bring, transportation providers may take a revenue hit if they aren’t fully prepared. Global commercial transportation lanes are particularly at risk since more products will be manufactured locally. A recent analysis found that as much as 41 percent of air cargo business and 37 percent of ocean container business may be affected. About 25 percent of over-the-road (OTR) trucking business is also at risk, due to the potential reduction in goods that start as air cargo or as containers on ships” says an article from Load Delivered (quoting statistics from Strategy&).

3D/4D Printing as it is today

Although it is likely that it’ll be several years before the potential for 3D/4D printing to be fully realized, the technology has however resulted in logistical innovations.
The militaries of Britain, America, and China have already started using 3D printing on the field to replace equipment parts, and to print out surgical instruments and protective masks directly in war zones.

NASA has also experimented with 3D printing as an economical alternative to sending tools and spare parts into space to fix delicate equipment. Rather than using the limited space in a shuttle to transport a wrench to use on the International Space Station, NASA can simply email and print the wench on the station itself.

Other Implications of 3D Printing

The problem with trying to list all the ways that this technology will affect the supply side logistics industry is that the far reaching implications, consequences, and innovations it affords is mostly uncharted territory as there’s nothing like it. It’s ability to collapse the space of manufacturing and transportation of goods is similar to the automobile and will potentially have just as great as an impact on the industry overall.

As mentioned, although the far reaching implications of this technology is murky at best, there are some implications that are generally agreed upon . According to an article on Manufacturing Global Magazine, they are the following:

Easier prototyping
Easier customisation
Greater creativity and efficiency
Improved consistency
Reduced lead times
Lower prices