IN BRIEF: New Supply Chain Services & Solutions

Stay up to date on the latest transportation, supply chain, logistics and technology solutions.

Transportation

• The Lufthansa Group is expanding the capacity of Lufthansa Cargo’s freighter fleet. The airline has ordered a total of 10 freighters, including three Boeing 777F freighters and seven 777-8F freighters. Boeing’s next-generation aircraft lowers fuel consumption and has 17% more cargo volume compared to the 777F.
• Air France-KLM Group and the CMA CGM Group will combine their air cargo networks, freighter capacity, and dedicated services. The agreement has an initial duration of 10 years and encompasses the full-freighter aircraft capacity of the airlines consisting initially of a fleet of 10 full-freighter aircraft, and an additional combined 12 aircraft on order. The partnership also covers Air France-KLM’s belly aircraft capacity, including more than 160 long-haul aircraft.
• Samskip increased rail freight capacity between Duisburg in Germany and Katrineholm in Sweden by 33%, following an agreement with TX Logistik to launch a new multimodal service connecting Germany’s Ruhr region and the greater Stockholm area. The launch also increases overall service frequency between Samskip’s Duisburg rail hub and Katrineholm, south-west of Stockholm, to eight trains weekly.
• UWL, an NVOCC and 3PL, contracted with Swire Shipping, a multipurpose liner service, to launch a Vietnam-to-U.S. express service, departing from Ho Chi Minh City and arriving at the Port of Seattle in 18 days. The bi-weekly service offers priority berthing at both origin and destination, and a dedicated equipment pool.

Services

• a2b Fulfillment opened a 260,000+-square-foot facility in northeastern Pennsylvania in Hanover Township near Wilkes-Barre. The new site utilizes a very-narrow-aisle racking configuration with wire-guided materials handling equipment. The facility offers a capacity of approximately 15,000 pallet positions and 25,000 forward-pick locations.
• Woodland Group expanded its warehouse and fulfillment center in Chicago to provide transloading and omnichannel supply chain solutions.
• Saddle Creek Logistics Services built a distribution center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Set to open in August 2022, the facility will meet new and current clients’ needs. Located west of Interstate 15, the building has 36-foot clear heights and can be built out to suit client specifications.
• APM Terminals Mobile signed an agreement with the Alabama State Port Authority to add 32 acres to the current 134-acre container terminal yard. The added space creates one million TEUs of throughput capacity that is approved to handle 14,000-TEU ships.
• AxleHire, which provides e-commerce companies with expedited, urban same-day/next-day deliveries, expanded into the Washington D.C. and Baltimore markets. The company utilizes routing algorithms to optimize delivery routes to save time, miles, fuel, and ultimately CO2 emissions.
• Logistics Plus opened a 542,000-square-foot warehouse in Phoenix, Arizona, located adjacent to the Luke Air Force Base. The new site provides warehousing for West Coast imports and exports and Southwest storage needs.
• Omni Logistics opened facilities in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. The new cross-dock, warehouse, and office facilities are located near transportation gateways.
• Performance Team-A Maersk Company is increasing its cold chain capacity by opening a new cold storage facility in Dayton, New Jersey, in October 2022. The Dayton facility is close to the container port at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and features 167,812 square feet of space with 13,000 rack positions, 30 dock doors, refrigerated dock, 24-hour monitoring, and a back-up generator.

Technology

• Shippers can use the DockMaster scheduling tool from IntelliTrans to schedule pickups and deliveries by their selected carriers, routing them to a pre-assigned loading or unloading dock door. DockMaster is a SaaS-based application that provides real-time visibility to make scheduling dock appointments easier.
• Kinaxis offers advanced supply chain analytics with Planning.AI, part of the Kinaxis RapidResponse platform, which uses multiple analytical approaches to solve supply chain challenges. For demand planning, Planning.AI leverages machine learning to gain insights from internal and external data.

Products

• Protective packaging provider Storopack now offers AIRplus Void Recycle, a polyethylene air pillow film that consists of at least 50% post-consumer recycled material.
• Sitma Machinery’s new e-commerce wrapper machine is designed to meet the e-commerce sector’s packaging and documentation needs (e.g. invoices, delivery notes, and return labels). Users can integrate the E-Wrap unit into different production settings and combine it with units for labeling and weighing.
• Manual push stackers from Presto Lifts are designed for light industrial, warehousing, and retail back-room applications. They can be configured with manual or powered lift. M-Series units have either a foot- or hand-actuated pump to raise and lower loads with no electrical power. B-Series models utilize onboard battery power for lifting and lowering.