John Johnson joined the DC Velocity team in March 2004. A veteran business journalist, John has over a dozen years of experience covering the supply chain field, including time as chief editor of Warehousing Management. In addition, he has covered the venture capital community and previously was a sports reporter covering professional and collegiate sports in the Boston area. John served as senior editor and chief editor of DC Velocity until April 2008.
Just six months ago it was still in the RFID pilot phase, but Cardinal Health has nonetheless decided it will take the RFID route to meeting California's upcoming e-pedigree requirement. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2009, California will require that all drugs distributed within the state be accompanied by an electronic "pedigree" that documents their movement through the supply chain. Although it's not required to use RFID (e-pedigrees can also be created using bar codes), drug wholesaler Cardinal is already putting an RFID infrastructure in place.
Cardinal is currently installing RFID readers throughout its Sacramento distribution center, which is one of two DCs the company operates in the state. It will incorporate the technology into its receiving, shipping, and returns processes, with the goal of going live by late summer. Cardinal Health spokesman Troy Kirkpatrick says that although the volume of tagged product Cardinal currently receives is low, "we've seen an indication that more manufacturers are getting involved with RFID."
Last year, the distributor conducted an extensive RFID pilot program, the health-care industry's first end-to-end test of RFID in a real-world setting. Cardinal says the pilot tests confirmed that RFID technology (using UHF as a single frequency) is a feasible solution for tracking and tracing pharmaceuticals at the unit, case, and pallet levels. The company added that it believes that RFID offers significant promise to provide an added layer of safety within the pharmaceutical supply chain, by enabling item-level pedigrees to be tracked and traced as the drugs pass from manufacturer to wholesaler to pharmacy.
The California law will require pharmaceutical manufacturers to originate item-level pedigrees for drugs distributed within the state's borders. The legislation also requires companies within the pharmaceutical supply chain (including companies like Cardinal Health that distribute drugs) to update those pedigrees upon each change of ownership.
"While the Sacramento project is designed to support the pedigree legislation in California, it's also an extension of the end-toend RFID pilot that we completed last year," says Steve Inacker, executive vice president of global supplier services for Cardinal Health. "We look forward to leveraging this work to further validate the effectiveness and viability of RFID technology in real-world settings, should it be adopted as an industry standard."
Although Cardinal Health is moving forward with RFID, the company has also said that the health-care industry needs to address several standards and technology issues before RFID technology can be adopted industry-wide.
Most importantly, perhaps, the pharmaceutical supply chain industry must first agree on a standards-based approach and a single RFID protocol and technology. This will avoid the significant process and cost inefficiencies that would be created without such standards.
mirror, mirror on the wall … does this come in green?
Want to know what kind of sandals go best with that snappy new outfit you're trying on? Or what other colors that sweater comes in? An RFID-enabled mirror introduced last month by Paxar can tell you all that—and a whole lot more.
Paxar, which develops identification and tracking solutions for the retail and apparel industries, unveiled the new mirror at the Material World apparel industry trade show in Miami last month. Called the Magicmirror, it features an RFID reader with an embedded digital display. When a customer brings a tagged piece of clothing into its sensing range, the Magicmirror automatically displays product information, including a garment description, size and color availability, and mix-and-match guides that offer suggestions for accessories. It even offers a touch-screen that enables customers to request immediate assistance from a salesperson without ever leaving the room.
Paxar says that RFID solutions like the Magicmirror offer retailers an efficient way to enhance customer service. "With the RFID Magicmirror, retailers now have a unique opportunity to connect personally with their customers," says Chris Robins, vice president of trade marketing and a member of Paxar's global RFID team. "Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy—they're accustomed to using technology in their daily lives, especially when shopping."
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.