Made in U.S.A.

Just recently, we wrote about a manufacturing plant in Amsterdam, New York (pictured above) that was closing . Let’s use a unique term: it got “Chinesed” to death. It even will cause the little railroad that served it to come crashing to the ground.

Knew the company was called FGI for Fiberglass Industries. Went to Google and typed “amsterdam, fiber glass industries”. First item that came up was for zyfiberglass.com: the company that drove poor little 57-year old FGI out of existence and sent about 120 people to the unemployment lines. (know I will get some comic making a comment that FGI should have hired a better SEO firm to better optimise their keywords AND remembered to pay Google their “tithe” for “ads by Google).

Put this information aside and went back to reading email. First article I read was in “EBN” and written by John Ciangiulli, President, American Component Exchange. It was titled “What is American Made and Why It Matters”. John talked about increased awareness because of on-shoring by major manufacturers, the US Government programs, counterfeiting and sub-par products.

He covers that “American made” can mean many things. Is it South American made? North American made? Is it made in Mexico? 

The Federal Trade Commission, defines a product is made in the USA if it is “all or virtually all” made in the USA. What does “all or virtually all” mean? That phrase “means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of US origin. That is, the product should contain no — or negligible — foreign content.”

OK so why does it matter?

1. The US used to be the biggest manufacturer in the World, but factories have closed, etc.

2. US manufacturing went from 19 million to 12 million. John then states “Although losing more than 7 million jobs is alarming, what is more alarming is that, unlike the service sector, for every manufacturing job there are approximately 1.6 jobs created.”

3.National Science Foundation reports, manufacturers in the US perform two-thirds of all private sector R&D in the nation, driving more innovation than any other sector.

Stay tuned for more on this subject.

Can The United States Postal Service Be Saved?

Pictured above represents a Supply Chain Management Control Tower. Don’t expect to currently find one in back of your local post office. Look for lots of them at company called DHL which is the German Post Office.

Jim O’Reilly, writing in EBN, presented a very good discussion on saving the USPS.

Yes, his ideas are good and I encourage you to read his article. Other countries, like Canada, have postal cost problems and are following a deliberate path to shed unneeded buildings, cut home delivery, etc.

But out there is a winner: Germany, the owner of DHL Express, a division of the German Post Office.

 

The United States government, and the sometimes-awkward Congress have surprisingly “thought out of the box” a couple of times in the last forty years in a very successful way. First in 1976 with CONRAIL, then more recently with General Motors.

 

Now is the time to REALLY think out of the box! Let’s get all the great financial wizards on Wall Street together and engineer a buy-out of either Fed Ex or UPS. Maybe just convincing one of them to sell out their domestic division for some tantalizing “financial instruments” would be enough?

 

Now let’s at the same time solve the long-time problem of AMTRAK by bring back mail trains. Maybe we could pick up a couple of bankrupt airlines for a song to handle the REAL need for airmail (not all these 200 mile flights)

Little things like the postal pension can be thrown in with a massive restructuring of Social Security which the now-grateful Wall Street community will gladly help us with.

 

 

 

 

Finding Holes In AMAZON PRIME

Not everybody is sitting around waiting for the Amazon DRONE to win the war.

But in the meantime they have lots of folks who are not very happy with Amazon .Start with publisher Hachette, who claims the retailer charges more for its e-books than it should, or refuses to ship non-virtual copies in a timely fashion. There’s also its shareholders, who are miffed that Amazon’s earnings weren’t as strong as they’d hoped for in the second quarter. Read lots more horror stories like class action suits.

Riding to the rescue is Webgistix, which was founded in 2001 by Joseph DiSorbo, and was acqiured last year by Japan’s own e-commerce giant Rakuten. That company competes directly with Amazon for online sales and product fulfillment. Rakuten uses Webgistix for North American logistics, which includes everything from supply chain management to to freight oversight, and has recently launched its own two-day delivery service.

Webgististix claims to offer an alternative to Amazon’s hyper-competitive environment. And that appeals to some online retailers. 

Logistics and fulfillment are a complicated part of e-commerce. They involve everything from storing and locating items to figuring out the most expedient method for shipping them, as well as providing merchants with actionable information about the selling and shipping process.

Webgistix Fulfillment Centers

 

The Webgististix network of centrally located fulfillment centers makes it easy to get your orders delivered to your buyers as fast as possible. Our fulfillment centers include:

• 5 Locations in New York, Las Vegas, Atlanta,Reno and Scranton where Webgistix operates warehouses focused on B2C order fulfillment.
• Fast and economical shipping using SmartShip a proprietary shipping analysis that gives you an inventory placement map based on your buyers and the Webgistix nationwide network of fulfillment centers.
• Real time views into inventory at multiple locations and stock replenishment levels using SmartStock technology and services that streamline inbound inventory processes.
• Tours are Available for qualified prospective clients. Hey does Amazon give tours?

Webgistix’ personal client support is what distinguishes us from other order fulfillment providers.

With a bare-essentials service there’s no client support to speak of…

With a bigger service you’re just one name in ten thousand…

But when you become a Webgistix client, you are assigned a personal support representative based in the same facility that you store your products. Most of our clients end up knowing their representatives by first name and in fact, consider them an integral part of their own team.

What’s still holding back rail service?

Pictured above, The Belt Railway is the largest intermediate switching terminal railroad in the United States, employing approximately 520 people. The Belt has 28 miles of mainline route with more than 300 miles of switching tracks, allowing it to interchange with every railroad serving the Chicago rail hub. The Belt’s Clearing Yards span a 5.5 mile distance among 786 acres, supporting more than 250 miles of track.

When I looked at my inbox and saw an article from Larry Gross at JOC.COM about “What’s still holding back rail service?”, my first thought was Chicago. I was right, He cut right to the chase. Blamed last winter on the polar vortex. Now, I have some great Winter stories on Chicago too. Belt Railway on it’s back, Indiana Harbor Belt stuck in snow, etc.

But then Larry climbed out of winter and points out some of the rest-of-the-year problems with Chicago. Not going to repeat his excellent explanations. Instead, I’m thinking of new ideas today.

Limited space for trains are a problem. Even the Circus Train can’t find a good parking spot for a show in Chicago. Then crowded highways for intermodals to get out of Chicago.

I route an article on Chicago Bypass. No, I’m not going to go out and suggest we bring back the Peoria & Eastern. Once upon a time it was “quicker via Peoria,” 210 direct, unobstructed miles on the Peoria and Eastern between Peoria and Indianapolis instead of 350 miles via Chicago and congestion. Much has changed in the quarter century since the P&E was an unbroken route. For over a century the railroads had an overcapacity problem, one solved by the mid-1990s by increasing traffic and decreasing route-miles.

37,000 freight cars move through the Chicago area every day (CREATE brochure). Some 25% does not originate or terminate there (“Freight Rail Futures,” Chicago Department of Transportation website). That is over 9,000 cars a day, easily 90 or 100 trains, merely moving through the area.

Indiana Harbor Belt’s Gibson Yard in 1950

Do they all have to go through Chicago? Is Chicago always on the shortest, most direct route? Obviously not.

There is a deeply encrusted practice of “long-routing” to increase the originating road’s cut of revenues. Obviously it requires a longer route, with the obvious disadvantages of greater travel time, more expense, less reliable service, and poorer use of now scarce rail resources.

Running everything through Chicago is defended in rail circles on grounds of more frequent connections and keeping crews in position. Those are usually compelling advantages, to be sure, but not always. Bigger is not necessarily better.

Maybe Chicago has seen it’s time as the “intermodal capital”? Again, does all rail freight have to go through Chicago?

We recently wrote about Union Pacific Intermodal Is Really Rolling Along. Let’s think of ways to better accommodate more intermodal.

Louisville and Indianapolis provide some ideas. Like I said above, we are not going to go out and suggest “new” railroads. That is like tilting windmills. The “grand highway” to Indianapolis is NOT a railroad, it is Interstate Highway 65. But I-65 does not start in Chicago. Instead it starts East of Gary, Indiana. Gary has more railroads running through it than you can shake a stick at. Lots of nearby land for intermodal terminals too. Now how can we bypass Chicago? The obvious way is CN’s old Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. Before you say, what would this save? Just drive Interstate 90 going East of Chicago and observe all the trucks turning South on Interstate 65.

Elgin Joliet & Eastern

Yes, I know all about railroad mileage and short hauls. Maybe we need to initiate something I will call: a “Negotiated Switching Rate”. This way no railroad gets hurt. Have the government throw some ecology money in there to save the environment.

Can’t believe Western railroads, with a little help, could not block their trains better to cut down on some of the Chicago switching.

Silicon Carbide, focus of NanoCollege, GE lab, is a Hot Material

New York State’s new $500 million New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium  will develop special power control microchips made of silicon carbide instead of silicon.

Silicon carbide is the hot semiconductor device these days. It it is considered to be more efficient and durable than silicon for high-power and high-temperature devices used in cars, planes and the electric grid. They also work in solar, wind and other renewable energy systems.

GE Global Research

General Electric Co. and the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering had previously tried to land a federal power electronics manufacturing institute that would focus on silicon carbide chips.

SUNY College of NANOSCALE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

However, that institute was awarded to North Carolina State University a few months ago. NanoCollege officials at the time vowed to try again to land the institute, believing there was room for two of them, although it wasn’t expected that the state would go it alone.

Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature have decided to move forward with a New York state-focused power electronics consortium with $135 million in state money. NanoCollege CEO Alain Kaloyeros made the announcement at GE Global Research in Niskayuna.

Silicon carbide is used in car brakes and bullet-proof vests, but it is also gaining popularity in power electronic chips and LEDs.

The material is expected to double in demand over the next five years, according to a new report. Interestingly, the report was done by an Albany company called Transparency Market Research. An employee who answered the phone Tuesday hung up when asked about the source of the report.

There are several Albany-area companies that specialize in silicon carbide devices, including C9 Corp. in Malta.

Another company in Ballston Spa, Aymont Technology, makes machines that are used to produce silicon carbide wafers. It’s CEO, Larry Rowland, used to work at GE Global Research and also attended NC State.

“This announcement is huge for the region,” said Rowland, who expects to be a part of the new consortium. “They are focusing on a key area with broad applications for saving energy and creating the kind of jobs that upstate New York needs. The consortium will help build a world-class ecosystem in the technology in which my company works.”

GE has a clean room where it makes silicon carbide devices in Niskayuna on 4-inch wafers, but the consortium will be housed at the NanoCollege’s Albany campus. GE, which says its investment will total $100 million, will contribute the know-how to create a production line that will process 6-inch silicon carbide wafers, and the consortium will also utilize the Start-Up NY program to provide tax-free benefits to participants. The effort is expected to create 500 new jobs in the Capital Region.

Cree, one of the biggest makers of silicon carbide devices, and a competitor to GE on lightbulbs, is based in the Raleigh-Durham area, one of the reasons why NC State was awarded the federal power electronics institute.

Read more about the project.

Some of the theory on silicone (which General Electric was very successful with) and silicone carbide (the latest and greatest thing) rests on Thomas Edison. As GE founder Thomas Edison put it–in a saying prominently displayed at the GE Global Research headquarters in Niskayuna, New York, “I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent it.” That guy was way ahead of his times.

Wearable Technology: Do We Have A Privacy Issue?

Wearable technology is creating new privacy headaches for employers, a leading law firm has warned.

Technologies such as Google Glass and smart watches are gradually making their way into the workplace.

But the intrusive nature of these devices, which could be used by employees to take clandestine photographs or videos, are ringing alarm bells among some employers, says lawyer Sue McLean at Morrison and Foerster.  

“There are huge privacy and ethical implications around wearable technology,” she said in an interview with Computer Weekly.

She said wearable technology is likely to become more of a pressing issue for employers over the next few years as technologies, such as Google Glass, find new uses in the work place and home.

The market for wearable technology is set to grow from $1.6 billion to $5 billion, according to research by Gartner.

But as its use becomes more widespread, employers will need to put policies in place governing how staff use the technology.

For example, if a person wearing Google Glass videos a meeting with other employees, that could be construed as bullying, says McClean.

Similarly, an employee in a disciplinary action could use a wearable device to surreptitiously record the meeting – and then go on to use the recording in legal proceedings.

“Companies have to be very clear on how and why employees use wearable technology, make sure they are clear what the rules are, and that they have taken adequate precautions to comply with privacy regulations and the law,” she says.

Big brother

Research has shown, says McClean, that employees using wearable technology are more productive if they know they are being monitored.

However, the technology raises potential privacy and data protection concerns that will need to be addressed by employers and trade unions.

For example, it may be legitimate to ask a fire fighter to wear Google Glass, showing a floor plan, to help them navigate through a burning building. But there may not be a good case for issuing Google Glass to shop assistants.

“It may depend what the job is, and whether employees can require wearable technology from a health and safety point of view, ” she says.

Intellectual Property

Companies may need to restrict or ban the use of wearable technology where employees have access to valuable intellectual property.

Organisations may choose to ban Google Glass from call centres, for example, where staff have access to customer records containing personal details about clients.

The technology could also raise new data protection issues, if companies use it to display sensitive data about their customers.

Virgin Atlantic, for example, has announced plans to issue staff at Heathrow airport Google Glass, to keep first class passengers up to data on flight information, weather and local events at their destination.

The devices, to be rolled out following a pilot earlier in the year, are able to alert staff to important passengers, by flashing their names, frequent flyer status and flight numbers on a mini-screen.

“Some of the information [in this type of application] could be classified as sensitive information. So if you are Jewish, and you chose Kosher food for your flight, that would show your religious affiliation,” she says.

Companies will need to make sure sensitive data is adequately secured, so it cannot accidently be leaked, she says, or be exposed to hacking risks.

Similarly, employees using Google Glass to make video recordings, will need to make sure that people in the video have consented to be filmed or recorded.

Over-reactions

Experiences in the US have shown that so far, people have a tendency to over-react to new technology.

In January, Homeland Security agents removed a man from the cinema, and questioned him for several hours about potential copyright infringement, after he was spotted wearing Google Glass.

The man, who said he had only been wearing the Glass because it was fitted with his prescription lenses, was only able to prove his innocence when he persuaded officials to connect his Glass to a PC to examine its contents.

In another case a woman was accused of distracted driving when she was found to be wearing Google Glasses after being pulled over for speeding in the US. The charges were dropped because there was no evidence she had been distracted or had the device turned on.

Mobile phone cameras produced a similar reaction when they were first introduced, with many organisations responding by banning people with smart  phones, said McClean.

“That has gone away now because organisations realise you can’t ban all mobile phones, “ she says.

Meanwhile across the ocean:

Wearable technology must comply with UK data privacy laws, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned.

The warning follows the UK launch of Google Glass, which is set to take the collection and processing of data by wearable technology to a new level.

Recent progress in hardware means wearable technology is likely to become as common in the workplace as mobile phones.

This will force UK company owners to start considering their response to Google Glass and other wearable technology, according to Andrew Paterson, senior technology officer at the ICO.

For example, some bar owners in the US have already banned Google Glass from their premises because of customers’ concerns about being filmed without their knowledge, Paterson wrote in a blog post.

Although he believes it will be up to society to decide how comfortable they are with wearables, like any new technology, the devices must comply with the law.

“In the UK, this means making sure that these devices operate in line with the requirements of the UK Data Protection Act (DPA),” said Paterson.

Anyone using a wearable technology for their own purposes is unlikely to breach the DPA, which includes an exemption for the collection of personal information for domestic purposes.

“But if you were to one day decide that you’d like to start using this information for other purposes outside of your personal use, for example to support a local campaign or to start a business, then this exemption would no longer apply,” said Paterson.

However, organisations that use wearable technology to process personal information will almost always be covered by the DPA, he added.

“This means that they must process the information collected by these devices in compliance with the legislation,” he said.

“This includes making sure that people are being informed about how their details are being collected and used, only collecting information that is relevant, adequate and not excessive, and ensuring that any information that needs to be collected is kept securely and deleted once it is no longer required.”

If the wearable technology can capture video or pictures, like Google Glass, then organisations must address the issues raised in the ICO’s CCTV Code of Practice.

Paterson notes that an update to the code is currently out for consultation until 1 July 2014.

He said there is also useful guidance on the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s website, which has direct relevance to the use of wearables containing cameras.

Paterson said the rise of wearable technology raises exciting new possibilities and is set to become widespread in years to come.

“But organizations must not lose sight of the fact that wearables must still operate in compliance with the law and consumers’ personal information must be looked after,” he said.

As the use of wearable technology becomes more widespread, employers will need to put policies in place governing how staff use the technology, said lawyer Sue McLean at law firm Morrison and Foerster.  

For example, if a person wearing Google Glass videos a meeting with other employees, that could be construed as bullying, McLean told Computer Weekly.

Similarly, an employee in a disciplinary action could use a wearable device to surreptitiously record the meeting – and then use the recording in legal proceedings.

McLean added: “Companies have to be very clear on how and why employees use wearable technology, make sure they are clear what the rules are, and that they have taken adequate precautions to comply with privacy regulations and the law.”

 

Find out about accomplishments and Fairpromise

Self Help For You “Office-Weary Warriors” Out There

Struggling with e-mail? Overwhelmed with too many meetings? Late with reports?

We have combed the Internet and found some tools and ideas to help you.

Some of these blogs are eye-openers, like the one about keeping your email box at zero. Plenty of well-worn time-management advice tells us how we should plan our day. Do the most important thing first. Never check email in the morning. Make a to-do list the night before. Don’t schedule meetings right after lunch when everyone will be half-asleep.

Note: sometimes these ideas conflict, so use your own judgement and experiment until you find things that work.

ORGANIZE YOUR DAZE (OOPS, I MEAN DAYS)

But what if we organized tasks by when research shows it’s actually most optimal to get them done? That’s a question we started asking after coming across a recent study that shows the ideal time of day to make moral or ethical decisions is in the morning. And so, we pored over additional research (some academic, some perhaps less so) on tasks and timing. Below, a research-based weekday planner for what to do — and, perhaps more important, what not to do — at various hours of the day.

6 – 8 a.m. Send email. Many books may have been written advising us never to check email in the mornings. Time management experts say not to get mired in our inboxes first thing, or we won’t get the critical things done. But of course, people do anyway, grabbing their phone off their bedside table, tapping away responses on their morning train, or giving themselves a breather once they sit down at their desks and drink their coffee.

Which is why sending email first thing might actually be the best time to do it. Research by a marketing software company shows that the highest click-through rate from marketing emails is on those sent around 6 a.m. or potentially a bit later.

8 a.m. Make decisions about ethical dilemmas. While the time here is somewhat arbitrary, recent research from professors at Harvard University and the University of Utah found what they called the “morning morality effect” in four experiments of undergraduates and working adults. In computer-based tests, participants were given the opportunity to cheat or lie in order to earn more money — and the experiments found that people were more likely to do both in the afternoon.

9 a.m. Avoid scheduling meetings. The hardest part about scheduling meetings isn’t really finding the time when everyone involved will be bright-eyed rather than half-asleep. It’s finding a time when everyone can actually attend. Keith Harris, chief technology officer of WhenIsGood.net, a bare-bones Web app for picking meeting times without sending a flurry of emails back and forth, dug into his software’s data and examined 2 million responses to some 530,000 scheduled events. He found that first thing in the workday is when the fewest people say they’re available. “Any time before ten, forget it,” Harris wrote in an e-mail. “Your co-workers are still deep in their coffee and inbox.”

1 – 2 p.m. Don’t make cold calls (especially on Friday). One might think lunchtime would be a good opening for a new business lead, when you catch someone at their desk eating a sandwich and checking Facebook or ESPN.com. But research by James Oldroyd, a business school professor in Korea whom CBS Marketwatch called “the mad scientist of cold calling,” finds that the worst time of day to make an unsolicited call is between 1 and 2 p.m. Far better is late afternoon (between 4 and 5 p.m.) or first thing in the morning (8 to 9 a.m.). That morning hour had 164 percent better results than the lunch hour in Oldroyd’s analysis of more than a million cold calls. His findings also reportedly show that Thursday is the best day of the week, while Friday is the worst.

2:30 or 3 p.m. Schedule meetings (if it’s Tuesday!). In addition to helping us find the worst time of day to try to get people around a table, WhenIsGood.net’s Harris also scanned the data to find the best. The winner: Tuesday, at 2:30 p.m., is the day and time of the week when most people accept meeting requests. Harris ran the search for us earlier this week, and it confirmed similar results to when he first ran the numbers for a white paper five years ago and Tuesday at 3 p.m was the best. He speculates Tuesday afternoon stands out “because that is the furthest you can get from the deadlines at the end of the week, without bumping into the missed deadlines from the week before.”

4 p.m. Do tasks that don’t involve sending e-mail. If early morning is the best time to get people to act on an e-mail, late afternoon is the worst. Analysis of millions of messages shows that 4 p.m. has the lowest click-through rate of any time of day, as people hurry to get out of the office and check things off before heading out the door.

4 – 6 p.m. Avoid sitting for an interview. If you catch wind the hiring manager has scheduled to interview several candidates over a single day or two — try not to be the last of the pack. Try and ask for a morning appointment if you can.

6 p.m. – late Do creative work, if you’re a morning person. If it sounds counterintuitive, it is. Yet research actually shows that people do their best creative thinking when they’re tired.

They found that those who identified as feeling fresh and sharp in the morning did better solving problems late at night that required original thinking. For night owls, it was the inverse. Morning proved a better time for them to have bright ideas. Their explanation: Creative thinking requires us to approach problems from a different perspective, which is actually harder to do when we’re clear-headed and can only see the obvious answer. If we need to concentrate, it’s good for our brains to be “on.” But if we need to think differently, it’s easier when our brains are a little distracted

INBOX ZERO

Urban Dictionary defines as: When you have no messages in your email inbox. Such a goal is often elusive, because the more email you clear out and reply to, the more new messages come in. I reached my goal of inbox zero by Friday afternoon, but Monday morning I had 42 new messages.

TechTarget defines as: Inbox Zero is a rigorous approach to email management aimed at keeping the inbox empty — or almost empty — at all times.

Inbox Zero was developed by productivity expert Merlin Mann. According to Mann, the zero is not a reference to the number of messages in an inbox; it is “the amount of time an employee’s brain is in his inbox.” Mann’s point is that time and attention are finite and when an inbox is confused with a “to do” list, productivity suffers.

Mann identifies five possible actions to take for each message: delete, delegate, respond, defer and do.

Here are some of Mann’s tips for effective email management:

• Don’t leave the email client open.

• Process email periodically throughout the day, perhaps at the top of each hour.

• First delete or archive as many new messages as possible.

• Then forward what can be best answered by someone else.

• Immediately respond to any new messages that can be answered in two minutes or less.

• Move new messages that require more than two minutes to answer — and messages that can be answered later — to a separate “requires response” folder.

• Set aside time each day to respond to email in the “requires response” folder or chip away at mail in this folder throughout the day.

Time-Management Tips For Busy Entrepreneurs From Financenk

1. Visualization techniques can be very powerful instruments for achieving goals in business. Next time you hit a rough patch of uncertainty, consider spending some time visualization how you will behave in order to get through it. This will not only relax you, but it will also prepare you for the road ahead.

2. If you want to be successful, time management is vital. Not only must you keep track of all of your appointments, meetings, and project deadlines, but you also must manage your time when it comes to accomplishing tasks. If you allocate too much time to a project, that’s time that you cannot use for a different project.

3. Having a clean, organized workspace is a vital part of success. It may sound trivial, but in fact, the cleanliness and the order can go a long way towards improving your mindset and structuring your day.

4. Similar to keeping your office space clean and organized, keeping your schedule clean and organized is important, too. It helps to keep your mind clear of unnecessary clutter and worries; and instead focus on moment.

5. When it comes to business, staying in control means a lot. It means that you not only prevent other businesses from dictating an agenda for you, but it also means that you firmly seize control of your own density. If you want to be successful, then you must be willing to take control.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

86-year-old tugboat doing canal work in Utica runs on electricity!

New York’s Governor Cuomo announced a retrofitted electric canal boat to demonstrate benefits of no-emission engine; NYSERDA, NYSDOT partnership with Canal Corp. replaces diesel engine with electric motor

At 86, you might think it was long past time to retire.

Instead, the Tender 4 tugboat has a brand new all-electric engine, combining environmentally-sustainable engineering with retro yellow and blue style of the canal system in 1928.

The boat took Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri for a short ride after it was unveiled. The Tender 4 will be put to work removing buoys and doing canal maintenance work along the Utica section of the Erie Canal, New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton said.

The upgrade was made possible through collaboration with New York State Canal Corporation, NYSERDA and the New York State DOT, New West Technologies and Elco Motor Yachts.

Right now, about 54,000 homeowners get power supplied by the canal system, Stratton said. The all-electric engine was designed by Elco Motor Yachts and needs only to be charged at night before carrying out its duties on the Utica portion of the canal system.

Read more: http://www.uticaod.com/article/20140617/News/140619454#ixzz3571PRNXv

The New York State Canal System is a navigable 524-mile inland waterway that spans upstate New York. The waterway connects the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake, and Lake Erie via the Niagara River.

The Canal System includes four Canals: the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca; canalized natural waterways, plus five lakes: Oneida, Onondaga, Cross, Cayuga and Seneca; short Canal sections at Ithaca and Watkins Glen; feeder reservoirs, canals and rivers not accessible by boat from the Canal; and Canal terminals on Lake Champlain. The Canal System passes through 25 counties and close to 200 villages, hamlets and towns.

At one time, more than 50,000 people depended on the Erie Canal for their livelihood. From its inception, the Erie Canal helped form a whole new culture revolving around Canal life. For many, canal boats became floating houses, traveling from town to town. The father would serve as captain, while the mother cooked for the family and crew and the children, if old enough, would serve as “hoggees” and would walk alongside the mules to lead them along at a steady pace.

For those who traveled along the Canal in packet boats or passenger vessels, the Canal was an exciting place. Gambling and entertainment were popular pastimes on the Canal and often, families would meet each year at the same locations to share stories and adventures. Today, the Canal has returned to its former glory against a backdrop of tugboats and barges, tour boats and recreational vessels, fishermen and cyclists riding the former towpaths where mules once trod. The excitement of the past is alive and well.

 The Erie Canal is famous in song and story. Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The Story of the New York State Canals

 

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Do We Need A Supply Chain VP/Director Or Just A Supply Chain Manager?

With the growth in scope of Supply Chain Management (and possibly a new Supply Chain Control Tower), we need to re-evaluate if the leader of SCM should be a “manager”; (as is the case in many companies today); or should the position be a director or vice-president.

Recently, the LinkedIn SCM Professionals held a group discussion on “What is the difference between a SCM Manager , director or VP ???? Just fancy names or what?” I summarized this very exciting discussion. The best comment came from member RANJIT SARKAR : SCM Manager is a person sailing a boat in the river with all the ups and downs, Director or VP is a person sitting on the bank of river shouting and instructing to the sailors.

A general consensus of this discussion was that SCM manager’s focus is on the tactical side of the day to day operations with about 90% of his/her time spent on purchasing-warehousing-inventory management-planning and scheduling issues and all the daily issues that arise from those areas.

The Director spends about 65% of his/her time on those same issues but 35% is spent on looking at numbers and the analysis of the numbers pertaining to PPV, inventory dollars, supplier spend, forecast to plan accuracy and shipments and monthly numbers.

The VP spends about 10-15% of his/her time on the tactical issues which is really done through meetings about the issues with their staff and may sit in on some major issues with suppliers be it in logistics, purchasing, or manufacturing issues but the other 85-90% of his time is spent on strategic issues. Why the numbers are not where they need to be? How to improve on the numbers? Budgeting for the next year and three years out, capital expenditures, market forecasts, staffing overall, new product development, cultural issues within the organization, and potential M & A’s or consolidations of existing facilities.

A while back I wrote about 5 Must-Haves to Qualify as a Supply Chain Manager. This was more at the tactical level. Recently I wrote about the qualifications of a supply chain manager. I moved the position to the C-Level and reviewed some executive search companies and also some high-powered job hunters who have their own web sites. Shown below is a composite of possible qualifications for a C-Level Supply Chain executive :

General Manager/Operations & Supply Chain Executive with extensive global operations P&L experience in (fill in the blank: any “hot” industry), primarily with major Fortune 200 corporations. Skilled in managing profit centers and developing/implementing initiatives designed to improve and streamline manufacturing/supply chain and planning process to include business development, quality, customer service, product development, on-time and order-to-delivery cycles, using owned or contracted factories and third party OEM providers.

Key strengths include:
• Financial skill strength in both P&L and asset management
• High level knowledge of finance, global manufacturing/supply chain operations, corporate IT
• Re-engineering skills using Six-Sigma process, cost cutting & flexibility
• Strong global background & outstanding leadership skills and style.

Read more: http://ec-bp.com/index.php/advisors/ec-bps-bloggers/10186-do-we-need-a-supply-chain-vp-director-or-just-a-supply-chain-manager#ixzz33rEhcPUK

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Innovation and Tech Companies Go Together

Innovation is central to the success and continued growth of the technology industry. Without innovation, there would have never been an iPhone or a Kindle Fire HDX, Windows or app stores. Innovation and the ability for companies to go beyond what they know to try something new is what pushes the industry forward and changes how we view and interact with the environment around us. Still, real innovation is somewhat hard to come by in the technology industry. At times when one new company springs up to deliver something truly new and innovative, others will simply follow its lead in the hopes of getting a piece of the business.

Tesla makes really cool, high end, electric cars. Buyer get high end tech, but pays for it.

SpaceX makes rockets and space stations. Bet they get outsource work from NASA as US & Russia not buddies.

Amazon is cool, building high tech warehouses and buying drones.

Google is an innovator too. Just heard they want to start production on driverless cars.

Aereo is a big and innovative “Over-The-Air” Broadcaster. Supreme Court  is way behind them in thinking.

Never count out IBM. They have been at it a long time.

Nest is owned by Google. Watch for all kinds of cool things

Corning is an old, established company but it is an up and coming innovator: Gorilla Glass: tough yet beautiful;

Square is making mobile payments not square

Vidyo is all about video over wireless. They are doing stuff Cisco can’t seem to do.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

SpaceX has successfully developed rockets that can enter space and carry equipment and other important cargo to and from the International Space Station. As NASA’s budget gets cut even more, expect SpaceX to play a crucial role in space missions. – See more at: http://www.eweek.com/cloud/slideshows/10-tech-companies-proving-innovation-isnt-dead.html?kc=EWKNLCSM04292014STR1&dni=121871773&rni=25583632#sthash.2TUI3ihI.dpuf