▷▷▷3rd Party Logistics, 3PL, 3Party Logistics

Future 3Party Logistics Trends

2012-08-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Overall, the task of understanding the success of 3Party Logistics relationships is difficult. The results of the 3PL study once more have identified variety of areas within which 3rd Party Logistics Providers are viewed as making important profit, and hence price, for 3PL users. However, there seems to be no shortage of areas where improvement is desired.

One key learning from the main focus cluster sessions was that the 3Party Logistics corporations seems to be experiencing traditional shifts because the market grows and matures—customers like what they’ve purchased, see the advantages, and currently wish one thing bigger/better. Being in an exceedingly service business, maybe 3PL Logistics suppliers are attempting to supply enhancements (added value) on an advert hoc basis. A a lot of ancient approach evident at several producing enterprises is to possess a separate analysis and development (R&D) department, instead of attempt time when time to form new worth offerings for individual customers one at a time.
Results from the 3Party Logistics study, combined with our focus cluster sessions, identified many business trends over succeeding 3 to 5 years. a number of these key trends are:
1. Evolution toward a broad provide chain answer supplier versus a transportation and warehouse supplier.
2. Increased outsourcing of transaction-based user activities to 3 Party Logistics Providers (e.g., order taking).
3. Continued increase in 3PL Logistics Provider technology skills.
4. Be customer-needs targeted (provide the proper answer, be concerned in consumer integration designing, and perceive the consumer industry).
5. Continued activity in updating, enhancing, and improving/extending the Third Party Logistics Provider-user relationship.
6. Continued growth, acquisition, and consolidation of the 3rd Party Logistics Companies.
7. Expansion of worldwide markets and 3PL Providers’ skills to produce necessary services.
8. More clarity to the 4PL solution.
9. Longer-term relationship management capabilities and thinking beyond a two-year contract.

Last, keep in mind that vital challenges can perpetually exist when measuring and quantifying the worth created by a 3Party Logistics provider for its purchasers. although the kinds of advantages from employing a 3 Party Logistics will be accurately identified, the conversion of benefit-tovalue in monetary terms usually isn't a straightforward task. because the level of the taking part in field within the 3PL arena continues to rise, each Third Party Logistics Providers and 3PL users ought to be higher ready to accurately determine and quantify price.

Road to Wealth : Review-Update Financial Investments & Enjoy your Investment

2012-07-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

We have written about the long road to wealth in the previous three issues and we now come to the final part of this article. Previously, we dealt with seven topics :

1. Regular health check up.

2. Start your saving today.

3. Look after your property.

4. Take out a life insurance.

5. Think about retirement.

6. Make a Will.

7. Tax Planning.

We now discuss two final steps:

8. Review and Update your Financial Investments

In the old days, Thai families stay together under one roof and it is common that there are three generations who are 1) grandparents, 2) father and mother, and 3) children. Nowadays, they are more independent. Many children who graduated from college will move out either by renting or buying a condominium and live on their own. In addition, divorces among Thai become more common. Therefore, you should review and update all your investments taking into consideration the changing circumstances:

1. When the marital status change either you get married to your love one or have a separation or divorce from your spouse, you should check your marriage certificate, divorce papers and birth certificates of all your kids. Make sure that your life and personal accident insurance policies are valid with enough coverage for yourself and family including the naming of beneficiaries therein because those beneficiaries may change due to your divorce or that some of them may grow up and are able to stay on their own. Then younger ones should make a bigger share of your estate.

2. Investment instruments including land title deeds, share certificates, certificates of investment in mutual fund, etc. should be properly kept, accounted for and identified. If you rent a safe deposit box from a bank, make sure you have the key or the combination. Last but not least, review the value of your portfolio regularly because it may go up or down depending on the economic condition, interest rate, exchange rate as well as type of investment instruments. During a period with high interest, debentures and bonds would be attractive due to relatively higher return. However, during an economic boom, value of stock and real estate are likely to go up much faster. If there is a crisis either natural or man made, gold is the most attractive investment.

3. Update your will. As discussed above your marital status could change or that you have more children, then make sure that the will is updated. Especially if your wit itemizes all the assets stating which pieces go to whom, every time you acquire or dispose of assets or there is a change in the heirs, then you need to revise your will accordingly.

9. Enjoy your Investment.

Experts advises that among the various type of investment either real estate, bonds, stock and gold or foreign investment, you should decide which category that you prefer to invest because some people like gold so they focus on this precious metal. Some are intelligent stock investor, so they put more weight on equity. Many people prefer real estate either land, houses or condominium. Therefore you should invest in something that you really enjoy.

If you are not a smart investor because you are a sales person and would like to do marketing or an engineer would like to work on mechanical design, then you have to outsource by either hiring a financial planner or invest in mutual fund.

Finally, you invest in something that you enjoy. Recently, many Thai shifted their portfolio into shares of modern trade because they are market leader and whether or not there is any crisis or economic boom, people still shop at modern trade as a new trend in lifestyle.

In conclusion, there are nine steps altogether that will lead you to wealth. However, I need to remind you that this is a long and winding road that you should start pursuing today. Do not wait. On the average, it could take 20 years to reach the target. Good luck to you all.

Proactive Purchasing Orders for Risk Mitigation

2012-06-27T06:16:00.001-07:00

In this issue, it will be the related article which is the ending methods for risk mitigation in the business. Even if anything is happened, the business will prolong at least without harming. Or the splendorous word that always uses is "Business Continuity Management (BCM)".

Try to revise that we, now, are in the midst of many risks, for example, flood, earthquake, strike, close the airport, riot, bombing, storm, airplane falling, IT system disorder, water resource dirty, rubbish problem, pirate, political problem, Tsunami, epidemic, strike parade to close the road, danger of terrorist, set a fire, accidental bombing in factory, thunderbolt, electric black out, communication system disorder, loss the key personnel, toxin leaking, nuclear leaking, world economy slow down, partner stop the business.

The said above example disasters are Natural disaster and Man-made disaster, not only what the disaster is occurred, the damage will be created a lot. Now, all over the World believe that many disasters often come and be stronger. If any business doesn't pay attention for the risk of supply disruption. when the disaster is occurred, the business will get the cause of effect very seriously in treating to solve the problems.

So, in order to get at least a little damage, the proactive working is necessary to be done for the risk avoidance and risk mitigation by planning the work of purchasing and finding in the proactive systematically which is called Procurement Contingency Plan. There are totally 8 means as following:

To set a plan for the work of relation with the supplier rapidly and correctly in order to see whom is more or less important for the company. So, we can make a correct decision to see whom be created the relationship as an alliance or must be as a common. The separation of the relationship in a correct way must be learnt well before by the purchaser on the subject of SRM-Supplier Relationship Management. It is not to be making friend as an alliance with all the common suppliers.

To check for sure that our significant suppliers also do the same plan as us for the prevention of risk mitigation or not. Due to the fact that, if the disaster is happened and our significant suppliers are damaged seriously, the bad effect will cause successively through our company too, because we will have no enough supply to consume. In case of our company has a good plan for prevention and mitigation, but if the customers can do nothing, we certainly can not survive.

To adapt the strategy for finding the new selling sources. Certainly, the purchaser always use the Single source system which means buying from the particular customers because of a good service, knowing each other, fair price, and good quality. But for this era which is not a normal era, because we are living in the midst of risks that are said on the above mentioned. The Natural disaster and Man-made disaster are tended to visit us and be more violent than before. We ought to adapt the methods of thinking and working by checking well to see which way the cat jumps. The method of purchasing from many sources is may be substituted from buying from one place. Each source will be spreaded out to the difference region, otherwise the cause of flood, or earthquake, or fire, is got together.

To estimate the new method of stock keeping. When the passed disasters, such as flood, Tsunami, earthquake, were happened, some supplier could not supply goods for us or supplied for us less than our want. The consideration of the increasing stocks to be higher than before was necessary. On the other hand, the thinking to reserve for the case that the disasters were happened, our customers might want less merchandises from us. Then, it might cause an effect to our stock inventories. We should have a great deal of surplus of the inventories. All these things, we shall have a meeting to consult with the management division in order to plan for the future to what and how merchandises and raw materials are tended to get more or less the effect. So that, the new method in adaptation for keeping the stocks is being loosen the weightiness to become light.

To estimate the place where the settlement of each of significant customers whom we need to depend on is established. The settlement place of the customer must be analyzed and estimated for the risk opportunity of the disaster which has more or less. Do not look over about the epidemic and the infectious disease. The buying from the countries where the wages are cheap, it is good for us in the capital mitigation. Each of these countries always has the risk in health and the disobeying against the CRS (Corporate Social Responsibility) which will cause the effect to us too.

To give the law division checking the condition of purchasing that hires us to do about the article concerned in the method of operation when the accident is occurred. Normally, when the accident causes any person who cannot work according to the contract, that person must not respond. Do not forget that, sometimes we may not get the damage directly from the natural flood, but the customers are got the damage by flood, they also cancel all our purchasing orders. For us, we will have the right for asking to cancel the purchasing orders of raw material too. If we do not well indicate this matter, we may respond to buy the raw materials that we order now, but there are no any purchasing order from the customers.

To prepare well for the emergency plan in the matter of human being. When the disaster is occurred, some of our staffs may die or get the accident to be cure or cannot go to work because of the problem of the communication is cut. The in advance consideration must be considered for anybody who can take place for working especially the significant position as "IT System".

To join together with all the divisions. If the disaster occurred, it is necessary to transfer the system and the work of every departments to work outside the company. How can we communicate? Is there any IT system which can help or not? At least, it must be done for a while, 3-4 months, before turning to the common situation.

For all the said above, somebody or some company may think that it is horrible. But for the passed experience of flood last year, it was proofed that the company which thinded and planed for the Worst Scenario system. Suppose, if it happened in the worst case, he would get the least pain. For one who thought for the best living, he would get extremely hurt.

What Purchaser Should do in Thailand Flood Crisis : Supply Chain Affected

2012-06-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

Mega Flood Crisis of Thailand in 2011 caused a great disaster similar as a loosed country in World War. Many Industrial Estates were destroyed, and the production, the purchasing, and the selling of the whole country were Illsฐo confused. Therefore, anybody who was not being directly as ooded victim had been effected as same as the indirect way which a great disaster would be also another affected cause. The loosing of millions of million bahts would be a nightmare which was hardly to forget.

The Insurance Journal, issue of 14 November 2011, contained an article about Flood in Thailand. It was indicated that this Mega Flood would be affected to the Global Supply Chain, for instance, the mouthwash factory in Thailand, which could be count as the important source of production in Asia region, when it was flooded, the Wal-Mart Department Store in Japan would be affected by the lacking of the mouthwash to be sold. For the hard-disc factory in Thailand which had been flooded, the production of computers was effected to worldwide in the first quarter of the year 2012. None the less, the 20% would be lost in businesses. That is to say, some industrial business, however, is not get the effected cause by flood, but it will be got by the Supply Chain affected. According to this magazine which indicates how to carry on nowadays business that must realize on the spreading of the Supply Chain to the different areas in order to reduce the risk of the business loosed when the nature disasters are occurred' such as flood and earthquake, which will be more often occurred. So, the source of Supply Chain may not be clustered at the same area.

My company is running on the Training Seminar Business. The head quarter is situated at Asoke Road where the Flood cannot be affected any more. My staff officers are not affected by Flood also. The hotel where the seminar is run will not be flooded. But my business has got the effect and trouble because many training courses which the customers apply for are mostly canceled due to the inconvenience coming from their homes. Therefore, the customers evacuate to the safety places for a while, but their mental healths are not properly to learn and are said to. be "Moody". No one intends to train for seminar. My income from the Training Seminar in October and November will disappear all at once.

For my information brochures which publicize for the new courses in December and January have been already printed by the printing house. But it cannot be delivered to me in time because of the flood that caused the car unable to enter or exit the company. So, I do not have any brochure for my customers. How my customers can know what and when my courses are managed for. It means that in December and January, my company will have no income, but I still pay the office rented and the salaries to my staff officers. That is to say, the only expenses consist of, but the incomes gain no any profit. These are the Supply Chain affected.

Another training company told me that he was quicker than me in sending his brochures to the customers. Whereas, all brochures were piled up as a hill at the Post Office, because the post men could not distribute to other areas, so this company would also be likely damaged as same as me. This was also the Supply Chain affected.

In the conclusion, the Mega Flood in Thailand caused many great disasters which were affected to both the internal country and the worldwide foreign countries. In such a huge damage, the purchasers might realize and prepare in mind that the tired working would be more after the flood reduced. These are the remarks or the consideration points which the purchasers ought to prepare earlier in order to help the company to carry on the business with the least of the problems.

1. To know that the customers may ask for the damages or the fine amounts for the merchandises that cannot be delivered to the customers. And we may ask for the damages or the fine amounts from the suppliers who cannot deliver the raw materials to us. Do not be frighten and rashly to do anything. If it is an uncontrollable cause (Force Majeure), the law indicates that the responsibility of anybody must not be accepted. You must consult with your Law Section and try to understand deeply about the uncontrol-lable cause that how the meaning it is. You must understand, this Mega Flood, some damage will be a scope of the uncontrollable cause which does not take the responsibility. But, something is not. You must find the knowledge first.

2. To contact and consult with the Account and Finance Section. In this crisis, our company has a problem in the circulated current cash on hand or not. It is a necessary thing to contact the suppliers in order to ask for the extension of the credit term or not. If the asking for the extension of the payment time, the trouble of the supplier must be responded. They may have the same trouble like us or not. For, they may cause by flood or the flood is not directly caused, but the indirect affected will be or not. Do not think to get. Doing business must think carefully and look forwards to the far distance and put yourself in their shoes too.

3. To check the suppliers. The purchaser must check every list of his suppliers. If some is troubled by flood, the checking of how the damages are caused more or less and how it will effect to the production, the delivery, and to forecast when it will turn to the usual situation.

4. To inspect the Upstream Chain. It is said to be that the suppliers of supplier must be checked in which the flood is caused or not. And it will cause the effected chain with any supplier. Foresee when it turns back to the usual situation.

5. The purchaser must gather the data of Pending Orders which are our order documents that has been issued, and the merchandises were not yet delivered to the customers. Even if the purchasing orders are in home country or foreign countries. To consider that we still want those merchandises according to the amount ordered or not. Or we want to reduce some amount. Or we ask to postpone the date of dispatching. Or we cancel all the orders.

6. The purchaser must join closely together with the Sale Section and Production Plan Section about the forecast of using figures and looks for what figures that must improve. Because our customers also have the same problems. So, our production and the Purchasing Plan Section must improve to change in time.

7. I can see that some company has rented a small meeting room, 40 square meters, in the hotel for the using as an office. Because, their company is also flooded. I can see both Thai and Japanese people, men and women, sit in the crowded room. Everybody uses computers, notebooks, and smart phones. They use all means of technology for their communication and run their business at one point while the flood is not reduced. As you are a purchaser, you must contact to find out about prices and expenses, and propose to our company for the establishment of a temporary office.

8. The purchaser who cannot enter the company because of the flood, and doesn't have a temporary office, do not be carelessly to trip around in the provinces. The using of all the communication technologies are required to consult with other Sections in the company in order to brain Strom for planning the works and prompt to jump to the air when the sky is clearly.

hope that the 8 subjects that are mentioned to be the consideration points that will light and increase the ideas for the purchaser who can show their skill, and concentrates to work when the company is in the difficult situation. It is more in precious than in the usual time. Under this crisis, the chance will always happen.

Purchasing and Supply Chain

2012-06-19T04:37:00.001-07:00

I would like to persuade the purchaser rethinks about your previousness on the past relationship with the suppliers in order to place the condence in what any the level is, or to impose on how the to place the condense in what any the level is, or to impose the ghting is. All these behaviors will be the indicators of the smooth work in the long run period which will lead to the perfect success, not the inattentive success which is full of revenge.
For the work of purchasing, the normal people mostly think that good purchasing will possess the excellent negotiation, the deep knowledge in the bought materials, and well understanding of the market situation. These are very significant things, but, Dr. Tom DePaoli said that all these things, therefore, were the instruments which brought the work of purchasing towards the end of the result. One thing, not much more than, is a very important point, everybody frequently tries to look over or tries to forget for those which are the creation of the solid relationship and the trust between the purchaser and the supplier. For this exceptional factor will lead the work of purchasing towards the success.

Dr.Tom had an experience in the duty of purchasing from Junior Buyer and climbed increasingly step by step until Vice President. This man had an experience in Supply Chain Reengineering and also possessed the well knowledge in e-procurement software. Hence, he could analyze the work of purchasing and the Supply Chain as a practitioner, not a theorist. Dr. Tom also was a writer who wrote a textbook, "Common Sense Purchasing", which content was very impressed by the purchasers.
Dr. Tom said that the pure mind of relationship would come first and was the most important energy that brought to the business alliance. He also reminded that the dedication of money over the limit for softwares was prohibited by the neglect and uninteresting to the rooted basis on the creating of good relationship and harmony with the suppliers. Software is not a miracle thing which can change something to another and makes the dream comes true. Whenever, the internal company is hollow and sloppy, the hundred million bahts of software cannot help anything.

Good relationship cannot pretend. You can't order to start it. You can't use the money to buy everything for your satisfaction. Purchaser must sincere to build a strong relationship with the suppliers continuously step by step. Honest must be possessed and do not even think to betray. The dignity and honesty of the supplier which fulfill in the mind can be measured by the suppliers because of the performed action. And these will cause the effect to the suppliers for their confidences, impressions, and unsuspicious, and the purchaser is also effected both direct an indirect way for the well slept without nightmare all night long.

The purchaser with high graduated will has a good credit. The purchaser who graduates with a diploma or a certificate in the purchasing field will be a good matter and be impressed, and to make sure that who is a real understanding worker. Dr. Tom confirms that even it is good, but it cannot help for the purchasing work with its best efficiency, if there is not a development of the strong relationship and a keeping promise with the suppliers. The using time to continue the relationship will get a good result. It is always worthy for every concerned party. Whenever, the cracking or the suspecting of the relationship is happened, it is mostly impossible to blend the cracking track or to erase the bitter vision for the returning back as usual. So, please don't leave for this important point and don't do anything carelessly for this matter too.

The easiest and the best method in making the relationship and trusting with each other must start from you by keeping the words. To do according to the words which are agreed by yours. Besides, the cooperation together with the suppliers can help to solve the problems, even it is their problems or our problems. This method is a very high power for the making of impression and appreciation with each other. During the cooperation for the solved problems, the sympathy, the understanding, and the supporting, will be the unforgettable impressions that anybody can't destroy or distort them. A person will remember with the unforgettable memory when there is somebody helps him in the difficult period. If you can approach to help anybody while the serious crisis is occurred, that person will surely look at you with the gratefulness and keep confidence forever. The just passed flood in Thailand last year, 2011, was a crisis that you could bring to make a good chance.

Don't forget the conscious rule which states that, "To behave for the others as to wish the others behave for you", which can be always used. So, it will not be lost in vain, if you always use it all the time, even in the serious period or in the peaceful time.

How Should Purchase Department do to touch CEO's Heart

2012-06-15T04:09:00.000-07:00

Good working of purchase is difficult to see from outside but problem is more obvious the reason is bad image in previous still impress in people's mind especially suspicious in purchase circles which was occur all over the world and also the way purchase department preparing their report is less effective than the other, so these are two main issues made purchase department become an evil senseless.

What should purchase department do and how to touch CEO's heart, so you should look back what do they expecting from purchase and then you have to do everything to fulfill their needs, otherwise no matter how you work hard it will not be effective. Next issue is efficiency of purchase in CEO's eye and purchaser should understand and follow their expectation:

1. Make every baht paid worth Do not surprise why everyone bossy you or keep asking about cost and sometimes talk about inappropriate cost over the year or the way the purchase cannot describe clearly about paid money is it reasonable and worth or not.

2. Represent the company to negotiate with the supplier wisely and successfully This does not mean that purchaser need to bargain everything or stingy, you should understand that to succeed the negotiate is to win-win and understand to choose the relationship level suitable to each supplier to plan the right negotiation plan and the important thing is purchase should be capable to analyze cost-price otherwise negotiation will have to aim.

3. Be an important part to support the company work run smoothly Purchaser should realize that there is a problem everywhere occurs from customer, supplier, and each department within the company, for example lack of raw material due to customer needs a product unexpectedly or production department planned it wrong, purchaser should be hurry to solve the problem with their best and do not for get to make a report to show what you have done and how to reduce lost to the company.

4. Able to suggest management to understand the result of situations such as when EU have a problem or USA economy crisis or going to have a problem with ASEAN Economic Community, these will effect our company neither in negative or positive way.

5. Able to corporate with relevant parties purchaser should be able to input data and propose opinion or give an advice follow request because purchase normally contact to market status closely in every day which is the best center to help every department.

6. Able to make a report and propose to management effectively purchase work such as hurry to follow the product to deliver on time sue to customer need, negotiate with the supplier to accept return goods because of wrong prediction of Sales, save cost from negotiation and planning strategy in purchaser, these things are important for manager to realize in a way of monthly report or some may in weekly.

7. Tell about purchase improving plan Purchase department should think about improve working to be more effective by indicate about what to do and how to do such as Purchase have a plan to do as the following item:

• Increase a company profit by reduce main material cost such as ... by ... Increase flexibility of every departments will shorten purchase cycle

• To get a better price than competitor, Purchase will ...

• To make a good quality follow 100% need purchase have a measure to ...

• Will provide an invade strategy in choosing supplier by ...

• Will reduce cost lying in stock by ...

• Increase customer satisfaction by ...

These improving plan should appear obviously in Purchase report with due date and report the progress.

7 items said above are the efficiency of Purchase in CEO's eye and if you start doing as I advice, I guarantee that you will touch their hear.

How important is an Electric Productions Inspection with International Trade Regulation?

2012-04-18T01:50:00.000-07:00

Electric and electronic productions are one of the main export products of the country and the expansion of its value has surged continuously every year, total export volume was over 30,000 million dollars. The main markets are China, the United States, Japan and European countries. With the global economic recession, export markets have been slowing down which require entrepreneurs to adapt themselves in order to get through the crisis. However, besides the reduction of consumer’s needs and the confrontation of competitive pricing, another compelling factor which could potentially hinder future exports is the international trading regulations called Non-Tariff Barrier / Measures (NMTs) that act as trade barrier. The NTMs lead to the following restrictions : safety, products, production processing, raw material, and energy-saving standards. Therefore, entrepreneurs must inevitably follow the defined restrictions of trading regulations which will increase the number of products inspections accordingly.

Why do we need Inspections?
Products inspection is directly relates to enforcing NTMs regulations in which NTMs can be viewed as technical obstacles and can be separated into several enforcement standards. The standard determination can be divided into many levels :
1. Company Standard including Toyota and GM which will be accepted as a company levels.
2. Industry Standard including JASO (Japanese Automobile Standards Organization), JSMA (Japan Spring Manufacturers Association), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
3. National Standard including JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), DIN (Deutsche Normen), TIS (Thai Industrial Standard) which will be accepted in some countries.
4. Area Standard including EN European Standard.
5. International Standard including ISO (International Organization Standardization), IEC (International Electro Technical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

As such, each trading measure was found to be continuously associated with the product life cycle from
1. raw material availability related with RoHs and REACH.
2. production processing related with GMP, HACCP and Eco Design.
3. products associated with LVD, EMC, CE-mark, and Energy Labeling
4. Waste related with WEEE. Therefore, if entrepreneurs want to produce products conforming to the trading regulations of each market, they need to consider several standards thoroughly

Inspection and Certified Approaches
For the inspection and certification of any products, manufacturers must know where their product market shares are, and consider if there are trading regulations, rules, or measures that are being enforced in a particular market. Then manufacturers should consider planning to inspect and certify products which involves testing, calibration, and inspection methods covering every step of production in a wide range of design, raw material supply, production processing, and inspection after production. Therefore, a perfect preparation could result in an effective inspection, save costs, allow the products to easily to the regulation, save inspection time, and lower the number of inspections. However in products inspections, having reliable equipment, tools, certification, along with accreditation are musts.

The inspection and certification can be done by an elected association of each market. Currently, there are both government and private parties including an electric and electronic institute, the Electrical and Electronic Products Testing Center : PTEC, and an automobile institute

The Effect of Non-confirming Products
Regulations can affect many entrepreneurs including manufacturers, suppliers, products importers, and sales people. If they do not follow the regulations, the effect can be the following : delayed entry of goods into markets, cancelled distribution, revoked distribution rights, returned goods to the original export countries, imposed fines, wasted production time, and wasted expenditure costs due to reproduction of goods. Therefore, entrepreneurs have to continuously follow news in order to adapt their production to correspond with upcoming measures.

However in the future, the tendency of international agreements will be rising. The agreements could reduce tax restrictions, but would increase technical restrictions instead. Sale able products must have excellent quality. Therefore, efficient inspection is an elimination of trading claims, helps upgrade products to be safe to consumers and the environment, and results in products acceptance which helps gain market share automatically.

Miscellany about minerals and Mining

2012-01-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

Characteristics of minerals
Over 2,000 types of minerals discovered on earthy are in any of the 4 forms ;
1. Solid inorganic compound.
2. Liquid compound such as mercury, bromine and water.
3. Compound which is a product of the transformation of once living organism(s), such as petroleum.
4. Pure elements, i.e. gold, platinum and silver.

Primary ore deposits

1. Stream of mineral deposits in mountainous areas are formed by the cooling of igneous rock into vein. Magma or lava in narrow, enclosed space directly crystallizes into minerals. Chemical interaction of existing vein, i.e. change in temperature, may raise mineral contents. Examples are base metal (such as tin, tungsten and zinc) and non-metal (such as fluoride).
2. Mineral deposits in layers of rocks are formed by sedimentation or stratification, such as gypsum, rock salt, charcoal, oil and petroleum.
3. Mineral deposits composed of nodules are formed by decomposition of igneous rocks causing the embedded minerals to break into small chunks which are then washed away by water to foothills, river basins, or coastal plains. An area with accumulated minerals is called placer, such as tin placer, or a placer of antimony, precious stones, diamonds and gold.

Minerals being utilized can be grouped into tree types ;
1. Base metal is mineral that must undergo smelting. It is durable and opaque, has electrical and thermal conductivity and a melting point. Example are tin, steel, manganese, copper, lead, aluminum, magnesium, gold, silver and wolfram.
2. Non metal can be used without smelting, has no thermal conductivity, and is translucent or brittle, Example are fluoride, phosphate, rock, sand, salt, sulfur, potassium, calcium and kaolin.
3. Energy or fuel mineral is mostly formed from fossils, such as charcoal, crude oil and natural gas.

Mining methods in Thailand
1. Dredging is the mining method used for fertile placers. Minerals are dug and washed on dredging boats.
2. Gravel pump mining is operated in placers which are not so fertile. The areas are drilled or blasted by human labor or high-pressure water. The mixture of minerals, sands and rocks are pumped up for separation.
3. Ground sluicing is operated along foothills or slops using human labor, high pressure water and excavators to disintegrate the soil and then the materials are transported through a sluice.
4. Open-pit mining is operated on foot-hills or hilly areas. The areas are shaped into terraces and human labor or machines are used to transport rocks and minerals for separation on lower ground.
5. Hydraulic mining is operated in placers near main waterways on highland. A dyke is built to block a waterway and away soil and rack mixed with minerals and carry them downstream for separation.
6. Underground mining is done when minerals are too far underground. Minerals are mostly low in volume but scare, such as gold. The areas are blasted and drilled to create intersecting “rooms”. Beams are installed to hold up thr roof for safety.

Centralized Purchasing, Decentralized Purchasing, Integrated Purchasing - [advantage and disadvantage]

2011-12-16T23:25:00.000-08:00

Many company understand that if they manage the purchasing to be centralized purchasing should be more effective to control and convenient and to hold the purchasing in one spot should create a negotiation power than the pother method and the company not allow each department to do their own purchasing, so all departments must submit their inquiry to purchase departments to processes these makes purchasing into a system and also good because purchasing by acknowledge people

This understanding is right but not always true because there are many factor and cases that makes centralized purchasing not effective and may lead to be disadvantage.
Disagree people or against it always claim about the delay because there are many procedure until receive the order and claim that purchaser will get the right thing and negotiate to get the reasonable price if purchaser have never use it.
People who agree with this system also claim that to let each other do by their own or as we call Decentralized purchasing will leak and cause a corruption because it is difficult to control and not throughout.

But for people who agreed with Decentralized purchasing is even worst because of high value will create a power then a huge corruption.
If you ask for my opinion, I will give you an explanation that it can be happen however if the system and control is not good for both type and the suspicious is not only occur within purchase department only but it can be happen with every department, please do not wastes your time on accusing as the quote “there is nothing under the sun which can not be cheat”
So let’s consider about advantage and disadvantage of purchasing system carefully as following so we can have an idea before making a decision otherwise it will like flee a tiger meets a crocodile.

Decentralized Purchasing ;

If it is a big company with branches in many countries or many provinces, Decentralized
Will give a power to each branch to do their own purchasing and it is good because fast and convenient and they should have their supplier database in own area better than people from the center.

Decentralized power to each branch making decision by their own will force them to be responsible, they will brainstorming among relevant parties to solve the problem although to find the best solution. They will buy when needed, decide the quantity and quality and follow up to get the products within the period limited by themselves and gain the direct experience them be cautious is planning and preparation.

The important advantage should be a faster purchasing time since the documentation is reduce, approval process and not wasting time for information inquiry when changing or return problem goods.
But do not neglect disadvantage such as to find a supplier information by their own will be a work repeated, waste the time more than centralized purchasing and each department have to use their resource and less expertise than resource of purchase department which is normally well trained in purchasing and feel sure that they can manage this effectively.

Centralized Purchasing ;

This purchasing type comes from bring amount of acknowledged people in purchasing as a center and work for every department in the company, so staff in other department can concentrate their own responsibility without wasting their time in finding source, supplier estimation, negotiation and follow up goods to be on time.

Even though it is a big company with many branch in many countries but also can use this method. The center purchaser will coordinate with each branch to find a data of source worldwide, quantity needed in short term and long term which are total the purchaser will see and in this case purchase will have a very good reputation when negotiation with supplier.

But when we look for disadvantage, Centralized purchasing is to give a giant power to a small group of people. Hand every purchase work to them to do, if there is no effect IT system enough to reduce documentation purchasing work will emphasize in documentation management more than to create a strategy purchasing and if lack of people to working and less knowledge not consistent with the work and not skillful enough both internal and external work then you will see a disaster or a company’s nightmare is soon.

Integrated Purchasing ;

This method is in the middle, foreigner call as a Hybrid or integrate means have both center purchase and purchasing for each department with the specific working frame and good coordination among them. Center will limit the overall purchasing policy for every branch to know, management of branch purchasing will be under their own branch but due to they have to follow rules and policy of center so they have to report center, for this method CPO-Chief Procurement officer is needed and supported by CEO.

Normally every company concentrate on Cost saving and raw material purchasing for production, purchasing MRO or expensive parts, travel expense, PR and marketing cost and IT thus CPO should plan a strategy carefully to work effectively.

For a single company without any branch also can use a concept from integrated purchasing such as purchasing contact to sign agreement to buy an office furniture and stationary cover 1 year period and let each department that center sign but should be within the budget and policy of the company or allow engineering to order some parts by their own but under supervision of factory manager without passing purchase department.

Conclusion ;

Centralized purchasing have an advantage in from the high total than other method bring a discount and beneficial condition to the company and the purchasing staff are well trained and acknowledged than other department but the disadvantage is slowness of procedure and the staff inpurchase department may have less knowledge or not careful enough.

Decentralized purchasing have an advantage in flexibility and also knowledge in flexibility and also knowledge in what they are going to buy or employ because they are user but disadvantage is lose the negotiation power because total amount is spread among the company and not attract the company and less skill than staff who working directly.
Integrated purchasing is the answer by looking for weakness and strength and choose strength that you got utmost and avoid all weakness

In conclusion, policy of three method also good but you have to choose the right one and fit to your company, do not follow other peoples without a serious analysis in what we have got but they don’t.

What is ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility

2011-11-22T00:35:00.000-08:00

Corporate Social Resposibility (CSR) integrated into business conduct has recently been gaining increasing amounts of attention. There is no clear evidence being measured to determine how much each organization has embraced its responsibility to society. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a social responsibility guidance standard called “ISO 26000” and plans toe formally release a complete version of the ISO 26000 guidance standard in the middle of 2010. To be well prepared for the final standard publication, this issue of “Manufacturing Tip” presents topics for ways to primarily evaluate how much your organization has come across the boundary of the ISO 26000 guidance standard.

The ISO 26000 standard of social responsibility is a voluntary standard and guildance, is not a certification requirement, and is aimed to be an operationalizing program for Corportate Social Responsibility to organizations who decide to practice this standard. Prior to stepping up to operate by an international standard, the Department of Industrial Works established a standard called Corporate Social Responsibility Department to Industrial Works (CSR-DIW) referenced by ISO 26000, Working Draft 3rd issue (WD3) to prepare for the finalization of the ISO 26000 standard. We can follow the ISO 26000 guideline to develop organizations. There are seven core issues being addressed by the CSR-DIW standard that entrepreneurs should consider.
1. Organizational Govemance includes: an organizational structural management and a decision making process that operates in a responsible manner, which are transparency accountability. In addition to those manners, appropriate and effective application of financial, natural, and human resources promoted balance among the demands of organizations and stakeholders.
2. Human Rights: Businesses should Inspect and evaluate the risk of every activity that could potentially violate human rights, to avoid joint wrongdoing that could harm human rights, and to solve problems from fair claims under the principles for righteousness, reason, equality, and clearness. Entrepreneurs should provide special treatment for females, handicapped people, children, native people, and refugees and should respect human rights relevant to politics, education, economics, societies, religions, and cultures.

3. Labour: Practice is to provide legitimate employment by establishing employment agreements with legally accepted organizations, provide an equal employment opportunity for all employees, provide fair compensation, provide safely and hygiene at workplaces, and constantly arrange training to develop employee’s capability.
4. Environment: Businesses should determine preventive measures in generating pollution, disclose the type and volume of toxins emitted into the biosphere, effectively promote lasting and renewable resource consumption, decrease the impact from climate change, and restore the nature by implementing preventive procedures.
5. Fair operating practice: addresses the areas o f anti-corruption, responsible political cooperation, fair competition among rivals, the promotion of social responsibility for organizational stakeholders, and the respect of intellectual property rights.
6. Consumer issues: providing data of merchandise price, providing quality inspection reports and actual warrantee conditions, acting under a fair agreement to consumers, issuing preventive safety and hygiene measures for consumers, promoting consumption of environmentally friendly products, using recycled packaging, determining preventive measures, resolving disputes among consumers by lengthening warrantee periods to be more than the one imposed by law, protecting consumer’s privacy rights, and maintaining and improving systems constantly to prevent service from being paused.

7. Community involvement and development: is to consult with community representatives in running community development projects, to promote academic quality development and people skills in the community, to preserve and guard the local cultural heritage, to develop technologies for communities, to build jobs for a source of income for communities, to promote access to basic health services that are necessary, and to invest in useful projects for communities.

JTEPA : Thai-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement Reunite to Upgrade SMEs

2011-11-15T02:36:00.001-08:00

At present, there is a rapid change of technology in the world not only communication but also frame of agreement occurred in various part of all over the world which grows up enterprises and investment vividly with no boundaries. This factors makes government realize the importance and necessity to co-operate every business section especially private business for adaptation to be ready for any alienation happens. In the past, ministry has found out the co-operation in many issues, for instance, enterprise, investment and technology exchange with many office department nationwide including Japan which is the top first country for Thailand.
Japan and Thailand good cooperated and partnership more than 120 years and Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA) it good supported each other for the economics. In the same time Thai industry need technology from Japan and Thai government had cooperate with Japan’s government and the company to support and build up the project.
The last project to develop SMEs for Asia Pacific is Business Networking Program for Asia SMEs by cooperation between Department of Industrial Promotion and Fukuoka Government set up the objective directly to developing SMEs to be stronger and growing up to Asia Pacific and will be exposed to be networking in the Asia Pacific industry.

This project enhance both countries to set up the network. It has begun by Thai investors (business owner or representative) visit and acknowledge business in Japan at amount of 60 persons. Divided by 3 times (20 persons each) to educate how to do the business and learning “Green Industry” in Japan including visit Japan manufacturing process. Moreover, Thai investors has also participated in other activities to building up SMEs Thai-Japan relationship which helping business cooperation more.
Industrial promotion department urge to build up the confidence for Thai industrial sector by government sector rush to cooperate with Japan organization concerned to proceed the activities which support the confidence for Thai industrial sector. In the middle of this year, we have contact to more than 10 business groups at Hiroshima to visit Thailand for investment potential capability with Thai co-investors. In October 2010 there will be a lot more than 20 Japanese persons visit Thailand to study investment potential capability with Thai co-investors.
“Department of industrial promotion have confidence that the following project will help Thai investors build up network and increase channel distribution to do the business with SMEs Japan organization by Thai and Japan government as cooperate. By this way, new technology and innovation with modern management pattern will be exposed to be new information. This project is one of the choices to make the confidence recall to Japan investors who didn’t trust in Thai politics instability. We expected this project will able to recall to lost confidence” Mr. Arthit Wuthikaro, Director-General Department of Industrial Promotion (DPI) said.
By this cooperation. It will develop SMEs Thai-Japan (Fukuoka government) and we believe that by Asian SMEs network set up will promote and develop Thai-Japan SMEs in the future.
Thai Network Set Up Navigator
Thai-Japan Economy Partner Agreement (JTEPA) signed in 2550 affected Thai and Japan promote trading exchange, investment and Thai-Japan personnel development more. Due to Thai industrial structure is similar to Fukuoka city, Japan which consist of automobile industry as a major industry, Fukuoka government decided to participate industry binding network project as and navigating project for SMEs Asian-Thai, the first country. The target is aimed to expand the result to every countries which is important for Asia.

Regarding Thai-Japan cooperation, this become the guideline for the organization beyond around 12 supporting associations help to adjust and activate the new market opening including machine capability and labour search of investor to increase business channel with SMEs in Japan.
When good network has begun, it leads SMEs development to be done, especially, industry and products occurred by supporting industry. It linked to the major industry and also increased market value of the industry. This solution could be the steadily growth and competitive capability for the country in the world market. From now on, Thai economy will be motivated to grow up in stability.

What is Automation System : Hard Disk Drive Thai Industry

2011-11-08T20:33:00.001-08:00

Thailand is considered to be one of the production bases of hard disk drive of the world. Many leading manufacturing companies enter to set up the production base. With the continuous expansion of production capacity every year each company brings the automation system to improve the production process very much. With the necessity of manufacturers requiring the import of automation system from foreign countries, Thailand loses tremendous value from this part. It triggers the question whether Thailand has a capability in the production of automation system for substituting the import from foreign countries or not.

What is the Automation System?
“Automation System” is the system designed with the electrical, electronics and computer mechanism to work by itself. Human beings may concern only the determination of condition or objective in the working. The automation system can work from the beginning to the end of process with the precision. This helps reduce the human error very well. Moreover, it also helps increase the efficiency in production in various aspects such as the increase of speed and production quantity as well as the durability in hard working.

Automation system is the bringing of engineering knowledge in many aspects to work together by having structure and a variety of working systems. The automation equipment can be categorized into 6 groups: 1. Control System such as Logic controls, Fuzzy Logic Controls and Feedback Controls, 2. Programming such as Protocol, Algorithm and GUI, 3. Electronic Circuit such as Motor Drive, Motion Controller and Signal Conditioner, 4. Sensor such as Camera, Optical sensors and Temperature sensors, 5. Mechanical Structure such as Jix & Fixture, Join, Bolt and Nut and Linear Guide 6. Actuators such as Motors, Electronic Actuators and Hydraulic Cylinders.
The automation system is designed to respond the different demands in each industry. It can mainly divide into 2 categories in accordance with the working efficiency: 1. Semi-Automation is the automation system which still relies on humans in a certain level. Its size is not so large and the system may work with other automation systems for working completely. 2. Fully-Automation is the automation system which can work fully without humans. It must use a variety of technologies and equipment having quite a large size.

Market Still Opens Due to A Lot of Demands.
For the automation system which hard disk drive manufacturers in Thailand use at present, more than 80% of them are imported from foreign countries such as Singapore and Malaysia which values more then 300 million baht per year. Moreover, the demand is still increasing every year. The category of automation system which is required by the hard disk industry has 4 categories such as: 1. Assembly such as the picking and putting parts, movement, forming, assembly, welding, screwing, 2. Inspection, 3. Qualification Test and 4. Cleaning. The automation system of inspection is considered to be the most demanded.
Although there are a lot of opportunities in marketing, Thai entrepreneurs can not have much chance in marketing because they have a variety of problems such as the lacking of knowledge and expertise in the production, the lacking of management in the production process for corresponding with the customer demand, the lacking of capital in R&D of products. The most important problem is that they have to pay the import tax of equipment from foreign countries at the high rate resulting in higher cost of production than foreign countries for many times.

The Government is Ready to Push Thailand to Compete with Foreign Countries
According to the mentioned problems, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) has a project to help Thai SMEs to have more potential in the production of automation system in this year. Chayakrit Charoensiriwath, Ph.D., Researcher as a coordinator of this project said NECTEC is a medium in coordinating with manufacturers of hard disk drive for opening the opportunity to Thai SMEs in proposing the trial production of the automation system. This project gains the cooperation very well from leading manufacturers of hard disk drive. More than 20 questions are given to them. The5re are more than 40 manufacturers receiving work to implement further. Thai project has the duration of 3 years under the supporting budget of 250 million baht.
“NECTEC will assist SMEs in the technological development for designing, producing and supporting the capital for 70% of development. At the beginning, it will be a production of trial prototype for testing whether it can produce or not. Then, a lot of production will be produced later. It is expected that within 3 – 5 years, Thailand will step towards a manufacturer who can design and produce the overall automation system; not only a producer who produces according to the drawing of customers like before. Moreover, the market share will be increased as well.”

In the future, the direction of Thai automation system’s growth will depend on many factors. For example, manufacturers of automation system must accelerate t he capability to be equivalent to foreign countries. They must get good supports from the government, especially in tax measures which will help reduce the cost of production. In addition, manufacturers of hard disk drive must open their minds to support more applications of Thai automation system. If every party has a good cooperation, it is not difficult for Thailand to become a manufacturer of automation system which can substitute the import from foreign countries and step to become the center in the production of automation system in ASEAN region.

Coating Surface Technology : Vacuum Deposition Coating

2011-10-21T17:45:00.001-07:00

One method of improving surface of the material can be implemented by coating the suitable substance in from of coating layer or thin film having high quality. It can categorize into 2 large groups:

1. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and 2. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). Each method is suitable for each type of work. Currently, the vacuum deposition of PVD is getting the interest from the industrial sector in the country very much. The method of deposition by sputtering (one technique of PVD) in particular has been conducted R&D in every aspect from the equipment concerned, technique of coating layer’s property as well as the finding of suitable coating substance for each type of work.

For the method of deposition by sputtering, the coating substance will be created from the sputtering process. It is the process making atoms of coating substance to get off from surface of the target of coating substance by hitting of ions having high energy. Then it triggers the exchange of energy and momentum between the hitting ions and atoms at the surface of targeted coating substance. This process is a part of the interaction. When ions having high energy hit the surface of material, it will arise various phenomena.

1. Reflected Ions and Neutrals: The hogging ions may reflect from the surface of material. Most of them will reflect in form of neutral atoms arising from the conglomeration of electron at the surface of material.

2. Secondary Electron Emission: The hitting of high-energy ions may cause the emission of secondary electron from the surface of material if such hitting ions have enough high energy.

3. Ion Implantation: High-energy ions hitting the surface of material may implant into some part of material content. The depth of implantation will depend on the energy of hitting ions.

4. Altered Surface Layers: The hitting of high-energy ions at the surface of material may cause the new arrangement of atoms at the surface of material. In addition, it may lead to the lattice defect.

5. Sputtering process: When high-energy ions hit the surface of material, it will cause the process of continuous hitting between atoms of materials having high energy until emitting atoms from the surface of material. This process is called “Sputtering.”

It may conclude that the sputtering process is the bombarded method at the surface of material with high energy ions until atoms at the surface of material get off (We can notice from the erosion of sputtered surface of material). The phenomenon which atoms of material surface get off is called sputter or sputtering. The sputtering process was discovered fro a century by Grove. During that time, sputtering was the process causing the damage to cathode and grid in discharge lamp using in the experiment. However, such process has been widely applied at the moment.

Enter the Sputtering Process

As previous mention, the deposition of thin film by sputtering is the accumulation of coating substance from the sputtering process until having the characteristics of thin film. Therefore, this method of coating will happen when atoms of coating substance from sputtering process hit and condense at the surface of the support material or the output and accumulate until being the thin film. The sputtering process needs to have 3 important components.

1. Targeted Coating Substance will act as a target for high-energy ions to hit until occurring the sputtering process and the emission of atoms of coating substance.

2. High-energy ions which will hit targeted coating substance and make atoms of such target get off may be made by accelerating ions under the electric field. It can control the level of ion’s energy as demand. Although the electron will be an ion having one kind of discharge which can be easily produced and accelerated to have high energy under the electric field, the electron has less mass than atoms of coating substance considerably. Thus the transfer of energy and momentum to the coating substance is inefficient. Then the sputtering process can not occur. However, the collision of particles will have the best transfer of energy and momentum when both particles have equal mass. Therefore, it normally selects the acceleration of gas ions in the electric field to be high-energy ions for hitting the targeted coating substance.

3. For the production of high-energy ions in the sputtering process, high-energy ions will be continuously produced for making the process of coating thin film occur continuously until getting the desired thickness of film. It6 can be implemented into various methods such as the use of ion beam from ion gun or the use of glow discharge process. Although ion gun can produce ions at high rate, such equipment has very high price and provides ions in the narrow area. Therefore, general sputtering process in the industry popularly uses the glow discharge process in the production of high-energy particles.

In practice, targeted coating substance is the substance bringing to coat the material or output. The high-energy ions which will make the sputtering use ions of Argon gas because it is the inert gas with suitable mass and not too high price. For the production of high-energy ions (ions of Argon gas), it will use the glow discharge process in form of plasma. Then it will be pulled or accelerated high-energy ions from plasma to hit targeted coating substance until triggering the sputtering process for creating atoms of coating substance with electric field.

For the system of the deposition by sputtering using in the manufacturing sector, R&D has may formats and systems but they will have similar fundamental. The important system which is the important basis is DC sputtering system. This system is not complex but has the constraint about the creation of plasma by the glow discharge process because it must use high electromotive force between electrodes. The creation of high-energy ions of Argon gas is quite low resulting in the low rate of coating with Dc sputtering system.

From the mentioned factor, new system of DC magnetron sputtering is developed by using the magnet to help in the glow discharge process. (Using magnet may be either permanent magnet or electro-magnet). In case of DC sputtering system, it may install magnet at the back of targeted coating substance. This installed magnet will create the magnetic field in the direction which is parallel to the surface of targeted coating substance and perpendicular to electromagnetic field. Therefore, electron in the glow discharge process will have the curved movement which will help increase the distance of electron. It leads to higher ionization of inert gas resulting in higher rate of sputtering and deposition.

Final Part will explain the vacuum deposition by evaporation and the deposition by electroplating and sputtering.

How to Welding Stainless Steel [Austenitic, Ferritic, Martensitic]

2011-10-19T17:27:00.001-07:00

The stainless steel is widely used in the industry because it has special features from other materials such as a good resistance of corrosion, the ability to work under high temperature, fine surface and a variety of its properties which can bring to produce numerous products such as the use of stainless steel to produce kitchenware, sanitary ware and decorations. In addition, it can bring to use for welding parts in the industrial sector such as pressure tubes, tanks, exhaust system in automobiles, equipment in the industrial factories of chemistry and food, etc.

Stainless steel has various categories. It will differ according to the chemical composition having the effect towards microstructure, the mechanical property and the application. Manufacturers should have skills, knowledge and the capability in welding each group of stainless steel . Each category will be different depending on the production process in each product. Therefore, the building of body of knowledge in manufacturers to understand the property of material which will be brought to produce is very crucial to the industrial sector. This issue of Innovation World Magazine, “Know How” Column presents tips and techniques in welding the stainless steel and the correc6tion of production problem for creating the highest efficiency.

The important features of welding various kinds of stainless steel can be categorized as follows. 1. Austenitic Stainless Steel: This kind of steel can be easily welded. In addition, it can be welded without using heat before and after welding. The cautious thing in welding is the outcome from too high heat which will lead to the coarse grain and can not resist impact force. High temperature may cause the welding output to be distorted because this group of stainless steel is high thermal expansion but has low thermal conductivity compared to carbon steel.
The method of correction can be implemented by adjusting the electricity in welding to be low for controlling the heat input or implementing the preheat treatment for making the output to have constant temperature or preventing by using jig to hold the welding output. Furthermore, Back Step Welding and Balanced Sequence Welding or gradual welding can help reduce the distortion of output. Another problem is the arising of Chromium Carbide around the welding seam so it lacks the creation of chromium oxide film for preventing rust. The welding area will be easy to corrode. The solving of problem can be done by using stainless steel having low carbon such as 316L or the combination of Titanium or Niobium (Stabilized Grades) such as 347, etc.

2. Ferritic Stainless Steel: the welding of this category of stainless steel resembles the welding of carbon steel but it should be careful in many things such as much growing of grain from the impact of Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) or t he arising of carbide leading to the brittle welding seam. Therefore, the implementation of welding seam to have the thickness and high quality must preheat the output at 100 – 120 C before welding. In addition, the welding must control the heat input to be the least. The dissolution or improvement of carbide from welding can be implemented by heating after Post Weld-Heat Treatment (PWHT) at 750 – 850 C for 30 – 60 minutes. It will not only help reduce the residual stress within welding seam and improve the property of ductility and toughness but also lessen the resistance to the corrosion at the area affecting the heat.

The selection of welding rod for using in the welding of ferritic stainless steel can be both ferritic and austenitic welding rod. The strength is to get the welding seam which and resist impact force increasingly. For welding outputs having the thickness more than 6 mm., it must control the heat input to be the least and use the austenitic welding rod as well.

3. Martensitic Stainless Steel: The welding of this kind of stainless will be different from the welding of austenitic and ferritic group. The structure of this kind of material is hard but brittle so it has the opportunity to be brittle when bringing to apply immediately without passing preheat and post-heat treatment. The risks of brittle will increase when the quantity of carbon increases.
For solving such problem, it can preheat at the temperature about 200 – 300 C, control the heat input and interpass temperature for helping the cooling of welding seam constantly and reduce the residual stress and the risk of cracking. Another problem which may encounter is the hydrogen embrittlement which can prevent by selecting the welding process having low hydrogen such as TIG of MIG and controlling the source of hydrogen from flux and electrode using in welding of preheat treatment. Furthermore, pos heat treatment at 650 – 750 C will help the welding seam to have good quality, improve the mechanical property, reduce the residual stress and help hydrogen which is dissolved within welding seam to spread as well.
Outputs having low quantity of carbon and thinner than 3 mm. can be welded without implementing the preheat treatment but it should use the welding process having low hydrogen. Outputs having more thickness and carbon more then 0.1% need to implement the preheat and post-heat treatment for reducing the stress and helping spread hydrogen from the welding seam.

After welding the stainless steel, it will enter the cleaning process of welding seam. The process will be: 1. To eliminate scale and clean up the surface of welding seam by using chemical. Mostly, it will use HNO3+HF acid solution in eliminating various defects from welding such as scale or burning-mark. It should not use with austenitic stainless steel occurring Sensitization (Losing of Chromium in form of carbide) or the area of parts touching with carbon steel. In addition, it also applies gel at t he welding seam for eliminating scale and cleaning up. The benefit of using gel is to help clean up welding seam at the vertical line. It can also clean up through the mechanical process such as the surface grinding with Grinding Wheel or polishing with Power Brushing or Sand Blasting by polishing with stainless steel wire brush, etc. This will help eliminate metal scrap from welding on the surface of metal plate or welding seam or slag from flux covering welding rod. However, the disadvantage of this process is that it is difficult to notice small defects.
2. The implementation of Passivation by using concentrated nitric acid of 20 – 40% at the temperature at 50 – 60 C for creating the forming of chromium oxide film and washing after the implementation of Passivation.
This presentation of welding techniques in various kinds of stainless steel and cleaning will benefit readers who can bring this body of knowledge to develop their own production process and business for having the competitiveness with sustainability.

Genetic bacteria : Genetic modification of Bacteria Into Plastics

2011-10-05T07:45:00.001-07:00

Professor George Bennett, a Researcher from Rice University, said that Succinate is a key chemical ingredient that the U.S. Department of Energy expects to use for biosynthesis because Succinate has a broad utility for producing non-toxic solvents. Plastics, medicines, and food supplements. Succinate can be mass produced using bacteria that metabolize glucose and produce Succinate with large-scale fermentation.

The focal point of Succinate production technology is to use a mutant form of E. coli that makes succinate as its only byproduct. The goal is to maximize the Succinate’s conversion rate from Glucose. The bacteria have been genetically modified several times in the past four years. The biotechnology is either to insert genes to boost Succinate’s conversion rate or to delete genes that interfere with Succinate formation. The bacteria developed by Professor Bennette were designated with the code SBS550MG. The code consists of two kinds of mechanisms.

The first mechanism is the deletion, from generic bacteria, of four genes that produce proteins that interfere with the ability to turn glucose into succinate. The second mechanism is the insertion of genes to stimulate Succinate’s production by adding Lactococcus bacteria and fungus Both types of Succinate’s production are totally different and they do not interfere or compete with one another. The success from the design of Succinate’s production to be complementary made Professor Bennett’s research group very satisfied. The chemical process can produce incredibly high volumes of Succinate because Glucose was converted into Succinate almost completely.

What is Milk Run System : Transportation Definition

2011-09-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Milk Run Systems is a Delivery method for mixed loads from different suppliers. Instead of each of several (say 5) suppliers sending a vehicle every week to meet the weekly needs of a customer, one vehicle visits each supplier on a daily basis and picks up deliveries for that customer. This way, while still five vehicle loads are shipped every week, each vehicle load delivers the full daily requirements of the customer from each supplier. This method gets its name from the dairy industry practice where one tanker collects milk every day from several dairy farmers for delivery to a milk processing firm.

There are two different types of the milk-run:
1. in-house milk run: the goods will be send to the production from a central supermarket
2. interplant milk run: different suppliers send the goods to the production
*The standardized batches, routes and time tables are helping the company to reduce the complexity of their logistic system. There are relevant savings possible.

A formal approach for specifying and reasoning about earth-friendly logistics management systems is presented. To reduce fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions resulting from transport, we must enhance the transport efficiency of trucks, which play an essential role as carriers in modern logistics services. This paper addresses the milk run systems approach. It is one of the most effective and popular solutions to this problem, but it makes it be complicated to implement in a logistics management system. We propose a language for specifying the routes of trucks and an order relation between the requirements of routes and the possible routes of trucks. The former is formulated as process calculus and the latter selects suitable trucks according to their routes.

Concept :
- Need to establish logistics network supporting Just-In-Time (JIT) production parts procurement.
*The milk run concept or also often called milk bottle concept is a system of the procurement logistics and distribution logistics to ensure that goods are available when at the time when they are needed. A model for this system was the traditional milk supplier, the “milkboy” in the United States and England. The milkboy only provides a new bottle if he could take an empty bottle. So it was ensured that there is not too much milk in the house. The Basis of this concept is that there are only as much units filled as were used in the production. The batch size normally is fixed one time and there is also often use of the Kanban system. The restocking circle is also fixed previously.

Solutions :
- Organize milk-run collection from parts vendors according to production plan and purchasing order.
- Cross-docking
- Just-In-Time (JIT) deliveries into manufacturing plant.
- Exceptions management , such as delays and miss-shipments, and organizing special response.

Benefit :
- Small lot size-High frequency deliveries to achieve reduced inventories.
- Better truck utilization.

Toyota Milk Run Optimize Routing JIT

2011-08-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

Milk run help optimize transportation and production. Toyota motor can operate efficiently by increasing the frequency of runs to multiple suppliers, which reduces the lot size of each move, allowing Toyota to fill trucks. The Toyota know they have to sacrifice some mileage, but the benefits are steady and level flows of material and higher order frequencies.

"It's really a Milk Run operation. The inbound material is received and empty shipping containers are sorted and loaded for outbound logistics heading back to the suppliers where we dispatch those trucks out for another pickup coming in", "We don't want to run empty dead-head trucks without optimizing container returns in support of our logistics plan."

As Toyota's 3PL Logistics, VASCOR plays a dual role. "We are one of Toyota's transportation operators, as well as one of its crossdock operators," says Jim Brutsman, general manager of business development for VASCOR.

"Typically, Toyota gives us a month's worth of Toyota milk run Logistics routes to operate, all in the framework of lean manufacturing and a Just in time (JIT) environment," he says. "It's an intense schedule—Toyota measures us by our ability to operate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time."

VASCOR assigns routes to partner carriers and its milk runs employ 580 team and single drivers and 375 tractors. "On an average day for Toyota, we cover the equivalent of seven trips around the equator," Brutsman says. "And while we are making those trips, every 80 seconds one of our trucks stops to deliver returnable containers and pick up parts."

Routes are structured precisely, to and from the plant as well as to and from the supplier. If a driver encounters an exception, VASCOR's centralized communications center is advised immediately. "Then we have to inform quite a string of Toyota personnel," Brutsman says.

VASCOR employs GPS tracking of its milk-run fleet and its sequenced delivery drivers use Nextel wireless communications. These sequenced situations are time-critical because of the distances involved and the precise sequencing of orders, loading, delivery, and entry to the production floor.

"Sequenced deliveries are complicated and well-orchestrated exercises of matching the right part with the right car at the right time," Brutsman says.

Transportation strategy should not drive how and when product is delivered. Rather, customer expectations need to be fully understood, and transportation strategies must be developed to meet these expectations with optimal inventory levels. Transportation strategy and tactics must support Lean inventory strategies. This will undoubtedly change the transportation methods of the organization. For example, a focus on truckload movements and transportation load building based on economies of scale may not support the customer experience. Products are generally not consumed by the truckload or even a skid at a time. Rather, small quantities are often preferred to meet consumption needs. Lean transportation means proactively reviewing transportation modes, matching mode to inventory strategies and customer expectations. Less than truckload (LTL) shipments are being replaced by frequent ground package shipments or multiple stop milk runs to gain control, visibility and delivery stability. Past paradigms of transportation “givens” must be rethought and reviewed to ensure that inventory and customer requirements are driving transportation methods.

Milk Run is one of the advanced delivery concepts that can improve your transportation management system. Milk Run Delivery means a routing of a supply or delivery vehicle to make multiple pickups or drop-offs at different locations on a regularly scheduled basis.

Ford Milk Run Systems Definition

2011-08-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Milk Run Systems History : IN THE past, especially in the West, milk used to be sold in bottles. The milk would be delivered like this: The bottles would be placed on crates and the crates loaded in a truck that would go to a locality and drop the bottles off outside each house. By the time it completes a round of the locality all the bottles containing milk would have been disposed of. The truck would then pick up the empty bottles from outside the homes and bring them back to the dairy. The truck would be full ensuring that it is utilised effectively in both directions.

Ford Milk Run Systems : Something similar is what Ford India Ltd does in collecting components from its suppliers located in different parts of the country. Ford has entrusted the task of collecting the components to a logistics partner, TVS Lean Logistics. The logistics partner has set up hubs in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Daman, Bangalore and Chennai to control material movement. These hubs are specific to Ford's requirement, according to Mr Tom S. Chackalackal, General Manager, Material Planning and Logistics, Ford India.

Ford has some 83 suppliers in all, 20 of them based in the North, 15 in the West, 13 in the South excluding Chennai, and 35 in and around Chennai. Ford sources some 750 parts from these suppliers, of which vendors in and around Chennai account for as many as 460. Those in the northern region account for 125 parts, western region 95 and the suppliers in the southern region the balance. The logistics partner collects the components as per the schedule provided by Ford, consolidates them in the hubs and transports them to the plant at Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai. Twentythree trucks come to the plant everyday carrying components.

Necessary to use the Milk Run Systems : An effective track-and-trace system enables authentic transit information and vehicle traceability and input of advance shipment notification in the system helps to capture transit inventory, according to Mr Chackalackal. Ford uses the concept of reusable racks, bins and trollies for all parts collected from suppliers located in and around Chennai, which constitute a major part of the domestic supply base. The majority of these parts are directly delivered to the production line where only one shift inv entory is maintained. ``Pack integrity and adherence to schedule is ensured by our strategy,'' says Mr Chackalackal.

N. Ramakrishnan

Establishing Strong Partnerships With Their 3PLs

2011-01-15T01:47:00.000-08:00

Automotive manufacturers find the key to squeezing
operations costs: establishing strong partnerships with their 3PLs.

Automotive manufacturers continue to lead the charge in developing innovative methods to squeeze costs out of their manufacturing and production operations.
"The automotive industry places increasing emphasis on rebates and low-financing packages," says professor of 3PL Logistics. "That can cost manufacturers up to $3,000 a unit, and they've got to get those costs back from someplace. That's why they go back into the supply chain -- to gain more efficiency there."
Automotive manufacturers establish strong partnerships with their 3rd Party Logistics providers (3PL) to help them achieve the efficient metrics they need. By inventing new ways to move materials, manufacturers were able to deal with the cost equation that came about in the 1980s and 1990s due to increased levels of complexity in automotive production processes.
"These complexities required mother plant to move from whittling away costs a little at a time to inventing new processes to handle density reductions, increases in shipping requirement times, and increased demand for on-time deliveries because of reductions in inventory levels. Funding inventory became far too big a drain on companies' balance sheets."
The supply chain is an integral part of the entire manufacturing process. A large part of that process is running millions of miles to hundreds of suppliers, so a lot of dollars are expended in overall vehicle production. That means all companies have to find ways to eliminate waste in the supply chain.
Automotive manufacturers deal with what is probably the most complex menu of items of any industry.For example, we see a transmission not as a whole part, but as hundreds of boxes of parts of all different shapes and sizes, each with its own part number and its own location in warehouses we have to manage,As a consequence, Logistics Companies have to be more innovative in maintaining an affordable business structure. In any industry, customers enjoy free delivery of their orders.The biggest change in the industry is how manufacturers and their 3rd Party Logistics services (3PLs) tackle challenges holistically by optimizing pickups between a supplier and several manufacturing plants, To be more efficient, an auto manufacturer might have more velocity of inbound parts and smaller shipments picked up and delivered more frequently to keep inventory low.
Pilot initiatives have already achieved a few million dollars in savings, just through changing the frequency of inbound parts, Mixer notes.

Inbound Logistics looks under the hood of three operations to see how two automotive manufacturers and a customer service division use 3PLs to keep them nimble and efficient. The accompanying sidebar outlines a trend in the industry -- manufacturers utilizing the particular strengths of more than one 3PL Logistics provider

3rd Party Logistics Provider

2011-01-14T05:37:00.000-08:00

3rd Party Logistics Provider is the provision of services by specialists in logistics management. They are Third party organizations that have expertise in supporting the work of non-core functions of employer companies or we called the 3PL Provider is service provider of logistics activity. Because the distribution and transportation may not be the business or core competencies of employer companies that high cost may be occur if they do by themselves so they Often outsource experts to responsibility for Logistics activities. Reasons are as follows ;

1. These activities are not a core competence in the competitiveness of the organization. And is causing significant cost in business processes.
2. The organization should provide experts with the ability to perform tasks and responsibilities in respect of connection to their customers.
3. Logistics Management and distribution must be able to operate with flexibility. This necessary to provide 3rd Party Logistics Companies with the expertise for responsibility, for the examples of flexibility such as : Flexible in resource using of operation, providing expert guidance decay, to share responsibility for some activities and enables organizations to reduce cost, work load, employ people. The experts working instead gives employer companies the flexibility to adjust the amount of resources used to support the work better than thay can manage.
4. This builds on the company's expertise to respond and support the work of the organization.
5. Reduce investment and overall costs. Because Logistics management can be considered as part of the required investment in resources and many operations. To create a distribution network ever since providing, transportation, supply warehouse stores, recruitment work and operational support systems and so on.

If summary process from suppliers to customers is as follows ;
Suppliers -> Manufacturing -> Warehouse Management -> Distribution (using 3rd Party Logistics Provider) -> customer.
So merit from using of 3PL Provider in operation is :
- Flexibility in operation
- The organization has focused on more important activities
- Builds on the expertise of Third Party Logistics Provider
- Reduce costs and investments as a whole
3PL Logistics users rate their relationships with their suppliers highly, citing 3rd Party Logistics use as a route to price reductions, asset reductions, and shorter order cycles likewise as a supply of innovation. For many, client service and busness method efficiencies are often enhanced through relationships with 3PL Logistics Provider. however these edges sometimes solely happen because the results of centered initiatives to create robust relationships and thru the employment of detaied contracts that embrace clear expectations and metrics. Due diligence is additionally needed to pick suppliers who have demonstrated the flexibility to fulfill service-level commitments, invest in continuous enhancements and achievements in offerings, and scale back prices — the foremost common issues users have with their 3rd Party Logistics Provider.

3PL Logistics Provider/User Relationships

2011-01-13T02:41:00.000-08:00

The objective of the many 3PL Logistics Providers is to maneuver their customers from a traditional customer-supplier relationship to a real partnership. however each Third Party Logistics Providers and users ought to be a lot of aggressive in creating this happen. whereas the importance of repeatable and leveraged solutions is clear, it's conjointly necessary for Third Party Logistics Providers to be somewhat futuristic and to do to assist customers determine and solve offer chain issues. Users conjointly ought to be a lot of inclusive; that's, they have to share info concerning their strategic direction with their 3PL Logistics Providers. each parties ought to check out longer-term problems and challenges, rather than inefficiently specializing in short-term considerations. Continued stress on customer-needs alignment and answer innovation are required in most relationships.
Future Growth of the 4PL supplier Concept. maybe somewhat puzzling is that the 4PL supplier concept doesn't appear to be enjoying vital “marquee” presence as a possible future state of affairs for logistics outsourcing. this can be substantiated by the 3PL Logistics survey: Users still specialize in the a lot of tactical services rather than the a lot of strategic and IT-focused services. The 3PL Providers’ response in such cases, after they aren't ready to sell up the worth chain, is to shift their stress to selling a lot of of the present services to constant (or other) customers. The question for the longer term is whether or not 3PL Logistics users are sufficiently targeted on the broader interorganizational and regional problems to create correct use of 4PL supplier capabilities.

3PL Logistics Creation of Supply Chain Value

2011-01-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

As 3PL Logistics Providers and users improve the standard of their relationships, it'll become increasingly necessary to think about 3rd Party Logistics Providers in 3 connected contexts: as a key resource on to 3PL Logistics user organizations, as a key link between offer chain organizations, and as a key to provide chain integration. These highlight the continuing have to be compelled to perceive, measure, and quantify the worth of Third Party Logistics Providers to client organizations, offer chain organizations, and also the overall offer chains.
Any discussion of “value” should acknowledge the excellence between short- and long-term call creating. whereas nobody would argue against manufacturing acceptable monetary ends up in the short-term, it's frustrating to ascertain organizations creating short-term selections that compromise the power to create longerterm progress.

Multiplying the Benefits of 3PL Logistics

2011-01-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

3PL Logistics Companies can see a chance to multiply their advantages by seeking solutions that span integrated logistics, inexperienced offer chain, and provide chain security. as an example, participating a 3PL Logistics for integration of systems and services may create security problems easier to handle. Similarly, sensible realtime consolidation of shipments and route optimization, achieved through implementation of transportation coming up with and execution systems, may on the one hand cut back a company’s carbon footprint and on the opposite hand offer a tool to reroute and reschedule quickly once there's a offer chain disruption.

The most advanced 3PLs those able to give an integrated service giving that spans ancient services like transportation and warehousing, additionally as newer services encompassing inexperienced offer chain and security, can have a real competitive advantage.
RFID (Radio Frequency Indentification) and IT:
Studies of recent years have confirmed the requirement for 3rd Party Logistics Providers to develop appropriate IT capabilities. In fact, users are already pressuring their 3PL Providers for increasingly refined IT-based services. one amongst the technologies expected to become additional prevalent is RFID, and there'll be continued opportunities for Third Party Logistics Providers and users to see how best to use RFID to deal with logistics and provide chain problems. However, given provide chain dynamics and competitive pressures, there's not abundant time to work this all out. Moreover, provided that the economics and also the applicability of RFID are each within the “introductory” stage of the RFID development lifecycle, a shared investment approach between 3PL Logistics Providers and their customers is required.

3rd Party Logistics Companies

2011-01-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Almost of 3rd Party Logistics Companies (3PL Companies) don't own their transportation vehicle but they service in a term of Logistics coordinator and be a business alliance for provide the appropriate Logistics companies to customers. For the example of 3PL Logistics are ;

1. Transportation brokers : 3PL Companies which service both of shipper and carrier role by planning and coordinate to transport products or finish goods.

2. Freight forwarders : 3PL Logistics which to be a Logistics center to gather the small Logistics companies (from many suppliers and many place), the purpose to enhace Logistics system, Logistics improvement and reduce Logistics cost.

3. Shippers’ association : 3rd Party Logistics Companies which help the affiliate for design and improve low transportation efficiency to transport with full capacity transportation and high efficiency.

4. Third parties : 3PL Companies which service, coordinate and manage about Logistics for customers, some big companies outsource Logistics activity from Third parties to Logistics management.

Result of using 3rd Party Logistics Companies (customer feeling) :
- Almost client feel their use of 3PLs has had a positive impact on the services they supply to their own customers.
- A similar fraction indicate their use of 3PLs Companies has completely impacted business method efficiencies.
- Slightly but 1/2 Third Party Logistics users say their 3rd Party Logistics Companies offer them with visibility into key processes like warehouse management, transportation management and provide chain management.
- Regarding forty percent are able to live come back on investment (ROI) from employing a 3PL Logistics. whereas this finding could seem stunning considering the high marks Third Party Logistics users generally offer their 3PL Logistics relationships, as mentioned previously, it should be that some users are creating additional qualitative, instead of quantitative, judgments.

Providing 3PLs Logistics Support

2011-01-10T06:03:00.000-08:00

A new trend is for 3PLs or XPLs to act as a lot of of a logistics support supplier, particularly because it relates to the tier setting, where makers are usually smaller and do not have their own logistics departments. These makers could be a lot of keen about the solutions and proposals companies like 3rd Party Logistics companies will offer. Automotive makers are focusing a lot of on designing before vehicle production and launches, there is a ton a lot of front-end designing in event management and makers are taking note to execution in terms of measuring, monitoring, and continuously improving. cluster within the sourcing method, providing a logistics impact analysis of varied shipping points and container density issues. based mostly on producing needs, 3PLs develops a logistics and transportation set up for each half, that specialize in packaging, density, frequency, and facility and network constraints.
New Opportunities :

the trend to consolidate through acquisition means that new opportunities for 3PLs that may pull along the freelance and disparate processes, 3rd Party Logistics companies offers network style solutions to assist these firms optimize where centers ought to be, where inventory points ought to be, and where producing centers could be located. Another rising trend within the business is for automotive makers to use a collaborative approach in integrating their method into the provision network answer employing a form of XPLs or 3PLs, every with its own explicit strength. As automotive makers still squeeze a lot of potency from their producing, provide chain, and logistics systems, they appear to establish mounted prices, like inventory, insurance, or transportation, they fight to convert these mounted prices to the variable aspect using 3rd Party Logistics suppliers.
For survival functions, makers are asking their 3PLs to back their trucks into their operation and take over plenty of the activities makers used to try to to themselves, like crossdocking, inventory management and warehousing, several business analysts agree that it's simply a matter of some years before these XPL, 3PL, and 4PL models consolidate the logistics needs of the automotive business "You can see routing, mapping, and elements distribution all returning along and customer-specific shipping lines can begin to blend". Auto makers are getting down to study this chance closely,They are staring at alternative makers to get where they will share services. they're matching up common suppliers and that they are investigating how they will use their crossdock space to bulk-ship to share the transportation prices to the crossdock, and build truckloads containing elements for every explicit company, this can be some way for all of them to enhance their operations and place efficiencies into the provision base.