Cutting down on food waste with better packaging designs
Plastic Ingenuity reported this week some important suggestions to reduce food waste in the supply chain. Alarmingly, when all the stops are tallied up, including wholesale distribution, food production and retail, up to 50 percent of food is wasted.
To reduce this, Plastic Ingenuity suggests packaging companies should begin to make their plastic packaging more specific to the product it serves to preserve. Taking such measures could help in many ways, from more successful and undamaged deliveries, to longer shelf lives.
To read more, and learn about some suggested packaging ideas for tailoring towards the food product, click here.
Maps to help megacity logistics
In all likelihood, the road planners of the world’s megacities did not envision the complexity of the modern supply chain. While some companies are developing exciting, alternative road-free methods for the future, MIT has created a free online data base to help resolve the issues currently faced by many megacities in the developing world. They have launched km2, an online logistics database that publishes logistics information for megacities, displayed graphically on maps.
The impetus for the database was born out of the lack of available data on the issue of megacity logistics. Research director Edgar Blanco at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics notes that existing data and experience from the industrial world is not always applicable to developing nations. As Blanco puts it: “Some of the things we take for granted don’t exist.”
The project partnered eleven MIT students from MIT’s Megacities Logistics Lab with local students worldwide, from Beijing to Santiago. They assembled the relevant data for the website, including the type of vehicle used to make deliveries and the level of traffic disruption caused. It is hoped by assembling and making this information publically available, city planners can more successfully take into account the logistics needs of certain areas, building and designing accordingly for the future.
To read more, click here.
Jaguar Land Rover—“The great British success story”
There has been further good news and progress for the British motor industry, with 1,700 new employment opportunities being created by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), at Solihull in the West Midlands.
The news comes in light of the luxury car and SUV manufacturer’s aspirations to begin manufacturing a new line of sports cars, utilizing new lightweight aluminum technology. £1.5bn will be invested in producing new designs for both Jaguar and Land Rover. A medium-sized sports sedan will be the first to use the technology and is due to be released in 2015.
The largest union in Britain, Unite, has been wholly optimistic of the news. General secretary Len McCluskey, noted that the news was a further sign of JLR’s commitment to Great Britain.
The latest developments are also a poignant reminder of how JLR has acted as a rare savior for the British manufacturing industry in a time of crisis. In recent years, other car manufacturers have been shutting down their production in the UK.
In the last three years, 11,000 new jobs have been created for British manufacturing by JLR. The car manufacturer also estimates that potentially 24,000 more jobs can be created when the wider context of the supply chain is taken in to consideration, all as a result of its expansion
To read more, click here.
Have a great weekend!
