Given supply chain got sexy in 2020, it only feels fitting I do 365 days of interesting supply chain facts to keep it going in the new year...

01/ ~90% of non-bulk cargo is transported by containership

02/ After a banner year for eComm, it's estimated that 30% of holiday purchases will be returned representing over $70B worth of merchandise (credit @CBRE)

02a/ Some estimates see returns totaling $115B (per @FT)

03/ Semi trucks are the workhorse of supply chain. They have a lifespan of ~750k miles or 10-15 yrs. At that point they can be refurbished but a new truck is the better investment

04/ It takes 60 days to send a container back to the origin port from a destination. Currently, this is taking 100 days on average

05/ The average Amazon facility (with some baseline automation), workers are expected to pick at a rate of ≥350 packages/hr for a takt time of 7 secs

Takt time is the amount of time it takes to process a single item

06/ Research suggests that 30% of delivery drivers "sample" the food they're delivering

07/ A Boeing 747-400 Freighter can hold as much as 26k ft³ of freight (about 5 truckloads full)

08/ There are 700 common carrier freight railroads in the US with just 7 considered to be Class I operators (≥$490M in annual sales)

09/ A driver with just 25 packages has 15 trillion trillion (that's 24 zeros) possible routes

10/ Approximately 60% of commercial warehousing square footage in the US is owned/operated by "mom and pop"

11/ TEU or Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit is the unit of measure for container and container ship capacity

That said, FEU or Forty-foot Equivalent Unit is the most frequently used container and likely what you're familiar with

12/ Pallet rack systems are the most basic organizational tool in a warehouse. They are vertical steel structures with horizontal supports

They are split into high density (fit more freight for storage) vs low density (fit less freight for access) with an avg height of ~25 ft

13/ Latest numbers suggest a $1.5T gap in trade finance that's expected to grow to $2.5T by 2025. The deficit is growing as developing economies in Asia and Africa benefit from a shift away from Chinese supply chains

14/ In the US, there are ~2M semi trailers in operation relative to ~5.5M trailers

15/ There are 585k road freight transportation companies in the EU compared to roughly 10k in inland water transport and 1k in rail freight

16/ Airfreight charges are based on the greater of

a) Gross weight = cargo + pallet
B) Volumetric weight = (L*W*H)*167

As info, 167 is the air cubic conversion factor

All measurements should be taken/converted in/to metric units

17/ Researchers found that the "Monday blues" can impact supply chains as employees return to work less productive and have to manage process interruptions from the weekend

Technology such as automated order processing have been observed to help improve this by as much as 90%

18/ Trucks use diesel over gasoline because of fuel efficiency

This is most noticable when generating torque to get the vehicle moving. Diesel can generate more torque at a lower speed than gas

19/ Cargo ships are estimated to emit 3% of annual global CO2 emissions

20/ Some interesting logistical statistics from prior presidential inaugurations...

3000 personnel

200 transportation movements

13 field command posts

21/ The average rate/mile for dry van goods (your standard trailer) in the US per @LoadBoards

22/ According to a prior study by the World Shipping Council, an average of 568 containers are lost at sea each year

* Data from '08-'16

23/ Fulltruck Load is a single trailer of freight (takes up 50%+ of trailer) going from point A to B with pricing primarily driven by:

- supply availability on lane
- seasonality
- fuel costs

24/ Less Than Truckload is when you can't fill at least 50% of a trailer. LTL has diff types of cargo coming from/going to different destinations

Pricing is primarily driven by:
- Weight
- Density
- Distance

Accessorial charges can also add up on top of fuel, handling, speed

25/ The "ton" originated in the 1400s when the King of England mandated that all inbound wine be filled in standard 252 gal casks called "tuns" to prevent tax evasion

Each tun weighed 2,240lbs vs today's more common short ton that's 2,000 lbs

via @tedalling

26/ The essence of Warehouse Management Systems:

What's entering/leaving today?

Where is inventory in this warehouse?

How much do we have/can we verify that?

How is inventory allocated across the system?

Who is working today?

*Share this with adjacent systems- ERP, WES, WCS

27/ In Europe, a truck driver cannot drive more than 9hrs but can drive up to 10hrs up to 2x/wk

A driver must rest 11hrs daily with an exception of going down to 9hr, max 3x/wk. Daily rest can be split into a 3hr
and 9hr period for a total of 12hrs of downtime

28/ The modern pallet was invented in 1925 by Howard Hallowell who adopted the age-old "skid" to work with forklift trucks

During WWII, the pallet got upgraded to be "four-way" so a forklift could pick it up from all sides

29/ There are 17M containers in the world but only 6M are used (for logistics or otherwise)

30/ Interstate 90 is the longest and busiest highway in the US seeing over 320k vehicles/year on its 3k mile stretch