text:
Sorrell ready to pay up for Tempus
ADVERTISING mogul Sir Martin Sorrell is expected to bow to the wishes of the Takeover Panel this week and agree to pay up for media company Tempus.
Sorrell's advertising group WPP originally bid 555p a share for Tempus, but has spent the past three weeks trying to convince the panel that Tempus's business had suffered a 'material adverse change' since 11 September.
A meeting of the full panel dismissed the claim last week. It will issue a statement of its reasons in the next few days, after which WPP will have 24 hours to launch a further appeal. Most analysts believe Sorrell will grudgingly accept the ruling.
Most watched Money videos
- Ferrari launches new green supercar: 296 GTB plug-in hybrid
- Hennessey unveils Mammoth 1000 that can hit 60mph in 3.2 seconds
- Discover the water-resistant interior of the new Ineos Grenadier 4X4
- Take a look at £3.3 million Bugatti Chiron Super Sport hypercar
- Volkswagen reveals stylish hybrid, seven-seater, family bus
- E-Type UK Unleashed transforms classic cars using modern features
- Stunning Lotus Emira unveiled as company's last petrol car
- 1937 Bugatti Type 57: One of the most valuable pre-war cars
- Vauxhall to make electric Opel Manta GSe ElektroMOD concept car
- Futuristic zero-emissions electric Ioniq 5 from Hyundai
- Are investors too worried or too complacent about inflation?
- Why UK smaller companies can profit in the recovery


text:
The Philippines faces significant labour protection challenges amid a growing gig economy. It needs to outgrow consumer-focused regulations and address business risks being pushed down to at-risk workers.
In December 2022, the World Bank’s economic update for the Philippines sounded the alarm at the “growing informality in the labour market”: there was an uptick in casual, low-paid, and precarious work in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This, however, reflects the broader rise of the gig economy wherein digital platforms intermediate between consumers and independent contractors on a per-task basis, effectively circumventing employer-employee arrangements and the labour safeguards that are supposed to come with it.
In the Philippines, multinational ride-hailing and delivery platforms such as Grab, Foodpanda, Lalamove, and Borzo have penetrated the market and native start-ups such as Angkas, Joyride, TokTok, MyCab, Hirna, or Mangan.ph have also proliferated across the archipelago. The platforms’ independent contractor model takes the elements of informality but rebrands the worker as free, flexible, independent, and entrepreneurial.
Research by Fairwork Philippines shows that there are currently close to half a million Filipino platform workers in ride-hailing, food, and courier services. Rampant displacements in other sectors of the economy during the pandemic resulted in platform labour becoming a primary source of livelihood. When former president Rodrigo Duterte implemented one of the longest lockdowns in 2020, such platforms addressed the need for people to turn away from contact-intensive activities such as physical shopping and using public transport.
Technology entrepreneurs seized the opportunities and helped improve the government’s employment statistics. At the same time, contracting arrangements exacerbated workers’ vulnerability and dependency in a country where gaps in public delivery cause important services such as healthcare and social relief to be provided by employers. In 2020, the ride-hailing and taxi sector in the country collected US$625 million in revenue, while the volume of goods sold by food delivery businesses amounted to US$ 1.2 billion.
From our Fairwork Philippines research data, four-wheel ride-hailing drivers pay a “boundary fee” averaging P900 (US$15.72) per day. This is a rental fee for the vehicle, which remains unaffordable to median wage earners. With the surging popularity of platform labour, the marketing of cars and motorcycles directed at potential ride-hailing workers has intensified. Some promotions include “no cashout” or “zero down-payments,” only to result in costly monthly installments.
Because they are considered as independent contractors, platform workers shoulder, on behalf of the platform, the basic daily costs needed to perform work, including fuel, mobile phone credit for data and calls, and vehicle repair and maintenance – on top of vehicle loan servicing or rental costs. Some workers also reported buying their own accident insurance. The business risk is therefore being pushed down to already-marginalized workers.
The inherent dangers of “labour platformization”, compounded by government under-regulation, are apparent in the Philippines. Workers can become chained to financial commitments, and squeezed by seemingly predatory practices of downstream industries that are meant to support platform services but end up consigning workers to long hours of platform work.
Workers are also vulnerable to scams and can end up shouldering the costs and consequences. When riders encounter cash-upon-delivery “fake bookings”, for example, they advance the costs but platforms vary in terms of their reimbursement policies or responsiveness to appeals. Workers lose the opportunity to earn during tedious appeals processes. This is a big issue in the Philippines since account registrations for consumers have weak identity verification mechanisms yet platforms have differing levels of effort in preventing and mitigating the effects of such scams on workers.
Workers do end up with a net loss at times. This compels workers to stretch their hours and forego off days, and by working without rest might even be posing a hazard to consumers.
Yet government and market forces continually promote gig work as a viable entrepreneurial and employment opportunity amid the absence of labour regulations. Platform workers are portrayed as free and entrepreneurial, and more advanced and modernized than their counterparts – the unregulated motorcycle taxis or “habal habal” – because they work with technology apps. Companies vigorously promoted platform users as “superheroes” of the pandemic – an attempt to glorify on-demand work and Filipinos’ understanding of it as a viable and even altruistic work opportunity.
The inherent dangers of “labour platformization”, compounded by government under-regulation, are apparent in the Philippines. Workers can become chained to financial commitments, and squeezed by seemingly predatory practices of downstream industries.
In the absence of regulation, platforms engage in “dynamic pricing” with variable and fluctuant per kilometer rates, and it is the platforms’ prerogative whether to insure workers and how much of a social safety net to provide. There is also no standard for ensuring adequate and effective mechanisms for workers to raise concerns and seek redress. Workers may also suffer from the threat of deactivation when they make complaints or organize as collectives.
Our research has shown that workers crowdsource aid from other workers or actively share coping strategies in social media groups. While this represents worker solidarity, it speaks to the real and present gaps in regulatory frameworks. This starkly contrasts, for example, with consumer-focused policies that regulate the rates and price surges imposed by platforms.
Legislative proposals for improving working conditions of platform and freelance workers are pending in the Philippine Congress. These laws will take time to be passed, because the platform economy has expanded its influence and generated employment while operating in a still ambiguous and fluid manner, which allows for labour protections to be labelled as threats to growth and innovation.
Recently, there has been a surge of labour unrest among workers in the ride-hailing and delivery sectors of the platform economy, not only in the Philippines but in other Southeast Asian countries as well. Multiple stakeholders such as the media and civil society organizations can play important roles in making these protests more visible and supporting workers in exerting greater pressure on platforms to commit to fairer working conditions. Business models may have a new name, but the risks and warranted protections remain the same.
Cheryll Ruth R. Soriano is Professor in the Department of Communication of De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. She is Principal Investigator for Fairwork Philippines.

domain: news


text:
Gustav Gerig, a Swiss food manufacturing company that has been in operation since 1923, has partnered with Pacifial c.v to make its canned Rose tuna—the MSC-certified “Raimond Freres” brand, traceable and identifiable leveraging the Ethereum blockchain, per its press release. The logo of Pacifial will distinguish the products on their can lids.
Blockchain for Manufacturing
By venturing into the world of blockchain technology, Gustav Gerig becomes the latest in a long list of companies to adopt the increasingly ubiquitous technology in their manufacturing processes. The company is also making history as the first food importer in Europe to ensure its range of fish products are completely traceable from the initial fishing process till its processed in cans, through the blockchain. This way, customers are well informed ascertain the origin of the company’s tuna range with the Ethereum blockchain.
The company believes that by providing a completely optimal level of transparency in their operations, they will give their customers the ability to access valuable data regarding how the Pacifial MSC tuna moves through the supply chain. Information to be made available to customers will include the captain of the ship or vessel, the timing of a particular catch, the catching technique, the area where the catch was made, as well as the location and timing of processing.
With the integration of the blockchain technology into its production process, Gustav Gerig is hoping to bolster its position as a leader in innovation among food manufacturers in Switzerland. However, most importantly, the focus is to be able to provide customers with more sustainable goods which they can trust and rely on.
The technology is being provided by Atato, a Thailand-based provider of blockchain-related, services that help to develop decentralized applications for businesses and enterprise customers. Ever since it was founded last year in Bangkok, Atato, in partnership with ConsenSys, has been leading various innovations using the blockchain technology, across a wide range of applications.
Quality control giant JMB International Thailand, with extensive years of experience in the tuna industry, will be handling the final product and packaging of the “Raimond Freres” brand for this project. JMB International is based in Thailand, and the company has been operating for over 30 years in the tuna industry, ensuring the creation of quality products, from the manufacturing to the delivery stage.
What it Entails
Every MSC tuna product that is covered under this partnership will be identifiable through the Pacifial logo on the can lids. Customers who will like to access specific data about the tuna will have to scan the QR code on the can’s label, and they will be given access to the details on the blockchain.
Once on the website, the customer will need to enter the unique Pacifial tracking code that came with the can. This code is unique to every can, and it can be found on the lid as well, close to the Pacifial logo in question. The use of blockchain technology for tracing agricultural products is one of its most widely adopted applications for the nascent technology.
Earlier this week, the government of South Korea announced that it plans to make use of the blockchain to trace beef and provide customers with reliable information concerning the food supply chain. The initiative will be launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and ICT, and both ministries have set December for the testing phase. The system is set to be officially launched in January 2019. According to a report by Yohnap News Agency, distributed ledger technology will be used to track the supply chain of beef so customers have the relevant information about the food they consume.


text:
Network acceleration vendor Riverbed is well-known in the market for their Steelhead appliances. The company is now aiming to become known for its Whitewater storage gateways as well.
The Whitewater appliances were first announced in November of 2010 and are now being expanded with new models and an updated operating system. The updated Whitewater portfolio is taking specific aim at the SMB market’s need for cloud storage acceleration.
“We decided to come out with the Whitewater 510 and 710 which are based on the feedback we’ve been getting from the SMB customers that we’ve been working with,” Eric Thacker, Director of Product Marketing, Cloud Storage at Riverbed told InternetNews.com. “We’ve also boosted performance of our virtual version.”


text:
Hip Hop News
Snoop Dogg Asks Fans If Gucci Is Still Cancelled After Seeing People Wear Their Clothes After They Created Blackface Sweater – “Is The Ban Off Or Not? I Got A Bunch Of S*it That I Ain’t Gave Away Yet.” [VIDEO]
Back in February, Gucci posted an offensive and racist sweater on their online site for sale which depicts blackface. This has been to mock black people for centuries now and the fact that the high-end brand would even put clothing that looks just like it was disgusting. This received boycotts from numerous celebrities such as T.I., 50 Cent, Spike Lee, and Soulja Boy.
Of course, there are still some celebrities like Floyd Mayweather, Adrien Broner, and Kodak Black who don’t care what people think and are still rocking Gucci. Snoop Dogg now wants to know the state of the boycott. He posted a video to Instagram asking if the ban is still on or not.
Snoop asked the question because he still sees a good amount of people still wearing Gucci’s clothes. He added that he has a lot of their clothes that he hasn’t worn yet so it needed to be addressed. He concluded by telling everyone to let him know if the ban is ever lifted.


text:
In conjunction with its Supply Chain Executive Conference held this week, industry analyst firm Gartnerannounced its annual Top 25 Supply Chains rankings for 2014. This author attended this year’s conference and the Top 25 Supply Chains announcement dinner held at the conference. Supply Chain Matters will feature our summary impressions regarding the messages delivered at the Gartner 2014 conference in a separate commentary.
As has been our tradition, Supply Chain Matters provides our readers with our perceptions of the named Gartner Top 25 Supply Chains in the context of both this year and with previous Gartner’s Top 25 Supply Chains rankings. We now include a five year span of history in our perspectives commentary. To reiterate our previous declarations, our commentary should not be construed in the context of positioning our own or any other firm’s proprietary ranking process, but as a voice that has observed and provided commentary and insights concerning global supply chain industry activities and developments these past six years. It is a means for ongoing social-media based interaction regarding what it takes to be recognized as a top-performing supply chain given today’s complex and constantly changing business challenges.
Readers can click on Gartner’s press release announcing the 2014 Supply Chain Top 25 which provides the detailed rankings and comparative scores that led to the rankings. Subscribers to Gartner’s supply chain management and certain other research have access to detailed research reports concerning the Top 25 Supply Chains.
As a reference to our Supply Chain Matters readers, below is the announced 2014 ranking compared to four prior years of ranking:
First and foremost, Supply Chain Matters extends congratulations to each of the named supply chain organizations for achieving such recognition. There is obviously hard work that goes into achieving such recognition and citation.
Overall, we were a bit taken back by the similarity of this year’s rankings to that of 2013. In assembling the above comparison, we noted just subtle changes. With the exception of two new well deserved entrants, Kimberly Clark and Seagate Technology, the named Top 25 Supply Chains remain essentially the same. Perhaps that is a sign that world class supply chain capabilities overcome multiple years of challenges. That is, of course how Gartner is communicating the 2014 ranking.
The supply chain of Apple now occupies the number one ranking for seven running consecutive years. However, this year, the peer opinion voting was recorded as much closer, with number three ranked Amazon.com’s peer votes noted as 16 points below that of Apple. That was not the case in the 2013 ranking. Candidly, we expected Amazon to be the best candidate for dethroning Apple for the number one ranking in 2014. Apple’s rival Samsung Electronics did not achieve a top-five recognition but the firm’s composite score of 5.13 fell just below number five ranked Procter and Gamble, a stalwart in the Top 25 rankings for many years. P&G’s composite score was recoded as 5.20 and garnered the second highest ranking from Gartner’s analysts.
Reflecting on consistently number one ranked Apple, the bulk of that company’s supply chain capabilities exist from the scale and constant responsiveness of predominantly outsourced manufacturing and logistics partners. The cited Gartner 2014 Top 25 Supply chains of 3M (#19), Intel (#8) and Seagate Technology (#20) are major suppliers to Apple. One wonders why other major Apple suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision), Flextronics International and Pegatron, along with a collection of other global scale Apple suppliers, have not been recognized. Perhaps that is attributed to Apple’s zeal for supplier responsiveness at the cost of overall financial and margin performance among its major suppliers, as well as major suppliers having a considerable dependency on Apple’s new product release (NPI) cycles. We brought that out in a commentary reflecting on the financial results of Hon Hai Precision, the parent of Foxconn.
The supply chain of Unilever has made steady progress over the past three year window in achieving a top five ranking and deserves special recognition. As in 2013, we continue to be perplexed how a restaurant services firm such as McDonald’s can be consistently ranked in the top five given a far different supply chain services model that is less asset intensive than others reside in manufacturing-centric supply chains.
We continue to note the remarkable progress and recognition of Lenovo Group, which despite having an emphasis weighted toward vertical integration of its supply chain capabilities, has climbed to Top 25 Supply Chains recognition for the past two years. Supply Chain Matters has previously made mention of Lenovo’s efforts to leverage its global supply chain scale via two major product acquisitions.
Dropping out of the Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain ranking for 2014 was the supply chains of Dell and Ford Motor Company. At the announcement dinner, Gartner provided honorable mention significance to the supply chains of Dollar General, DuPont, Ford Motor Company and Walgreens, and indication of perhaps future Top 25 rank possibilities.
As noted in our Supply Chain Matters commentary concerning Gartner’s 2013 ranking, the unfortunate aspect of Gartner’s Top 25Supply Chain ranking remains the relatively high threshold of corporate revenues which precludes up and coming manufacturers and retailers to be recognized. There remains too much of a dependency on Return on Assets which favors firms who elect to outsource the bulk of their supply chain activities. Supply Chain Matters does not subscribe to the opinion that financial metrics should be the majority driver for recognizing supply chain performance. It precludes noteworthy turnarounds in performance, overall supply chain process innovation and abilities to rise to a challenge in rather difficult industry settings. However, we were pleased that Seagate Technologies achieved recognition primarily due to its supply chain response to market opportunity after the devastating flooding in Thailand in 2011, which severely impacted the high tech disk-drive sector.
Our takeaway from Gartner’s 2014 Top 25 Supply Chain ranking is that more supply chains need to be recognized. While each of the cited 2014 Top 25 Supply Chains have earned such recognition, far more deserve recognition. On this blog, we will continue to strive to provide such recognition.
© 2014, The Ferrari Consulting and Research Group LLC and the Supply Chain Matters Blog. All rights reserved.


text:
Game Pass for PC Beta Coming
Ahead of Microsoft’s E3 Briefing today, the company revealed that their Game Pass Service for PC will launch at a price of $4.99 per month.
The service will launch in a beta format, with more than 100 games being promised at launch from more than 75 developers. The service will be open to PC users of Windows 10, with the game downloadable on player computers and playable. It’s currently not known whether or not the service will integrate with xCloud, the company’s streaming service.
A partial list of game highlights being offered includes Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Halo Wars, Gears 5, Crackdown 3, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and Shenmue I & II.
Microsoft is poised to have a huge E3 showing, as rival Sony has decided to skip the conference this year. The Redmond based company is reportedly set to unveil new game hardware as well as the above-mentioned xCloud service.
Additionally, it’s likely that additional Game Pass titles will be announced at the show, as all Microsoft first party titles will be offered on the service at their launch. This was the case on the Xbox consoles, as hits like Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3, and Forza Horizon have all appeared on release day.


text:
Turval – DNA mapping of the patented yeast will help the Udine company develop products for people who cannot digest lactose
The new weapon against false alimentary claims is represented by genetic identification. Having passed even the most recent and stringent standards for the certification of the processes in manufacturing, DNA imprinting will soon settle the disagreements on the origin of food. It is hard to say what the effects of this change will be on national and international regulations, meanwhile the awareness of the opportunities on what DNA reading of a specific product can determine is already widespread.
Turval Laboratories Italia knows this well—the company that operates in the biotechnology sector and the Scientific and Technological Park of Udine. Based on more than 10 years of scientific studies and over 200 clinical trials, Turval’s featured product is the probiotic lactic yeast Turval B0399 which is utilized as an innovative active ingredient for dietary supplements and was sequenced thanks to the collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Verona, the Institute of Applied Genomics (Iga), and even with its headquarters at the Park in Udine. It is one of the first sequencings of this yeast species (kluyveromyces marxianus) in the world and the first in Italy.
The result is particularly important from both a scientific and commercial point of view. Knowing all the characteristics of the probiotic Turval B0399 and being able to incontestably trace its presence in food will in fact allow the Friuli company to export it in markets around the world and to strengthen its trademark, thus protecting its consistent investment in research and development. Turval B0399 is a probiotic composed of lactic yeast and not of the common bifidobacteria or lactic ferments, which guarantees the regulation of the intestinal bacterial flora even during antibiotic therapy, giving rise to a great innovation in the probiotic sector. This is also a rare example of a probiotic that is studied and manufactured in Italy, since in most cases active ingredients are manufactured overseas by multinational companies, which are capable of covering the excessive costs dedicated to research and experimentation and to safety verifications. In order to fully take advantage of their product on a commercial level, Turval needs to also be able to respect the strict safety standards, which will be assisted by the information obtained thanks to DNA mapping.
The company now will be able to develop an updated method for the yeast’s quality control, develop a more efficient production process, but most importantly specifically study the genetic characteristics of these new probiotic yeasts for the first time.
“The results of the project are extremely positive,” comments Alessandro Turello, CEO of Turval Laboratories, “We need to still understand all the possibilities held within the information in the DNA of our yeast, but the first pieces of evidence certainly tell us two very important things. The first is that thanks to the abundancy of a specific enzyme, we will now be able to develop food and nutritional supplements geared towards lactose intolerant people, which will put us in a specific place on the market. The second is that it is now possible to differentiate and prevent the false claims that might regard our active ingredient, which will facilitate export to other countries giving us a huge commercial advantage.”


text:
Durable Goods Orders Growth to Slow in April
Durable goods orders likely to fall on weaker auto sales and aircraft orders
The monthly durable goods orders report is due out during the NY trading session today. According to the economists polled, growth in durable goods orders excluding defense purchases is set to slow in April.
The data comes at a crucial time when the US has ramped up its trade war rhetoric against China. Increased tariffs from 10% to 25% and a retaliatory response from China are likely to dampen demand in the near term.
The data for April will potentially shed a light on the second quarter GDP report. Some of the sub-measures of the durable goods orders are signaling that growth has likely reached its peak.
Durable Goods Orders to Retreat from March Highs
Estimates show that durable goods orders excluding defense spending could rise 0.2% on the month. This follows the same pace of increase in March.
Durable goods orders excluding defense for March initially came in at 0.4%. But, later, they were revised to show a 0.2% increase. Expectations are for headline durable goods orders to post a decline of 1.7% for April.
The decline in the durable goods orders comes after they rose to an eight-month high just the month before. The broader measure of durable goods orders saw some surprise uptick with corporate investment rising despite trade tensions.
Non-military capital goods which are a proxy for business investment grew at a pace of 1.3% in March. This reversed the declines from the prior month.
A rise in demand for finished goods saw manufacturers increasing their activity during the month. But larger inventories will continue to play their role in the months ahead.
Manufacturing activity has remained subdued. Recent data from the Institute of Supply Management saw business activity in the manufacturing sector easing. This could potentially affect the figures for April.
In April, durable goods capacity utilization was 75.3%, which was the first month that capacity utilization was below 76% since July 2018. Compared to one year ago, capacity utilization decreased by 0.9%, marking the first month of contraction since December 2016. Capacity utilization over the past five months has also been trending lower.
Aircraft and Vehicle Orders Expected Lower
Posing a drag on the durable goods orders, aircraft orders from Boeing and weaker vehicle sales hint towards the smaller pace of growth. The auto vehicle sales for April disappointed expectations. Economists expected to see a rebound in auto sales following the rebound in March.
The rebound in March vehicle sales reversed the declines from the previous two months. And economists expected it to continue into April. New vehicle sales dipped 2.3% on the month in April to 1.33 million. The declines in vehicles came despite an extra day during the month, compared to the same period in the month before.
New orders for Aircrafts fell sharply in April. Boeing reported that there were literally no new orders for aircrafts in April. This comes following the scandal surrounding the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
Because Boeing is a major contributing factor to overall retail sales including aircraft orders, this could potentially take the air out of the durable goods orders report.
A weaker report could possibly lower the expectations of the second quarter GDP numbers. Various trackers currently estimate the US GDP shows an average growth between 1.7% – 2.0%. The median consensus currently puts the second quarter growth rate at 1.9%.
This could potentially be revised lower if the durable goods orders post an unexpected decline for April.
Noting the above, today’s durable goods orders report is likely to show a weaker pace of new orders coming through in April.


text:
Labor Standards Clash With Global Reality
Published: April 24, 2001
(Page 3 of 3)
Before dawn each day, Flor de María Hernández leaves her three children in the tent where they have lived since an earthquake leveled her home earlier this year and begins her two-hour commute to the Charter clothing factory.
She and the others, like Ms. Martínez, must be at work before 7 a.m. Managers close the gate precisely on the hour and dock the pay of anyone who is late.
Inside, rows of sewing machines face blackboards on which supervisors have written the daily quotas for shirts and trousers, roughly 2,000 a day for each line of 36 machines. The pace is relentless, but by local standards it is a pleasant place to work. There are lockers, tiled bathrooms, a medical clinic and an outdoor cafeteria. Large fans and high ceilings keep temperatures down.
But Ms. Martínez remembers just what it took to get this far. She was among the workers who protested the abusive conditions in 1995. ''Workers would bring in permission slips from their doctors to go to the hospital,'' she recalled, ''and supervisors would rip it up in their faces.''
Of the 70,000 garment workers in El Salvador, 80 percent are women. Few earn enough to take care of their families. Ms. Hernández, for example, earns about $30 a week inspecting clothes. It is not enough to feed her children; to make ends meet, she relies on help from her ex-husband.
She keeps her job because the most common alternative is to work as a live-in maid or a street vendor. Jobs cutting sugar cane in the searing sun, once plentiful, are difficult to find now, and wages have fallen in recent years along with commodity prices.
El Salvador, never a wealthy country, is struggling every bit as hard as its people. Roughly 75,000 people were killed and thousands wounded in the civil war. The war also drove away foreign investment, shuttered relatively high-paying electronics factories and left roads, power lines and other basic services in tatters.
Earlier this year, two powerful earthquakes compounded the difficulties by wrecking hundreds of thousands of buildings. Economists estimate that 180,000 Salvadorans are jobless. Almost half of the population lives in poverty.
The government has gone out of its way to attract investment and jobs. Government leaders pin the country's future on the optimistic hope of doubling the number of factories making clothes for the United States, to more than 400, in three years. ''Maquilas have been a source of significant economic growth in recent years,'' President Flores said using the Spanish term for the plants that enjoy tax and trade benefits. ''They are the most dynamic economic sector in the country.''
That growth, however, has not been matched by the budget of the Labor Ministry, which is among the worst-financed agencies. It employs only 37 labor inspectors to enforce regulations -- 1 for every 10 factories, not including coffee plantations, construction sites or other places of business in this country, which has 6.1 million people.
The limits of the government's willingness to be an advocate for labor was illustrated last summer when it suppressed the report critical of factory working conditions. The labor minister, Jorge Nieto, said that the report was technically flawed, and insists that the government intends to modernize his agency and improve inspector training. ''We want investment, but only with respect and fairness,'' he said. ''Only when workers' rights are respected can we generate more contracts with American companies.''
But to get those contracts, El Salvador must compete with neighbors like Honduras and Nicaragua, where wages are lower and the population even poorer and more eager for work. Government officials and factory managers concede that El Salvador's current minimum wage is not enough to live on -- by some estimates it covers less than half of the basic needs of a family of four -- but they are wary of increasing it.
''We cannot be satisfied with the wage, but we have to acknowledge the economic realities,'' Mr. Nieto said.
Since Gap pioneered the independent monitoring effort, few other American companies have followed. They cite costs, politics and questionable effectiveness. Gap executives echo those worries when they assess the experience at Charter.
''We are in a very competitive marketplace,'' said Mr. Schrage of Gap. ''Consumers make decisions on lots of factors, including price. There is no clear benefit in having invested in independent monitoring to a consumer and it is not clear if we were to make it more broad policy that consumers would get a benefit or care at all.''
As she shopped at the Gap flagship store at Herald Square in Manhattan, Claire Cosslett fingered an aqua cotton T-shirt made in El Salvador to check for quality. Ms. Cosslett, a legal recruiter, said she reads labels and sometimes worries that her garments are ''made by some child chained to a sewing machine.''
American companies dread comments like that. Yet for all their fears, they ultimately have to balance their concern over image, and any feelings they have about third-world workers, with customers' attitudes. Then there are the competitive pressures to keep costs low. Would the cost of raising working standards in El Salvador raise the price of a T-shirt enough to drive off customers?
Among several shoppers who were interviewed at the Manhattan store, Ms. Cosslett was the only one to say that reports of sweatshop conditions had stopped her from buying a particular brand. She said she would be willing to pay more for a garment made under better working conditions.
But then she paused and hedged. ''It would depend how much,'' she said.
About These Articles
Articles in this series are examining third-world production for first-world markets. Previous articles described dangerous working conditions at a garment factory in Bangladesh, and life in factories along the border between the United States and Mexico. Later articles will include reports on child labor and union organizing.
Photos: Garment workers sew T-shirts at Charter, a factory in El Salvador that manufactures clothing for Gap. (Cindy Karp for The New York Times)(pg. A1); AT HOME -- Abigail Martínez, a Charter worker, watches her mother cook in their two-room house, shared by seven family members.; UNDER GUARD -- Employees enter the industrial park that is home to Mandarin, site of a 1995 strike that led to a new approach of hiring outsiders to monitor conditions.; RUSH HOUR -- Workers run to catch buses home from jobs at the Charter factory in San Salvador. Some commute for two hours. (Photographs by Cindy Karp for The New York Times)(pg. A10) Graph: ''A Trade Shift'' The shift in El Salvador's exports. Graphs track Food Exports (includes coffee, shrimp and sugar) and Maquilla Sector (Factories producing exports) since 1994. (Source: Central Bank of El Salvador)(pg. A10) Map of El Salvador highlights San Salvador: El Salvador must compete with poor neighbors to attract investments. (pg. A10)


text:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is announcing plans to install solar panels at Massachusetts stores in the next two years, making it the largest user of solar power in the state.
Company officials, joined by Rick Sullivan, the state's secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, announced the initiative Tuesday at the Statehouse.
Wal-Mart will partner with Greenskies of Connecticut to install the panels at 27 stores in the state.
According to Wal-Mart officials, the company aims to be completely powered by renewable energy. They estimate the panels will generate between 10-to-15 percent of each store's energy needs.
The company has already begun acting on plans to install solar panels at stores in places like California.


text:
Among the American servers down, the developer responds
For the moment, the servers of Among us are down, leaving players unable to enjoy the popular multiplayer title. While this is disheartening for fans of the game, Among us is under scheduled maintenance and developer InnerSloth provided an update on downtime. Fixes are currently underway which should make the experience more enjoyable once Among us is operational again. The game’s official Twitter account has also been updated to reflect this, with “Repair Servers” added to the game’s handle. In the meantime, InnerSloth is encouraging fans to enjoy the start of the fall season!
“And yes, the servers are still down, sorry! Fixes are underway, so brace yourself and enjoy the teammates freaking out over the orange leaves,” InnerSloth wrote on Twitter.
This Tweet followed a new piece of art, where teammates in the game could be seen “enjoying” the changing colors of the season. Of course, fall also means Halloween is almost here, and officially Among us the costumes were unveiled earlier this month. The costumes quickly sold out online, but InnerSloth is working to make more available.
Hopefully fans won’t wait any longer for the game’s servers to be back online! Among us has become a huge success over the past year, developing a large and passionate fan base. Despite this success, InnerSloth is still a very small developer, and in-game changes are taking a lot longer than they could for other big titles online. Fans of the game seem fairly understanding about this, and most of the responses to the developer’s latest Tweet have been pretty light. For now, fans will just have to wait patiently. Among us to come back online!
Among us is currently available on iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The game will be released soon on PlayStation and Xbox. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game here.
Are you disappointed with the downtime for Among us? Do you plan to check out the changing colors of the leaves while you wait? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about everything related to games!


text:
According to Apple track, Jon Prosser's overall accuracy is 82.4%.
In the latest sharing,Prosser's new iPhone for 2021, according to the source
In other words, for apple, it's not about lightning for usb-c, it's about cutting it off completely.
In addition, he said, you can still expect 120Hz.
While hole-free is very desirable from an industrial design point of view, the problem is that, as far as iPhone 12 MagSafe is concerned, the charging power is very unstable and subject to obvious temperature constraints, if not greatly upgraded and optimized, Such hole-free experience will be very bad.
In addition, according to Jon Prosser, BOE will not enter the product line supplied by the iPhone 13 screen. Prosser did not explain whether to launch ltpo OLED or not.
- THE END -
Reprint please indicate the source: Fast Technology


text:
The firm contends that Twitter has successfully improved both its strategy and execution.
Cleveland Research noted that it has received increased "constructive feedback" from advertisers regarding Twitter's strategy and implementation of its live content.
However, while the it remains positive on Twitter's return on investment, the firm expects it to struggle to grow ad dollars.
Their budget projection for the San Francisco-based social media platform remains flat to down year-over-year for 2017.
Nonetheless, the feedback on Wednesday represents the most positive Cleveland Research has been on Twitter in over two years.
What's Hot On TheStreet
Alibaba's Jack Ma woos Detroit: TheStreet has spent the past two days in Detroit covering Alibaba's (BABA) - Get Report big hiring event in Detroit. We have had the opportunity to talk with Alibaba and take in how the Chinese tech company plans to grow jobs in America. But the real showstoppers have been the presentations with Alibaba's executive chairman Jack Ma, who as always hasn't been short on bold proclamations.
Said Ma in a keynote address Tuesday evening, "If you don't sell products in China, you will miss the future." Ma and other Alibaba executives have also sought to downplay the comparison to Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report . After spending a few days in Alibaba land, you understand where they are coming from. But, you are also reminded of how dominant Amazon is in the United States in so many categories (one soon to be organic food via Whole Foods (WFM) ).
Tesla mania continues: Tesla's (TSLA) - Get Report market cap is $60 billion and growing. At this point, Wall Street's obsession with all things Tesla has gotten out of control. Thestreet's Annie Palmer drills down into news Tesla could be opening a car-making plant in China. The last thing President Trump needs is a fight with Elon Musk on this one, Palmer reports.
Uber's embattled founder resigns: Uber Technologies Inc. founder and CEO Travis Kalanick has resigned from the ride-sharing company, TheStreet reports. The move comes just days after he was asked to take a leave of absence in the wake of a report into allegations of discrimination and bullying at the world's startup.
"I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight," Kalanick said in a statement given to the New York Times, which originally reported his departure.
Here is what Uber co-founder Garret Camp had to say this week about Uber's culture.
Check out TheStreet's new series: TheStreet has officially launched a new video series called Alpha Rising, where we will showcase all of the amazing women in business. TheStreet's Tracy Byrnes sits down with some of the top women kicking butt in business such as Birchbox' CEO Katia Beauchamp, who revolutionized the beauty business.
Worried about how to pay for your golden years? Ken Fisher, founder of Fisher Investments, and TheStreet's Jim Cramer will tell you what you need to know in a June 21 webinar on the market trends that are shaping retirement planning today. Register here for the event, which starts at 11 a.m. ET.
Visit here for the latest business headlines.
Read More Trending Articles:
- Alibaba's Jack Ma: 'By 2035, We Will Be the Fifth Largest Economy in the World'
- Intel Just Got Smoked By AMD In the Race to Unleash a Super Chip
- Honeywell and NASA May Have Just Stumbled Upon a Way to Change the Aviation Industry Forever
- 'Walmart Rx' Takes Center Stage as Walgreens Rite Aid Saga Nears Homestretch
- Costco Sees an Extremely Damaging Flush In Aftermath of Amazon's Big Whole Foods Deal


text:
Fans of the brand and motorcycle enthusiasts from across the country are encouraged to join our community as we celebrate the historic launch of the 2014 Indian® Chiefs with parties, demo rides, giveaways, celebrity guests, special events, and much more.
Indian Motorcycle® Daytona Beach Kick-start Party; Saturday March 8 – 9:00 p.m. – 11:00p.m. at Full Moon Saloon on Main Street
Fans of the brand are invited to join Indian Motorcycle® for the unofficial kick-off to Daytona Bike Week at the hottest bar on the beach. Full Moon Saloon will host the party for Indian Motorcycle® enthusiasts and owners – both current and future. Mike Wolfe, star of “American Pickers”, will be on-hand with plenty to celebrate as Indian® Motorcycle gives away tons of swag and the opportunity for one lucky winner to enjoy an “Epic One-Year Demo Ride,” giving them the keys to an Indian® Chief® for a year-long lease. Riders can sign-up throughout the day at Full Moon Saloon and the winner will be drawn at 11 p.m. on stage – must be present to win.
Indian Motorcycle® Demo Rides @ Daytona International Speedway (Enter at Gate 70) – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily
Bike week attendees will have the chance to ride the Indian® Chief® Classic, Indian® Chief® Vintage and Indian® Chieftain® and feel the confidence-inspiring handling and impressive power of the Thunder Stroke™ 111 engine. Demo rides are free and available to those with a valid motorcycle endorsement and proper attire.
Indian Motorcycle® Display @ Daytona International Speedway (Richard Petty & Midway Blvd.) – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily
In addition to the demo site at the historic Daytona Speedway, a display in the Midway area will feature the 2014 Indian® Chiefs® models plus the Spirit of Munro tribute streamliner, a collection of vintage motorcycles, and a unique “naked” display bike that gives fans an inside perspective on the unparalleled engineering prowess that makes every Indian® such a solid and reliable road bike. Fans can also take in the “Big Chief Custom,” the first custom Indian® Chief® created around the 2014 models designed to highlight their limitless customization possibilities. Additionally, on Saturday, March 8, attendees can stop by to meet Mike Wolfe from the HISTORY Channel’s “American Pickers” series, who will be at the Midway signing autographs from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Must-See Location: Indian Motorcycle® Main Street Store – 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily, 506 Main Street
Located in the heart of downtown Daytona Beach, the Main Street store will feature a full collection of Indian Motorcycle® apparel including riding products, casual apparel lines, and gift items. The official commemorative Indian Motorcycle® Daytona Bike Week 2014 T-Shirt will also be on sale.
Must Experience: “Destination Daytona” – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily, Ormond Beach
Throughout the week’s events, Bike Week attendees are encouraged to stop in to Destination Daytona to experience both the rich, legendary 113-year history and the exciting future of Indian Motorcycle®. Fans can explore a collection of heritage engines and vintage Indian® motorcycles, plus a cutaway of the all-new Thunder Stroke 111 engine, and much more. Stop by to get up close and personal with the 2014 Indian® Chiefs and check out a selection of 2014 Indian Motorcycle® apparel for sale.
All-Indian Motorcycle® Bike Show – 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Friday, March 14, Corbin Saddles, 1433 N. Hwy 1, Ormond Beach
Indian Motorcycle® owners past and present are encouraged to bring their bike and take part in a special bike show to celebrate the rich 113-year history of the brand. Participation is open to all Indian® and Indian-based motorcycles from 1901 to 2014. Admission and registration are free and registration is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with judging from 1-3 p.m. and a special awards presentation at 3 p.m. Trophies will be awarded to a wide variety of classes. Prizes will include trophies, a variety of Indian Motorcycle® gear and gift certificates from Corbin Saddles. The Bike Show is just one of the special events Indian Motorcycle® owners can enjoy throughout the week, and current owners can receive a special commemorative pin throughout Bike Week by showing their key fob at any Indian Motorcycle® location.
Indian Motorcycle® Owners’ Tribute Activities – Ongoing, Various Locations
Owners of new and heritage Indian® motorcycles will receive VIP treatment throughout Daytona Bike Week! A special owner experience will be offered at the “Kick-start” party on Saturday night, March 8, and other unique activities will be available during the week for Indian® owners only. Owners are encouraged to watch their email and social media for additional information and invitations.
THE 2023 TENNESSEE MOTORCYCLE & MUSIC REVIVAL AT LORETTA LYNN’S RANCH
SONS OF SPEED DURING DAYTONA BIKEWEEK 2023
10th Salon de la Moto METZ


text:
CHESTER, Vt. – What’s happening at 54 The Common in Chester, Vt.? Many hands have been working behind the scenes to bring a new concept to The Common.
Starting Sept. 30, the Common Street Market will be open every weekend. The market will feature local vendors offering a variety of items.
We will have a soft opening during Chester Festival on The Green so everyone can see the space, make vendor suggestions, and buy local. Please stop by this weekend to have a look and visit our awesome vendor line-up.
Like this page www.facebook.com/flintbudde to stay up to date on vendors and news about the market. You won’t want to miss what’s going on at Common Street Market.
If you’d like to become a vendor, contact Sharon Baker at Sharon’s on the Common.


text:
Stolen data includes telephone numbers, email addresses and encrypted passwords
UK figures have not been revealed
An email was circulated among staff of NexRep highlighting Jawbone’s inability to fulfil its financial obligations
PCR speaks with Primo IT education and contract manager Richard Harland
12 per cent of users had been forced to restore their systems to an earlier OS after Windows 10 was ...
Follow us on
Troubled wearables brand Jawbone is finding it difficult to keep its inventory up and pay its business partners, according to Business Insider.
Yahoo has confirmed that hackers accessed the details of 500 million users in 2014 in what is possibly the largest ever data hack. The stolen data includes telephone numbers, email ...
Hal of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7s in the US have been exchanged, according to a statement from Samsung.
1 in 5 UK employees would consider leaving their job if their employer failed to deliver smart workspaces and technology, according to a new study by Dell.
HTC earlier this week announced its new Desire line of smartphones and now leaked images show a new phone – believed to be called the HTC Bolt – which looks ...
PCR Boot Camp North 2016 will return on Wednesday, November 16th at the Renaissance Manchester Hotel - with a fully redesigned one-day programme.
The Apple Watch will be the most popular smartwatch among consumers until 2020.


text:
In a world where people are increasingly turning away from sweet sodas and calorie-packed beverages, Pepsi’s ad campaign “Live for Now” is attempting to refresh the brand and its image.
The campaign, announced in April, focuses on the excitement of young soda drinkers living in the moment. Perhaps nothing embodies that idea more than being on the second-by-second social media platform Twitter. And for Twitter, nabbing a major advertiser like Pepsi furthers its efforts to work with advertisers and agencies.
On Wednesday, Twitter and Pepsi will announce a global partnership between the two companies and the next phase of the Pepsi “Live for Now” campaign. “This is all about living life to the fullest,” said Shiv Singh, the global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages. The three-part Pepsi campaign will focus on sharing music through Twitter.
Joel Lunenfeld, the vice president for global brand strategy at Twitter, said the focus on music was a natural choice for Pepsi given that 49 percent of the 100 million Twitter users follow at least one musician on the site. “We’re looking for those big content areas that people are talking about and retweeting,” Mr. Lunenfeld said. Read more…


text:
Amazon begins large-scale rollout of palm print-based payments
news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 10 August, 2022 - 20:14
Amazon will expand its Amazon One palm print checkout system to dozens of Whole Foods locations, marking the most significant expansion of the technology that was introduced in 2020.
Amazon One allows customers to speedily check out at retail locations using only their palm prints after storing a scan of their hand via an interface at Amazon's kiosks. The palm print data is encrypted and stored on Amazon's servers. And before you worry too much about COVID-19 transmission or future pandemics, Amazon One works when you hover your palm over the scanner—unlike some handprint tech.
Amazon initially added the technology in its Amazon Go stores and the now-shuttered Amazon Books retail locations. It then made its way to several Whole Foods locations in the Seattle area. (Amazon has owned the Whole Foods grocery chain since 2017.)


text:
GAPPP Opens Its 2020 University To Regional Community, PPPC
The Georgia Association Of Promotional Products Professionals (GAPPP) has announced its accredited GAPPP University 2020, a four-day virtual event, will be open to members of all 26 regional associations and PPPC at no cost to attend. GAPPP University sessions will be held July 21, 23, 28 and 30, running 11:30 am – 1:10 pm ET each day.
“Due to distancing measures required for in-person education, and our concern for our members well-being, GAPPP will be offering our University program Learning Labs via ‘bite-sized’ webinars over the lunch hour,” says Lake Tankersley, GAPPP president. “Because these will be broadcast via the web, GAPPP is inviting all other regional association members to participate, at no cost, to support our promotional community.”
Opening speakers for the event will include Cliff Quicksell, MAS+, president and CEO of Cliff Quicksell Associates and director of affiliate marketing and business development for distributor iPROMOTEu; Paul Bellantone, CAE, CEO and president of PPAI; and Kirby Hasseman, owner of Hasseman Marketing and Communications.
Also presenting are Dale Denham, MAS+, senior vice president and chief information officer of Geiger; Tommy Lewis, vice president of enterprise and program sales at HALO Branded Solutions; Anne Stone, CAE, director of advocacy, education and member engagement at PPAI; Charles Duggan, MAS+, national and strategic accounts manager at Goldstar Pens; Lake Tankersley, sales manager at T Tycoon Solutions; Sara Webb, founder and CEO of InTandem Promotions; Michelle Sherwin, CAS, southeast account manager at Vantage Apparel; and David Shultz, vice president of supplier partnerships at commonsku.
Links to register for GAPPP University 2020, along with the full schedule of dates, times and topics, can be found at www.gappp.org.


text:
Workers angry over N2.3bn pay packet of Shoprite CEO
Posted by News Express | 11 October 2016 | 2,114 times
Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson’s R100m (about N2.3 billion) remuneration was a big issue as workers gathered in Johannesburg for the march organised by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday.
Some workers joined the march dressed in their red Shoprite work T-shirts to express their frustrations over working conditions at the huge retail chains.
“That is so bad because if I compare my salary and his‚ it’s not the same‚” said one of the workers.
“He is my boss‚ but if I could receive at least R1,000 a week if I worked 40 hours it would be better. I heard that he [Basson] is saying he is giving his employees R4,000 a month‚ but it’s not true. For a temporary worker, the maximum pay is R3,000‚ that is if you worked maximum hours.”
Shoprite workers were upset this week to learn from the group’s annual report that Basson’s remuneration included R49.7m in basic pay for the 12 months to June in line with the previous year‚ and a once-off R50-million performance-related bonus. This was for trading profit growth of 15%‚ above the internal target of 11%‚ the retailer said.
“We get paid little money. (For) a week you get R500 and that is not enough‚” said one of the workers. “They don’t treat us right at Shoprite. When your shift starts at a certain time‚ usually we get there 30 minutes early‚ but you are asked to remain an extra hour after your shift but there is no extra pay for that.”
The workers also complained about their prospects of getting permanent employment.
“We have a 5% chance of becoming permanent. Most of us work as temporary workers. We don’t have the comfort of knowing that our jobs are stable for a long time. Our chances of becoming permanent are very slim‚” said one.
Protesting Cosatu-affiliated unions are calling for a decent wage and seeking to highlight the plight of the workers in various sectors.
•Adapted from a Business Day (South Africa) report. Photo shows Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson.


text:
Shopping habits have been shifting away from physical retail and toward online shopping for some time, and the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated this movement.
Data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development further shed light on this trend. While global trade in goods decreased 9 percent last year, e-commerce's share in global retail increased from 14 percent to 17 percent from 2019 to 2020.
As the pandemic halted work and disrupted supply chains in many regions, China－as the first major economy to resume the bulk of its production－had an early start in normalizing business operations.
Consequently, digital retail is picking up steam in exporting Chinese goods overseas, where calls for easier and safer access to diversified merchandise are definitely on the rise.
To ride such a wave, AliExpress, the business-to-customer site of Alibaba Group, has unveiled a grand initiative－G100 Global Selling Plan－to help local brands extend their business presence abroad.
The site, connecting sellers with buyers from more than 200 economies, plans to nurture 100 of what it calls "super brands" by utilizing consumer data insights, sales channels and branding resources. The company also aims to incubate some 10,000 fledgling Chinese brands to gain an early foothold in overseas markets.
AliExpress General Manager Wang Mingqiang believes the time is ripe for Chinese suppliers to move beyond just "manufacturing" to actually creating brands, after the country's superior supply chains were proven resilient enough to weather storms such as the pandemic.
"For many Chinese companies, the best opportunity for consumer education beyond the home turf has essentially arrived," Wang said. "Those with genuine technological advantages and independent R&D capabilities that stay ahead of the curve will become the mainstay of cross-border retail exports."
Wang identified two driving forces needed to catapult Chinese online vendors to the forefront of global sales.
"For one, the pandemic has greatly accelerated e-commerce penetration in Western countries, making accessibility of foreign products easier. Second, as digital and social media savvy younger generations overseas become the backbone of shopping, they are more likely to embrace brands and products previously unheard of in their home countries," he said.
AliExpress has mapped out two approaches to bolster companies' overseas ambitions. For brands boasting robust supply chains and maintaining a fair level of brand awareness, AliExpress plans to devote more marketing resources and craft a country-specific strategy for brands to navigate a specific market.
At the same time, AliExpress will also provide local logistical support, including supply chain finance and after-sales services, so that companies can stay laser-focused on R&D and marketing.
Ugreen, a manufacturer of electronic devices, had a bumpy start when expanding overseas. While the category itself is rather standardized, sales data and customer insights are still needed for the company to better navigate unfamiliar markets.
"For instance, white phone chargers are normally popular in China. But would that color be widely accepted in Russia? Or Southeast Asia? That's the kind of question we hope the AliExpress tie-up can help us address," said Lei Jie, Ugreen's general manager of international marketing.
The second pillar targets brands that are still in their infancy but have exhibited huge growth potential. AliExpress offers a one-stop package for brands to expand abroad.
"After working with AliExpress for a trial period, we've seen gross profit grow 20 to 30 percent," said Zhu Huanyu, general manager of Shenzhen, Guangdong-based household supplier Insetlan. "I think it is critical to maximize brand value instead of just being labeled as an original equipment manufacturer."
Global e-commerce, according to an eMarketer study, is forecast to surpass $6 trillion by 2024 from $3.91 trillion in 2020.


text:
It’s been a big year for social media, especially in the Twittersphere. Twitter has changed a lot, some of it for the good and some for the bad; they just introduced photo filters into their official iPhone and Android, but in the same swing, they burned bridges in their relationship with Instagram and limited their third-party support, forcing app developers to up their app prices. Nonetheless, Twitter continues to gain users each day and has been a major form of communication during important events causing amazing trends on their social network. Let’s take a look at these top trends from the past year.
The major conversation starters from 2012 including the top spot of #nowplaying, then #oomf (one of my followers), #blessed, and #quote. The top talked about movies, in order, were Think Like A Man, The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Red Tails, 21 Jump Street, and the Dark Knight Rises; it’s not the movies you would expect to see on this list, especially in that order, but the Twitter users have spoken.
The top tech trends, in order, were at&t, iPhone, instagram, skype, and kindle; this is an interesting mix of topics especially with at&t at the top, but these trends could be a good or bad thing. The at&t trend could’ve been do to the massive complaints of dropped calls or lack of coverage. Apple made it in the top ten trends with iPhone, iPad, and apple, and with Tim Cook’s suggestion of Apple having a lot to offer in the next year, it will be interesting to see how many trending spots they can take up by next December.
You can see all of the top trends by varying subjects, here.
Also Read: Top 10 Google Searches of 2012
Also Read: Top Facebook Trends of 2012


text:
By Lameez Omarjee for Fin24
The rand came under “massive pressure” on Tuesday morning, having weakened from R13.63 to R13.90, following news that US President Donald Trump is threatening new tariffs on Chinese imports.
TreasuryONE’s lead dealer Wichard Cilliers said in a snap note that all eyes would now be on the trade spat.
By 09:14 the local currency was trading 1.92% weaker at R13.90 against the US dollar after breaching this level for the first time since November 27 last year when the rand traded at R14.00/$.
“The trade wars are heating up with US president Trump to identify $200bn in Chinese imports for additional tariffs of 10% and on another $200bn after that if Beijing retaliates,” said Cilliers.
Trump reportedly said that the United States will no longer be taken advantage of on trade by China and other countries in the world. “We will continue using all available tools to create a better and fairer trading system for all Americans,” Trump said.
The IMF noted that this could place global growth at risk.
Bloomberg reports the tariffs could be the latest round of punitive measures in an escalating dispute over the large trade imbalance between the two countries. Trump recently ordered tariffs on $50bn (R692.77bn) in Chinese goods in retaliation for intellectual properly theft. The tariffs were quickly matched by China on US exports.
Apart from the trade wars, locally load shedding is also adding to currency weakness, commented NKC Africa Economics.
NKC expects the rand to trade within a range of R13.65/$ to R13.95/$.
RMB economist Mpho Tsebe noted that the rand was among Monday’s worst-performing emerging market currencies, along with the Colombian peso and the Thai baht.
“Given the fragile growth outlook and inflation contained within the 3%-6% target band, the SARB (South African Reserve Bank) is unlikely to increase interest rates to support the currency,” she said.
Peregrine Treasury Solutions’ Bianca Botes said investors are dumping emerging markets for safe haven assets, including US treasury bonds. “South Africa, due to the liquidity that our local market offers, often leads the losing streak, she said.
“Should these tensions elevate and strong data from the US keeps making its way to market, emerging market currencies will remain under pressure and one could very well see the rand target R14/$,” Botes warned.
However, Andre Botha, senior currency dealer at TreasuryONE was optimistic that the rand could recover.
“We still believe that the rand is overdone at these levels and should the tide turn and risk-taking behaviour start taking precedent again the rand could stage a comeback.” He echoed views that the rand’s performance largely depends on global events rather than local factors.
China is likely to see price rises for paper products this year on a shortage of raw materials and imported waste paper, according to Hong Kong-listed Nine Dragons, one of Asia’s largest packaging and paper producers.
Cheung Yan, the company’s chairwoman and one of China’s richest women, said at a press conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday that the company was likely to raise product prices in 2018, pressured by increased costs in raw materials, whose supply has been hit by Beijing’s tighter controls on imported waste paper, an important source for manufacturing paper products.
“The government’s tightened control on imported recovered paper has resulted in significant volatility in both imported and domestic recovered paper prices,” said Guangdong-based Nine Dragons in an interim results filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
In the six months ended December 31, the company saw its net profit more than doubled to 4.33 billion yuan (US$690 million), up from the previous 1.91 billion yuan.
Separately, Vinda International Holdings, China’s third-largest tissue manufacturer, said last month that it had raised tissue product prices by 4 to 5 per cent since last October in response to rising pulp prices.
China’s tissue giant Vinda expects further industry consolidation as Beijing tightens environmental controls
US pulp prices have risen more than 35 per cent in the past year, contributing to the hike in toilet-paper costs among other factors, according to Bloomberg.
The toilet paper price hike has sparked panic buying in Taiwan over the weekend after suppliers told local supermarkets they would raise prices by 10 to 30 per cent from next month.
Raw materials accounted for around 48 per cent of the costs for toilet paper products, and almost all of the pulp was imported from abroad, said Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Vinda has operations in Taiwan, but it is not immediately known the level of price increase they will put in place for their products on the island.
The technology industry is the crowning glory of America’s economy. It supports 7-million well-paid jobs at home, and allows America to set standards globally.
Silicon Valley generates almost $200-billion of profits from abroad each year, several times the benefit that America gets from having the world’s reserve currency. But after losing its lead in exports and manufacturing, is America’s tech supremacy now under threat from China?
For years Silicon Valley dismissed Chinese tech firms—first as an irrelevance, then as industrial spies and copycats. Most recently China has been seen as a tech Galapagos, where unique species thrive than would never spread abroad. But as our Schumpeter column explains this week, China’s technology industry has been catching up far faster than expected. American venture capitalists return from trips to China blown away by its energy. China’s government has set a goal of becoming dominant in artificial intelligence by 2030.
China still has huge weaknesses. Its tech firms are only worth about a third as much as America’s, and their investment budgets pale in comparison with those in the United States. They generate relatively little revenue abroad, and are puny in semiconductors and business-related software. Moreover, Chinese companies in other industries make less intense use of technology products than their American counterparts do. And although China does have two giant tech firms in Tencent and Alibaba, as well as lots of small ones, it has relatively few mid-sized companies in the range of $50-$400bn.
Nonetheless, China is now approaching parity on the most forward-looking measures. In e-commerce and mobile payments, its industry is now bigger than America’s. Its universe of “unicorns” (unlisted firms worth over $1bn) is almost as large, as is its venture-capital sector. Both are proxies for China’s ability to produce tomorrow’s giant firms. And in cutting-edge areas such as facial and speech recognition, China now has recognised leaders. There are even some signs that it is catching up in hard science: it has produced nearly as many papers on artificial intelligence cited by parties other than their author as America has.
At its present pace, China is still 10-15 years away from reaching tech parity with America. But for American tech firms, the time to get paranoid is now.
Source: The Economist
Eskom will sign a $1.5bn (R19.78bn) loan agreement with China Development Bank on Thursday, as the state-owned utility powers ahead with its funding requirements for 2017.
Last week, new acting Eskom CEO Johnny Dladla revealed that Eskom had secured 77% of its funding requirements for the 2017/18 financial year.
He said that for the 2016/17 financial year, Eskom increased its borrowings by over R60bn.
“We remain resolute that we will fully execute the required funding for the year, albeit under challenging market conditions,” Dladla said in a statement last week.
“Our liquidity levels remain healthy and Eskom’s financial profile continues to improve and stabilise.
“Backed by the availability of the government guarantees and the stable financial profile, we do not foresee significant impediments in the execution of the remainder of the FY17/18 funding requirement,” said Dladla.
Eskom is expected to use R43.6bn of its guarantee in 2016/17 and R22bn annually over the medium term, Treasury said in its 2017 Budget Review. Eskom has a R350bn guarantee for the 2016/17 year, with an exposure of R218.2bn.
“Gross foreign borrowings are expected to account for the majority of total funding over the medium term, largely as a result of Eskom’s efforts to obtain more developmental funding from multilateral lenders,” Treasury said in the Budget Review.
The borrowings come despite the power utility being downgraded by rating agencies this year, after Moody’s, S&P and Fitch cut South Africa’s sovereign credit ratings.
By Matthew le Cordeur for News24
Napoleon Bonaparte once said of China, “Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”
A spate of articles and books has appeared on the rise of China and its possible domination of the world. The Middle Kingdom has received special attention because it is ideologically and culturally different from the West.
Military strategists and geopolitical thinkers have their own concerns: the country’s leadership does not make its political ambitions clear, nor has the military been open about the degree of its expansion.
The United States still remains the sole superpower but with the rise of “the rest,” particularly China, the present structure of the world order will eventually be reconfigured. In reality, China is not rising but as Aaron Friedberg states, “it is returning to the position of regional preeminence that it once held.” Indeed, China dominated that region for centuries.
Among those who argue that China will rule the world in the near future is Martin Jacques – a British journalist who is the author of When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New World Order.
However, before China can become a legitimate superpower, it must meet its internal and external challenges and make some fundamental political changes.
China’s nine percent economic growth rate since 1990 has enabled it to expand its sphere of influence and gain ground not only in Asia but also in Africa and South America. This influence will probably continue to grow in the future.
In Central Asia, China has invested billions of dollars in oil and natural gas companies to secure its long-term energy demands. China is making large investments in South America as well – America’s own backyard. In addition, China is the preferred partner of many governments in Africa and is becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and South Africa – both rising economic giants.
Nevertheless, all these investments and China’s attempt to spread its soft power do not guarantee that China is becoming the next world power, for it has major internal issues to deal with. It must deal with an aging population and gender imbalance produced by its one-child policy. It must deal with its water shortage problem and with pollution. These are not the only problems facing China. It must also find a way to produce millions more jobs in order to continue its economic growth. It must overcome internal ethnic issues, economic disparity, virile nationalism, and as Henry Kissinger observes, it must be able to “absorb six million people moving into the cities every year.”
Besides fighting separatist groups in Xinxiang, a problem China will face for years, it also has Taiwan to worry about. This issue remains China’s top foreign policy priority. I believe China can become a superpower when it is no longer focused on its domestic issues. Think about the United States. It was able to focus on external issues when it won the last battle against American Indians in 1890 in South Dakota. In brief, China cannot rule the world until it consolidates its territory.
In order for China to gain hegemonic status on the world stage it must also become an innovative society, a society that nurtures political and economic institutions. It has had tremendous economic growth, but that has not launched it on a trajectory of scientific revolution that led to the rise and ascendancy of the West. Nor does it have innovative and creative companies that could parallel Apple, Google, Twitter or Facebook. Given these challenges, China has a long and complicated road ahead before it can claim the status of a superpower.
By Fahim Masoud for www.intpolicydigest.org
Getting a fat hongbao, or red envelope, stuffed with crisp new notes is one of the hallmarks of Chinese New Year, which started on 8 February and runs for two weeks.
As China’s tech companies build their financial services, they want to convince people that hongbao exchanges can be just as fun when performed through a smartphone.
This year, the country’s three biggest Internet companies— Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent — are offering their own version of online red envelopes and dressing up the custom with games and giveaways. Even the Chinese government is latching on to the digitised version of the tradition, giving away a total of RMB300 000 (about $50 000) through Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile payment service.
Red envelopes are traditionally gifted to children during the holiday, but they can also be given to unmarried adults, elderly relatives, friends, and employees. The companies — which are referred to by the acronym BAT — run competing mobile payment platforms and their red envelope programs may convince people to keep using their mobile wallets even after the holiday is over.
It’s still too early to tell how many people will gift money online this year, but if the past popularity of WeChat’s red envelope service is a fair indicator, smartphone users are eager to try new twists on a beloved tradition. The messenger — which is owned by Tencent and China’s most popular with 650-million monthly active users — first enabled people to send red envelopes through the app’s WeChat Pay mobile payment service in 2014.
In 2015, the company says WeChat delivered over one billion red envelopes. Then on Jan. 1, 2016 (the start of the Gregorian calendar is also an excuse for red envelope giving in China), more than 2.3 billion red envelopes were sent.
To send gift money on WeChat, users click on a “red envelope” button in the main menu, then chose an amount and enter a gift message. Depositing money into each other’s WeChat Pay accounts is quick and more convenient than withdrawing cash and counting it out into packets, but it lacks the finesse of getting an actual red envelope stuffed with brand new notes.
To make giving money online a little bit more personable, WeChat has come up with a game that randomises the amount dispersed among your gift recipients and then shows who got the most after everybody opens up their envelope.
Meanwhile, users of Baidu Wallet, which is made by China’s largest search engine developer, got into the action early. Between 28 January and 8 February, the company says users sent 4,2-billion red envelopes online containing a total of RMB 300-million (about $45,6-million).
China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba put its own spin on the custom by handing out virtual red envelopes with cash or gift coupons during the Spring Festival Gala, a popular annual show that airs the evening before Chinese New Year starts.
The company hasn’t disclosed yet how much the publicity stunt cost or the total worth of the envelopes it handed out, but its mobile payments service Alipay is one of China’s largest, with about 400-million users.
Of course, the start of the lunar calendar isn’t just celebrated in China. Line, which has been banned in China for more than a year, is offering a red envelope service through Line Pay in Thailand and Taiwan, two of its top markets (the third is Japan).
By Catherine Shu for www.techcrunch.com
The African continent is experiencing rapid retail expansion, and is being compared to China in 1987 when it was forecast to be the next big thing.


text:
we were looking to quantify this commitment to quality and I’m very pleased and happy that we’re now able to do that with this certification
Wilmslow, Cheshire (PRWEB UK) 25 July 2012
Since the company’s establishment in the small Cheshire town of Wilmslow in 2002, http://www.icpnetworks.co.uk has developed into one of the North West’s foremost providers of new and refurbished networking and server-room equipment by all principal manufacturers, such as Cisco Routers, Checkpoint (Nokia), Sun, Nortel, BlueCoat and HP ProCurve.
However, the certification caps an impressive 12 months for the Cheshire firm, which has turned in a record financial performance against the continuing backdrop of economic uncertainty.
Responding to the accreditation, ICP Networks Managing Director Matthew Archer commented “All of my team here appreciates that excellent customer service is the foundation stone upon which any successful business is built.”
“However, we were looking to quantify this commitment to quality and I’m very pleased and happy that we’re now able to do that with this certification.”
The ISO certification has been awarded to ICP Networks as the company has been able to demonstrate the highest standards in processes, systems, health and safety and customer service, specifically the ability to persistently and continually supply products and/or services that meet specific customer or regulatory requirements.
However, the award has also been made due to the firm’s ability to demonstrate defined objectives for achieving customer's satisfaction.
“At ICP Networks, we realise the importance of remaining flexible and responsive to the needs of our customers; product knowledge, availability and pricing are key factors when making purchasing decisions” added Mr Archer.
“So, while obviously trading conditions remain challenging out there, we have invested accordingly in internal processes, systems and additional staff to facilitate our continuing success.”
And while the certification marks an exciting new chapter for the firm, he is keen to point out that ICP Networks won’t be resting on their laurels.
“We’re working towards our next accreditation, ISO14001:2004, already and I’m confident that our customers will continue to experience the benefits of our commitment to this process over the coming months.”


text:
Endeavor Miami’s first two companies are an enterprise mobile platform developer Kidozen and fast casual restaurant operator My Ceviche.
Miami, 31 de diciembre de 2013 (Por Negocios Magazine). Endeavor selected three entrepreneurs representing 2 companies from Miami, the organization’s first US affiliate at an International Selection Panel held in Dubai, UAE December 10 – 12.The Miami companies were among 20 chosen from 12 countries.
Endeavor Miami’s first two companies are an enterprise mobile platform developer Kidozen and fast casual restaurant operator My Ceviche.According to Endeavor Miami Managing Director Laura I. Maydón, the businesses reflect some of the great diversity of entrepreneurial talent and initiatives in Miami today.“We look forward to connecting these entrepreneurs with top-level mentors and advisors to help them scale rapidly,” said Maydón.
KidoZen, founded by entrepreneur Jesus Rodriguez, is an enterprise mobile platform that provides a simple, secure and scalable middleware to integrate backend and line of business capabilities into companies’ mobile apps.Despite a crowded competitive landscape, KidoZen has been successful at quickly securing customers from a range of industries and geographies. KidoZen is based in Boca Raton, FL. and looking for office space to move to Miami.
Founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs Roger Duarte and Sam Gorenstein, My Ceviche currently delivers a tasty, fresh and affordable range of ceviches, salads, tacos, burritos and stone crabs in a fast casual environment.The company currently operates in two locations in South Beach and Brickell with three more stores set to open in 2014, including one at the Miami International Airport.
“These first companies selected by Endeavor represent just the beginning of our goal of identifying and helping high-impact businesses to grow in Miami,” said Endeavor Miami’s Co-chair Adriana Cisneros.“We look forward to evaluating and mentoring a new generation of entrepreneurs.”
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invested $2 million to support the launch of Endeavor Miami earlier this year. “The first Endeavor Miami companies—My Ceviche and Kidozen— are testament to the diversity of ideas that make up the city’s emerging innovation ecosystem,” said Matt Haggman, Knight Foundation program director for Miami. “While distinct, they both share the ability to scale, and reach their high-impact potential— they encapsulate Endeavor’s role in using entrepreneurship as a tool to make connections and build community in Miami.»
The International Selection Panel (ISP) is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process.At the ISP, top international business leaders interview candidates about their businesses and high-impact potential, and then vote on whether or not candidates become Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Post-selection, Endeavor provides entrepreneurs with customized services, including introductions to local and international business mentors and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of creating thousands of jobs and building sustainable growth models.
Endeavor Miami launched its operations last September and is currently conducting the search and selection process for high-impact entrepreneurs in South Florida. Endeavor Miami’s team is looking forward to presenting more entrepreneurs to be selected at the different ISPs that will be held in 2014. For more information and to self-nominate companies go to www.endeavormiami.org.
Miami, jueves 23 de marzo de 2023. El ex presidente de la asociación, del condominio Marquis Villas II, ubicado en la 6762 del noroeste con la calle 182 ha sido arrestado. El ex presidente de la asociación, del condominio Marquis Villas II, ubicado en la 6762 del noroeste con la calle 182 de Hialeah ha […]
Miami, jueves 23 de marzo de 2023. Cathie Wood, la CEO de Ark Investment Management, argumentó el miércoles por qué los inversores están considerando las criptomonedas en respuesta a la crisis económica. ¿Qué ha sucedido con las criptomonedas? En un hilo de Twitter, señaló cómo, cuando los activos de criptomonedas se dispararon durante el colapso del Silicon Valley Bank, […]
MISSION, KS — 23 de marzo de 2023 — (NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE) — Para mantener un corazón saludable no basta con comer bien y hacer ejercicio con regularidad. Si bien estas prácticas juegan un papel importante tanto en la salud y el bienestar cardiovascular como en general, dormir bien por la noche también es clave. “Dormir …


text:
The casino operator from Macau reported double digit increase in annual profit.
Macau.- Galaxy Entertainment Group released a report that includes its annual profit results. The company experienced a 51 percent increase for 2016, and the chairman of Galaxy believes that it’s because they tightened cost controls.
The company reported US$809 million compared to US$535 million generated in 2015, and group revenue also grew 4 percent to US$6.8 billion. Full year adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) experienced an 18 percent increase to US$1.3 billion. Lui Che Woo, Galaxy Ent’s chairman, said during a press release: “We have worked hard during the period to carefully control costs without adversely impacting customer service standards and to substantially grow our mass market business.”
Furthermore, in 2016 the company reached a 2 percent increase to US$6.3 billion in total gaming revenue, and it also experienced a 19 percent year-on-year growth in revenue from mass table games. “Galaxy Entertainment Group is continuously exploring opportunities in overseas markets, including Japan,” the company added.


text:
The Trump administration sued Walmart Inc., accusing the retail giant of helping fuel the opioid crisis by inadequately screening for questionable prescriptions despite warnings from its own pharmacists, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department lawsuit claims Walmart sought to boost profits by understaffing pharmacies and pressuring employees to fill prescriptions quickly. That made it difficult for pharmacists to reject invalid prescriptions, enabling widespread drug abuse, the suit alleges. Walmart responded by saying the lawsuit “invents a legal theory that unlawfully forces pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors, and is riddled with factual inaccuracies and cherry-picked documents taken out of context.”
“Blaming pharmacists for not second-guessing the very doctors [the Drug Enforcement Administration] approved to prescribe opioids is a transparent attempt to shift blame from DEA’s well-documented failures in keeping bad doctors from prescribing opioids in the first place,” Walmart said. Walmart has been expecting the complaint and sued the federal government in October to fight the allegations pre-emptively. That suit accuses the Justice Department and DEA of attempting to scapegoat the company for the federal government’s own regulatory and enforcement shortcomings. The DOJ lawsuit alleges Walmart created a system that turned its 5,000 in-store U.S. pharmacies into a leading supplier of highly addictive painkillers. The allegations date to June 2013. “Many of these prescription drugs would never have hit the streets if Walmart pharmacies had complied with their obligations,” said Maria Chapa Lopez, U.S. Attorney in Tampa. Walmart started with cut-rate prices on opioids that drove shoppers to its stores, the government alleges. Middle managers pressured pharmacists to work faster, the suit says, believing quick-fill prescriptions drew customers to keep shopping.


text:
Grameenphone yesterday launched its new number series starting with “013” on top of the “017” series.
Md Mustafa Kamal, BTRC director general for engineering and operations, inaugurated the series at an event in Dhaka on Sunday.
The rollout came through the first official call to Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar by the mobile operator’s Grameenphone Deputy CEO, Yasir Azman, at The Westin Dhaka.
The minister hailed Bangladesh’s leading mobile phone operator by subscription for its services.
He hoped it would not be difficult for Grameenphone to keep providing its 71 million subscribers with quality service.
Yasir thanked the government for allocating the new series after they started running out of ‘017’ SIM cards recently.
Grameenphone Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Mahmud Hossain, among others, was present at the launching ceremony.
Addressing the ceremony as chief guest, Md Mustafa Kamal, a director general at Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, hoped that the operator would continue “the same quality of service that it is known for”
With the telecom regulator limiting the prefix to two crore connections, Grameenphone will be selling 0130 and 0131 series of equal proportions. SIMs will be available at all sales outlets and the product, service and network experience alongside the price will be the same as of 017, said the operator’s officials.
Starting its journey in March 1997, Grameenphone had 7.05 crore active connections as of August, according to the regulator.
Launching its operations in Bangladesh in 1997, Grameenphone is one of the 20 largest telecom operators in the world now, the company says.


text:
COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transformation of supply chains. As full circle distribution visibility and connectivity becomes business-critical, IoT-enabled reusable packaging is playing an increasingly important role, says the article. According to a McKinsey study, the pandemic has “pushed companies over the technology tipping point,” accelerating supply chain digitization by three to four years.
Though the pandemic has caused massive supply chain disruptions and customer buying shifts that underscore the imperative nature of business agility and responsiveness, costly business disruptions from outside market forces are nothing new. In 2019 alone, according to McKinsey, 40 separate weather disasters inflicted costs of more than $1 billion per event, and that “the economic toll caused by the most extreme events has been escalating.”
Thus, product sourcing and distribution agility made possible by interconnected supply chain operations are crucial. Research from the article shows that almost two-thirds of manufacturing executives surveyed for a 2018 KPMG report said being agile is “the new currency of business; if we’re too slow, we will be bankrupt.” Connected supply chains can increase their responsiveness by utilizing digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
IoT-enabled Reusable Packaging and the Digital Supply Chain
Reusable transport packaging (RTP) is already supporting connected supply chains. Durable enough to be equipped with technology devices, RTP are designed to work seamlessly in automated systems, provide product protection, and reduce inefficiency and waste. With the addition of IoT technology, RTP becomes the ultimate platform for load, case, and unit-level inventory visibility and data generation in the emerging supply chain, according to the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA). IoT-enabled RTP offers end-to-end, bottom-up visibility of the entire supply chain, both forward and reverse movements, when supported by business and technology models that drive data sharing. This, in turn, enhances network collaboration and breaks down limitations from silos.
The RPA’s 2019 white paper, A Smarter, Technology-Driven Supply Chain with Reusable Packaging Systems, describes how reusable packaging can be equipped with a variety of IoT technologies to meet the needs of business cases. It also provides information about location, condition, and other data that helps operators eliminate inefficiencies, enable effective automation, increase inventory accuracy, support predictive analytics for inventory replenishment, reduce food waste, and enhance the overall customer experience. The articke further explains that as RTP is designed to last for many use cycles, the cost of the IoT sensors can be prorated to provide an affordable cost-per-use basis.
The RPA white paper includes examples of IoT-enabled RTP applications:
- RFID-tagged, fast-moving consumer goods pallets can help operators improve product visibility in the supply chain and increase truck fill, thereby reducing empty miles and decreasing CO2 emissions by 62%.
- Active RFID-tagged automotive shipping racks can provide better visibility to the OEM, allowing it to reduce shipping rack inventory requirements from 5.8 days of production to 2.7 days.
- Utilizing a UHF RFID system can reduce RTP loss problems by capturing data when crates are packed, shipped, and returned. This can help companies reduce replacement expenditure on reusable crates by up to $200,000 annually.
- IoT sensor-equipped cable drums provide visibility to cable customers of drum location as well as reporting of how much cable is left on a particular drum to facilitate the return of empty drums and reordering. The system is estimated to reduce the loss or theft of drums by 90% and improve the cycle time of reusable drums by 25%.
IoT-Enabled Reusable Packaging Use Cases
The article mentions additional recent examples of how smart reusables are contributing to digital transformation:
- Postal and parcel network achieves visibility through 350,000 IoT-enabled roll containers
Beginning in June 2019, Heliot/Sigfox Germany in cooperation with Deutsche Post/DHL began installing Alps Alpine IoT sensors on roll containers for parcels. The technology has been installed on more than 350,000 containers, increasing transparency across the operator’s international European network and allowing it to improve service quality to customers. This also enabled the operator to optimize its processes while reducing the replacement of lost RTP.
- Retail floor displays provide promotional analytics to sales decision-makers
CHEP Germany recently announced the availability of IoT sensor-equipped quarter pallets that provide product manufacturers with complete supply chain visibility from plant to distribution center to the retail floor. This functionality allows decision-makers to answer questions such as when promotional displays arrive at the store and how long they remain on display. The sensor generates data based on the movement of displays and creates a full picture of the promotional campaign for manufacturers and retailers, says the article.
- RFID and NFC enabled reusable e-commerce box provides full customer delivery visibility and secure opening
Pitney Bowes forecasts that parcel volume will most likely double and reach 220-262 billion parcels by 2026, driving e-commerce companies to continually reduce costs and improve customer experience. Several reusable e-commerce packaging systems are now available. One recently introduced reusable delivery box for e-commerce features RFID and NFC technologies, along with condition sensors such as temperature and shock. The package features a rechargeable battery with a life estimated at 1,000 trips. Customers can track their packages in near real-time and tap their NFC-enabled smartphone to accept and unlock their box or reject the parcel upon receipt.
- Adaptable, IoT-ready reusable packaging that works with existing technology
ORBIS uses a 4-step approach to ensure its packaging is IoT-enabled if the customer is using IoT in their operations. 1) ORBIS collaborates with customers and vendors to identify the right IoT device options (RFID, BLE, GPS, etc.); 2) Identifies proper location and attachment on the packaging; 3) Conducts quality and validation checks and 4) Provides data to the customer’s tracking system, indicating that their IoT enabled packaging is ready to be tracked. A recent example is ORBIS’s new Odyssey Pallet which offers features to accommodate different IoT devices.