Tesco has awarded Bureau Veritas’ electrical and engineering inspection division a Fixed Wiring Electrical Inspection and Testing contract covering Inspection & Test at distribution centres throughout the supermarket chain’s UK supply chain network. Olivier Guize, chief executive ffficer of Bureau Veritas UK & Ireland, comments: “We are delighted that Tesco has recognised that our independent testing status and our UK-wide network of engineers provide real solutions in terms of a dedicated expert service and single source procurement which deliver tangible bottom line benefits for our clients.”
Avnet Electronics Marketing (AEM) and i2 Technologies have announced that AEM will offer i2’s quantitative data about the hazardous materials in electronic components to electronic original equipment manufacturers (EOEMs) and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers. i2’s hazardous materials content enables customers to measure and understand their current and future compliance exposure through quantitative maximum concentration data about the six materials addressed by the EC Directive 2002/95/EC, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation. The goal of the i2-Avnet relationship is to offer i2’s hazardous materials content as a hosted solution via Avnet’s Promiere Component Selector or BOM Optimizer, or behind a customer’s firewall.
A North-west company has launched the UK’s first bio-fuelled transport company, Green Routes, to provide dedicated vehicles fuelled entirely from renewable sources, ensuring more economical and environmentally-friendly distribution services. Based in Winnington, Cheshire, the company is the brainchild of Stephen Whittaker, founder and managing director of Ebony Solutions, and Jack McEvoy, former managing director of Grocery Logistics. Whittaker’s e-diesel product, a clean-burning alternative to diesel fuel, is refined from waste vegetable oils rather than fossil fuels (crude petroleum) and produces no net CO2 emissions.
RedPrairie has launched DLx Labour, a series of solutions from its DigitaLogistix suite in Europe. DLx Labour has been selected for management to exploit, where an integrated approach, such as Dispatch Dynamic, can reduce the internal cost to deliver while keeping customers up-to-date of events in near real-time.”
Until now, the problem has been that no one supplier had the expertise to do it all, without incurring high implementation costs for end users.
VSc Solutions has built on its partnerships with leading routeing and scheduling vendor and the UK’s leading provider of vehicle security technology and solved the integration issues: the company has provided the despatch control component and integration backbone to Dispatch Dynamic; route planning and optimisation comes from 121 Systems (value-added UK reseller of the UPS Logistics Technologies Roadnet suite); the Maple Group has provided intelligent vehicle locking and RFID security; and VSc Mobile Solutions, the on-board telematics, real-time performance monitoring and proof-of-delivery.
The integration of these best-of-breed solutions delivers the added value and visibility into last mile logistics. Aimed at small, medium and large-scale operators, Dispatch Dynamic is a modular solution enabling customers to select the modules missing from their existing despatch management systems. The solution can be deployed as a software service or as an in-house solution.
Dispatch Dynamic features include:
Seamless integration with upstream ERP/SOP/WMS solutions to capture orders without duplication.
Optimised route planning and scheduling for better use of resources.
More efficient loading to save money on shipping too much fresh air in vehicles.l
The latest RFID technology to set new heights for sealing and securing vehicles, automating door locking/unlocking, removing gatehouse bottlenecks and keeping inventory secure.
Real-time tracking to keep customers aware of any changes to plan.
Vehicle and driver monitoring to reduce fleet operation costs.
Integration of PoD to financial systems to speed up accurate invoicing.early introduction because of the “spectacular” results it has given to its US customer base. Labour costs represent the greatest single component of logistics costs, and a rise in productivity can have a direct impact on the bottom line. DLx Labour delivers rapid, proven ROI, and emerges as one of the most attractive supply chain investments. DLx Labour can reduce distribution labour costs by up to 40%.
Gefco has developed GefBoxSystem, a made-to-measure logistics solution for managing reusable packaging. GefBoxSystem customers can choose from a range of five services – FullPack, FleetPack, FlowPack, FreePack, FlexPack – covering a full range of requirements. Gefco helps manufacturers to develop and deploy a made-to-measure solution to optimise container use. “We organise logistics flows for all types of packaging required by manufacturers, whether owned or rented,” explains Laurence Capieu, head of Gefco’s GSM business (materials handling solutions).
Amtrak has extended its DayTrak courier service to provide sameday delivery services throughout Britain. The DayTrak service is managed over the Internet with regional offices and customers connected by a web service. Bookings made via a national telephone call centre or via DayTrak’s website are posted onto the web with collection details immediately routed to the local DayTrak office. Live updates show the current status of each collection and delivery, giving call centre staff and local DayTrak offices total visibility of all jobs. VSc Solutions and Jungheinrich are both among the supply chain equipment specialists participating at the Logistics Link 2005 exhibition, which is being held on February 1 and 2, 2005 at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey. For further information contact Richard Milbourn on 020 8661 1160 or visit www.logisticslink.co.uk
