The Supply Chain Notebook

Toyota recalls 8 million vehicles worldwide

What happened to the famous Toyota’s commitment to quality? Is Ford closing in on the second place? The drama of the recall developed farther than anyone expected. Certainly this does not look like a carefully managed nuisance anymore. And headlines like “Auto sales up - but not for Toyota” and “Ford, GM outsell recall-wracked Toyota"  did not show for a loooong time. So what went so wrong?
Comments: 0; Published: February 03, 2010 by Valery Zelixon; Permalink

US 2011 budget and small businesses

American enterprise was always fuelled by the inspiration, ideas and drive of small businesses that aspire to become successful. In 2009 with shrinking economy and banks seriously limiting  access to credit, small and midsize businesses suffered the most. Healthcare legislation created more confusion because many business waited to see what it will actually cost. The new 2011 budget presented today by the government pays close attention to these matters and rightly so. But does it do enough?

Comments: 0; Published: February 01, 2010 by Valery Zelixon; Permalink

The evolving story of outsourcing

Like with many other trends outsourcing has a lot of supporters as well as many critics. But every trend has to be judged by its merits and outsourcing for outsourcing’s sake is only valued by investors with a very short term goals. Recently the talk of taking manufacturing back was mentioned in many headlines. Out of curiosity I went around the house to look at the labels. I found a lot of China, Thailand, India, Japan, Malaysia, but not the US.
Comments: 0; Published: January 29, 2010 by Valery Zelixon; Permalink

New LED light in the end of the tunnel

It is called LED and it is about to make changes to the lighting market in line with what digital cameras did to the analog photography. The technology is not new but as in many other cases of paradigm shifts it is now getting close to become affordable for everyone. And because of the disruptive nature of new technologies the market can look totally different in several years from now.

Comments: 0; Published: January 28, 2010 by Valery Zelixon; Permalink

Green tech battle for market share is on - and who is winning?

We have heard a lot of talk in recent years about the green technology revolution and its role in framing the future of economies around the world. NY Times Tom Friedman outlined the importance of having a sound strategy in his book "Hot, Flat and Crowded". Special report published by the office of Senator Ron Wyden, D-Or, indicates that "U.S. EG exporters are losing overseas market share to foreign producers, especially to China."

Comments: 0; Published: January 27, 2010 by Valery Zelixon; Permalink

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