Contract Drivers - FedEx's Problem

(12/18/2012) FedEx's ground delivery drivers are not known for their great services. There are several videos (see below) showing the drivers of FedEx's ground delivery carelessly dumped the packages that should be handled with care. There is another bad story of FedEx. A FedEx's contract driver dropped hundreds of packages (right before the busy Christmas shopping season) when he "accidentally left open the door to his truck."

FedEx Ground is a subsidiary of the FedEx Corporation. The drivers working for FedEx Ground are independent contractors, not FedEx's employees. It might be a cost concern that FedEx maintains such an operational model. But will FedEx's business reputation hold if stories like these keep coming to light?

The followings are several old videos about FedEx drivers.

Hasbro Listens to the Voice of Customer

(12/18/2012) Toy company Hasbro will launch it successful product - Easy-Bake-Oven - to be boy friendly responding to a 13-yo girl's request. Currently,  Easy-Bake-Oven is only available in purple and pink. "McKenna Pope, 13, of Garfield, N.J., got more than 40,000 signatures on her online petition at Change.org and the support of celebrity chefs including Bobby Flay, who backed her call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral oven and to include boys in the ads." Who says a kids cannot change their world?

Foxconn's Style of Management

(12/17/2012) French reporters get an exclusive report about Foxconn's employee management (Apple's biggest contract manufacturer).



(12/18/2012) An interesting article on Wall Street Journal found that the workers of Foxconn are unhappy: "the newly implemented labor law in China is making it hard for employees to earn a living because they are working fewer hours at the higher overtime rates." What a cultural difference, right?

SKED Rescue System

(12/17/2012) I saw this news on a Taiwanese website. It is a SKED rescue system used in a tragic car accident (Chinese) and the rescue team commented that "SKED is light, convenient and effective". Here is the product webpage about SKED rescue system.

Imagination and Open Mind

We are limited by our framings.

Imagination Becomes Reality

Farmland Value Is At All Time High

(12/13/2012) Thanks to high price of grains and commodities, Iowa farmland's value increased 23.7% from 2011. Here, you can see the statistics of 2011, which was at all time high then too. Wow, much more profitable than the stock market investment.

AdTrap

(12/13/2012) Is it real? Is it really happening? AdTrap will block the online advertisements for you. Not just the annoying pop-up ad, it blocks all ads comes to the pages you visit no matter which browser you use. It is good for users, but will be a disaster for advertisers. I really want to get one.

Mourn for A Short-Lived Gadget.

(12/13/2012) If we only count from 1999's ebook reader device (excluding the failed Apple Newton), eBook reader has lived for just 13 years and start dying. It just cannot compete with multifunction touch-screen tablet. I will say it prematurely: "It had a good life."

A la Carte Pricing Might Be More Normal in The Future

(12/12/2012) Buying airline tickets now need to pay attention to a lot of add-on fees: bag fee, early boarding fee, aisle-seat fee, etc. I think a la carte pricing might be more normal in the future. We used to buy flight tickets only by its class. Want more room and better service? pay more money for a higher class seat. A la carte pricing came to existence in recent years as airlines struggled to make profit. They started to 'invent' these add-on fees. It is a disaster to consumers. As consumers will not know what is the final price (s)he may end up paying, there is plenty of room that airlines can confuse consumers to pay more than they originally wish. The Department of Transportation wants to solve this issue which the airlines and third-party sites are battling, but it seems the problem is more complicated. Recently, Southwest Airlines will charge $40 for those B/C group passenger to get an A class boarding pass.

A la carte pricing is nothing new (relatively new in the airline tickets). Our cellphone bills, home phone bills, cable bills, ... are obvious examples. Do you really understand all items and the compositions of your bills? Most consumers don't understand at all. In business, we call it "revenue management." Through proper arrangement of the service packages, consumers often need to select several service items to fulfill its needs. Each item may not cost much, but combining them together may turn into a stunning sum when the consumer receives the bill. In economics theory, it is based on "price discrimination" or "price differentiation." Through proper pricing scheme, the supplier can maximize its profit and consumers with various needs can find the right 'product/service' that fulfill their needs.

On 9/11/2013, NBC News says that the airlines collected $27B in various fees in 2012. It is obvious that these fees keep many airlines afloat. Without those fees, many airlines will have been in deep financial troubles. Note that the passengers are not forced to pay those fee.

Redbox Takes on Netflix

(12/12/2012) Redbox takes on Netflix with a cheapter unlimited streaming plan. Will it become a blood shedding price war? I guess not. But I am not surprised with Redbox's move at all. Its time has come. (After my trial experience on redboxinstant.com, the number and quality of their unlimited videos are terribly meager. I will not continue to subscribe. 2/2/2013)

FexEx Overcharge

(12/11/2012) Are we overcharged by FedEx for years? An executive of FedEx reveals this news that can make this express giant in trouble.

Happy Returns

(12/7/2012) You happy, retailers are happy too.

Android's Product Rollover Dilemma

(12/4/2012) I found this is a very article to talk about product improvement and model generation rollover problem in new product innovation. Except the maker of Galaxy -- Samsung, other makers of Android smartphones cannot launch a product that can really compete with Apple's iPhone neck to neck. The strategy of these makers is to launch a lot of Android phones more frequently. (In Taiwan, we use a term "機海戰術", indicating the makers just make a lot of models.) This is partially due to lack of negotiation power with wireless service provider, hence the makers need to differentiate their own product with more models for various carriers. (Apple has one model for all carriers.) For android's users, it triggers more frequent and quicker "buyer's regret" because their new phone will be 'dated' in several months. (Apple renews their iPhone roughly every year.) Another bad impact for Android makers is they will need to provide more software updates for their various models with various versions of Android OS. Do you see the headache of Android makers?

Shed Tears for Seriously Money Burning Startups

(12/4/2012) I was one time in a company like this. Several months after I joined that company, I knew immediately that company would not last long as long as that CEO is in charge. I prepared myself for applying a graduate school in the US. Luckily, this company filed bankruptcy two month after I quitted my job.

Monkey's Reaction to Unequal Pay

(12/3/2012) Based on an 2011 research, the gender wage gap for American working women of all ages was 82.2 percent. Huffington Post has a new about monkey's reaction to unequal pay, extremely hilarious. This is part of the video on the Monkey's experiment. 

iPad Only Daily News will be closed

(12/3/2012) This iPad-only news overestimated the influence and user's reliance on iPad. The Daily is over. It lived only 22 months. Is Huffington iPad Magazine still on Apple's news stand?

World Cheapest Tablet

(12/2/2012) The world Cheapest tablet DataWind's Ubislate 7ci will cost $40 in India and some developing countries (The article is from Fast Company). Will it close the digital gap between the haves and the have-nots?

Amazon Fulfillment Center

(11/29/2012) It is a very good video

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The following pictures are from a report from the Atlantic Wire. They show how enormous the Amazon fulfillment center is.

This following picture is showing Amazon workers stuffing the packages into a truck to take advantage of a full truckload (TL). With their enormous volume, no wonder they can provide 2-day Prime member delivery without adding too much cost. I wonder how much of my $79 Amazon Prime Membership is Amazon's net profit.

A Conscious Low Cost Retailer -- Costco

[12/28/2012] In the extremely low-margin retail industry, we often hear too many stories about how the retailers underpay their employees. Surprisingly, Costco is doing the opposite. In the Huffingtonpost article: it says "Costco provides health benefits to full- and part-time employees, pays relatively high wages and has a partially unionized workforce. The company has remained profitable in spite of these policies, though some analysts have criticized it in the past for prioritizing workers over shareholders." Can we still find some other companies like this? How can we educate our next generation to be more humanitarian and respectful to people who works for us?

(3/12/2013) You don't have to be stingy to employees to achieve revenue and profit targets. Costco's profit soared while they endorse increasing the minimal wage.

6 TED Talks Every Entrepreneur Should Watch

Inc.com selected 6 TED talks.

http://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/6-ted-talks-every-entrepreneur-should-watch.html

New digital camera - Lytro

New era of photographing - Lytro. From now on, will everybody be a professional photographer? The technology is called "'ight field" that allow users to 'refocus' after the picture is taken.

Megaship

This is a video of OOCL's mega containership - Atlanta. It's capacity is 8,063 TEUs (20-ft equivalent units), which is not big in our 21st century standard. The world largest containership soon will be is Emma Maersk's triple-E family ship, which has 18,000 TEUs of capacity. You can continue to watch other parts.

Why Is The Gas Shortage in NY/NJ after Sandy Not Solved Soon?

Based on this in-depth interview, "The problem is not gasoline supplies, but the ability to distribute it, especially from the critical terminal area around Linden, N.J., which lost power and was hit by storm surge. An estimated 75 percent or more of the gas stations in New Jersey were closed either because they had no gasoline, no power or both, said Sal Risalvato..."

If the power is not coming back anytime soon, no gas can be pumped at ease. In the following article on Money-CNN, it explained more details of how vulnerable the gas supply chain is in the US east coast.

World Longest Flight Will Be Canceled.

(10/25/2012) Want to have a non-stop flight from Singapore to New York? This flight won't last much longer. This world longest non-stop flight is currently offered by Singapore Airlines, and the distance is 9500 miles with 18 hours of flight time. Interestingly, another long flight from Singapore to Los Angeles will also be canceled. The flight between Singapore and Los Angeles is only around 8000 miles, but the flight time is 18.5 hours. How come? It is because the great circle distance between New York to Singapore is shorter than the great circle distance between Singapore and Los Angeles.

Southwest Airlines Shutdown Auto Check-in Website

(10/25/2012) If you fly Southwest, then you want to get your boarding pass in A group. Southwest Airlines' passengers now can pay $10 early-check-in to get an earlier boarding number. If you are Southwest.com, you won't be happy that your revenue is encroached by this backdoor. However, I have to say this student is very brilliant, his talent won't be ignored too long.

Supply Chain of McDonald French Fries.

This is an interesting video showing the supply chain process of McDonald French Fries from the potata harvest to the final frying. The second video is how McDonald makes their Big Mac burger (home version).

Walmart's Warehouse Working Conditions

(10/20/2012) A news about the terrible living conditions of Walmart warehouse workers in Illinois. I don't think this news is less troubling than the bad working condition of Foxconn (Apple's iPhone & iPad manufacturer) in China. It happens right in the heartland of US. However, it gets very little attention here. These warehouse workers don't work directly for Walmart, they are hired by Roadlink Workforce Solutions, a 3PL logistics company used by Walmart. Does it mean that Warmart don't have any social responsibility for them?

Here is the report (from Salon.com) about the earlier worker strike to fight against the bad working condition and management retaliation. 

(5/14/2014) Finally, the contractor of Walmart agreed, Schneider Logistics, the settlement ($21 millions) for the "backpay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years.". 

Virus for Medical Devices

(10/17/2012) Before this news report, I have never thought of this potential problem - Computer viruses invade into medical devices. Imagine that someone's life support now is on a medical device that is not updated for a long time. If it gets a virus, will a computer virus in this case really kill a patient? Or if I know someone is wearing a WiFi connected device, is it possible that I may use a Trojan virus to attack that device and kill that patient? It is more like a SiFi.

(10/21/2012) It looks like killing someone from a distance is not a SiFi, it can be a reality. From a heart defibrillator to a insulin pump, any medical device that can be remotely controlled is subject to hacking. Remember the Matrix? Cypher in the Matrix kills Neo and Trinity's teammates by just pulling the plugs...

Money, Money, Money

(10/17/2012) Money is always a game changer in business. To be more exact, what I mean is that the currency exchange is a game change in international business. Is Chinese RMB (Renminbi) still manipulated at a very low level? That is one of crossfire topic last night in the presidential debate between Romney and Obama. This article provides you some evidence that RMB has been relatively appreciate its value in the last several year.

I often hear that American accuses Chinese government currency manipulation that causes their trade imbalance and job loss issue in the U.S. Then the Chinese accuses American (people and government) spending too much money and own a lot of debt to foreigners. In Chinese, it says "一個銅板不會響", which means that you cannot make noise with just one quarter and both sides should be blamed. I agree with that. However, who will eventually win? Well, I think American, RELATIVELY.

Watching President Debate in A Huge Virtual Living Room

(10/16/2012) If you are watching on the TV and follow some internet media for people's reaction, you will find that you are in a huge virtual living room with everybody. Your most politically active friends on facebook and twitters, news hosts, talking heads, comedians..., all of them are sharing their reaction in the same time?

Hey, buddy! Are you sure that you didn't hear my cursing when Romney lied? "Buxxxxxt!..." My friend's cursing is echoing in my huge virtual living (if I really retweet then, you probably get some echos over there too). I have been to the U.S. for three presidential elections (this is the fourth one). This is really the first time that I see the people's emotions and reactions from the debate become so contagious. Thanks to Twitters and Facebook, they are the winners.

This is another interesting platform, anybody can join this big virtual living room: HuffPost Live. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

DCMA Notice vs. 1.45 Million Educational Blogs? DCMA wins.

(10/16/2012) This new might have very little ripple effects on the news media. A DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) from a book publisher (Pearson) cause a total shot-down of 1.45 millions of educational blogs? However, it has a horrible chilling effect about how DMCA might be used and misused. I hope my blog won't be off-lined. 

Microsoft Surface Tablet

(10/16/2012) Can Microsoft make a successful Surface Tablet launch? Can $499 for 32GB table attractive enough for consumers? Can Microsoft make an application network prosperous enough to attract enough app developers and users to stay in this new platform? I wishfully hope so. Don't make the same stupid mistake as in the mobile platform again.

Boxee? Is it a good innovation?

(10/16/2012) From HuffingtonPost.com:
"Boxee, the streaming media company with the funnest name this side of Roku, has unveiled its latest Internet-connected player: It's called the Boxee TV, and it's a $99 box that contains an antenna to watch broadcast high-definition television and a DVR system that gives you unlimited online storage of your recordings. It is, according to Boxee CEO Avner Ronen, the first DVR system that has no storage limits whatsoever."

Do you think it is a good innovation? Will it really kill the Cable? My first wonder is how much bandwidth will be used sending contents up to server and back to the local user sites? Hmm.... Someone needs to do some calculation here. The Internet Service Provider won't be happy then.

New RO-RO ship

A new RO-RO ship which has a larger capacity, more energy efficiency provided by WWL (Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, HQ in Norway).

Data Visualization

This is a very good data visualization showing the political shifts in the last 60 years.

Two reference book I would recommend (by Edward R. Tufte):

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 
Beautiful Evidence 

(2/7/2013) I found this figure in an educational research. It is a little bit fancy, but it looks beautiful.

Source: http://www.educause.edu/ecar/about-ecar/ecar-annual-study-students-and-it

(2/12/2013) This is another good presentation of science and religion.

Graphic by: Chris Spurlock
Source: The MIT Survey on Science, Religion and Origins

(3/26/2013) No matter which side you feel from this following figure about the casualty from US Drone strike in Pakistan, I think the group that make this figure gets what they want "shock people." I have to say, the modern HTML coding (look like java scripts, but I am not sure) makes data visualization like magics (click the news page).

This picture is not dynamic. You have to click the linked on the news page above to see how it works.

Let's Talk About Corn

Food supply is one of the hottest issues in recent years. The demand growth from new economies (China, India, Brazil...) triggered the food and commodity speculation in 2008. After the 2008 recession and global economy started to recover, the supply side is hammered by ruthless climate. In Chinese, we say “穀貴傷民 穀賤傷農.” It means that high food prices hurt people and low food prices hurt the farmers. 

Last year, the corn production in the US (as the world largest corn producer) was hit by the hot summer since 1955. This year, the heat continues to cover the US continent and causes the most severe drought in nearly a half-century. USDA has issued warnings since this spring and updated several forecasts about corn and soy beans crop yields. 

One thing I use this examples in my Transportation classes is to let students understand its ripple effects. What is the impact of shortage in corn supply? First intuitive answer, the corn price will go up. Here the basic economics theory -- price elasticity & availability of substitutes-- comes to play. Corn's price going up will bring the prices of other grains (soy beans, rice, wheat...) to go up too. Not only that, corn is used in many processed food that we buy in the supermarket (Read the ingredient, you will see corn syrup on many food boxes). Corn is also a major animal feed for the cattle and chickens. Cattle farmers will have to absorb more expensive animal feeds and eventually the consumers will have to pay for that. Overall, the price of the food category will go up since we cannot easily find substitutes for food (eating incests in the future?).

Return to the transportation, the corn yield drops shift the landscape of the demand and supply in a short term and the demand for transportations will be changed too. USDA issues weekly Grain Transportation Report highlight its impacts along with other economic factors (fuel prices, shipping rates...).

GM Will Hire 10000 Computer Professionals?

(10/8/2010) This can be an alarming news to some people. Why will GM need 10,000 computer, IT workers in the future? It is a sign that the future job market will be very different from our current imagination. Sometimes, I hear students talking about their career future and I am a little bit worried for some of them. These students often have a career vision like their parents, become a salesman, an accountant, or own their business one day in a Pleasantville type of town. They think they should be able to find a well-paid job with a college degree and deserve that. But they don't see that this job market is changing too fast even to their parents who are not much older than my age. Not many jobs can really enjoy a long-term job security and the job loss to another cheaper region is not limited to manufacturing jobs. White-collar jobs or those service jobs can also be replaced. If young-generation students are not capable to adapt to the changes, how can other groups in the society to take the responsibility of our future?

The followings are two pictures that I capture from GM's job webpage today (10/8/2012), what will you position your career future?

Fuel Supply Issue in California

The fuel supply crisis in California may one day happen in the whole US.

Black Market Twitter Accounts Up For Sale

(10/4/2012)
This news "Twitter Hacking Victims Find Stolen Accounts Sold On BlackMarket" is just way too weird in the first sight. Can you imagine that the virtual avatar can be kidnapped and sold on the Internet?

Environmental issue of Pipeline

To be continued.

(10/4/2012) The following news is about the oil pipeline leaking in Michigan in 2010. The spill from Enbridge pipeline leaking turns out to be worst than we thought. Do you still support Keystone XL pipeline?

Supply and Demand Dynamics

(9/29/2012)
When China was heavily investing in the infrastructure and factory expansion, US coal industry had a good time exporting coal to China. Now, China is confronting an economic soft landing (if lucky), and those good old days for US coal might be gone for a while. Probably only a high fuel price can help those coal miners.

Powder River Basin supplies 40 percent of coal in the United States

Japan's problem

(9/29/2012)
Reading an article from Washingtonpost.com: As Apple and Samsung dominate, Japan’s tech giants are in a free fall.

Japan's problem is not just in business, it is at the national level. So often, we see Japan has its own standard that is different from all other countries. They want to import to other countries, but don't want to buy imports from another country (because Japanese's products are the best). They ignore the economy of scale of globalization that is outside of Japan and rapidly expands in recent decades. So many Japanese tech giants were "innovating" for its own market and to become the leader in Japan market. Look at NEC and Fujitsu, they are PC leaders in Japan. But few consumers outside of Japan know them as PC makers. From the people, to business and the nation, they just overlook what is going on outside of Japan because they entered into a deadly self-breeding cycle for their diminishing future.