BITE SIZED SUPPLY CHAIN/LOGISTICS INFORMATION Info SNACKS
QUITE A HAUL 70%+ of U.S. freight by weight is transported by truck, amounting to... 11 BILLION TONS of goods annually 3.7 MILLION Number of long-haul truck drivers in the United States $800 BILLION Trucking industry’s annual revenue
ROBO-SOLVER CRACKS THE CUBE Mitsubishi Electric’s TOKUI Fast Accurate Synchronized motion Testing Robot (nicknamed TOKUFASTbot) set a new Rubik’s Cube record with a solving time of 0.305 seconds , torching the previous fastest Rubik’s Cube robot solve time by 0.38 seconds. In 2023, human speedcuber Max Park set a Guinness World Record for solving the cube with a blazing fast time of 3.13 seconds, which shaved 0.34 seconds off the previous record. TOKUFASTbot can perform a 90-degree rotation in just 0.009 seconds using a mechanism that combines the company’s signal-responsive servomotors and a color- recognition algorithm that researchers designed using in-house AI technology.
BASEBALL TO UMPS: ‘YOU’RE OUT!’ Baseball may begin to use robot umpires as soon as the 2025 season, but just for calling balls and strikes. The league has made “material progress” in testing an automated ball-strike system, referred to as ABS, says Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. Minor league teams have been experimenting with ABS for about five years, and at this point the technology “is good to a hundredth of an inch,” Manfred says. ABS assesses balls and strikes based on “where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate,” according to the AP. There continues to be “technical issues” around how the strike zone is defined, Manfred notes. STOP, THIEF! Cargo theft is growing across North America, finds Overhaul’s latest report, which reveals a 49% increase in incidents compared to the same period last year. Key findings: • Average loss per incident soared by 83% to $115,230 . • Electronics remain the most targeted, comprising 23% of all thefts . • California is the hardest-hit state , accounting for 45% of all reported cargo thefts. • Warehouse and DC thefts have increased sharply , now representing 19% of all incidents, compared to 4% in the first half of 2023.
OLYMPIC SIZED SALE More than 45,000 pieces of furniture, fixtures, and equipment used to furnish the Olympic Village, athlete apartments, and sporting venues in Paris are hitting the online auction block and being sold in bulk quantities to the highest bidders. In support of its sustainable event management initiatives, Olympic sponsor RGS Events teamed up with B-Stock to find a second life for the items. Many items have already been purchased, through four different business buyers.
• One buyer purchased 10 full truckloads of inventory. • 26,000 chairs were available (including barber chairs). • 3,000 sofas in varying colors and sizes were sold. • 10,000 barrier belts took the top spot for items sold.
September 2024 • Inbound Logistics 1
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