Outsourcing Logistics: Con-Way
Corrections or additions?
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on December 15,
1999. All rights reserved.
Millennium Madness: Portable Generators
Here’s a press release that never would have come our
way but for Y2K and its attendant disaster-mongering: “Responding
to reports of an increase in the purchase of electric generators by
homeowners, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, New Jersey’s
largest electric and gas utility, urges consumers to exercise extreme
caution when buying and operating the units.
“Portable generators should be operated only when they are
isolated
from utility lines. Ordinarily, portable generators are connected
directly to an appliance or piece of equipment by a properly rated
extension cord. They should never be plugged into a wall outlet to
power an entire house.
“To safely connect an electric generator to your home or home
wiring system, have a licensed electrician install the generator and
a transfer switch. A transfer switch is a device that disconnects
the home’s wiring system from your utility’s wiring system, preventing
the generator from sending electricity out of the house into utility
service wires. A transfer switch must be installed by a licensed
electrician
and requires an electrical permit and inspection. Simply throwing
the main circuit breaker does not always successfully disconnect the
home electric system from utility lines, and circuit breakers have
been known to fail.”
The release, dated December 10, quotes John V. Hughes, PSE&G’s
administrator for Distribution Environmental Health and Safety:
“Emergency
generators can provide an important back-up power supply for
homeowners
with special needs, such as medical equipment, refrigerators, sump
pumps, or office equipment.”
“If a generator is plugged directly into a building’s circuits
without a positive disconnection between the home electric system
and the utility’s lines, the electricity from the generator will `back
feed’ — flow from the interior wiring of the house back out into
the nearby power lines.” Hughes noted that if there are utility
workers
working on the same lines, they can be seriously injured or killed
by the flow of electricity from the generator. Hughes also warned
that when power is finally restored to the line, electricity flowing
back into the operating portable generator could damage it.
PSE&G’s safety tips for nervous customers installing backup
generators:
1.) Keep the generator in a well-ventilated area awayfrom combustible material. Do not operate a generator in your basementor anywhere inside your home.2.) Never refuel your generator while it is operating.3.) If you have questions about the safe operation ofthe generator with a particular appliance, consult the manufacturerof the appliance to determine if any special measures should be taken.4.) Read carefully the manual that comes with any newelectric generator to ensure safe operation. Customers who improperlyinstall, operate or maintain a generator are responsible for anyinjuryor damage suffered by themselves, their neighbors or utilities.The utility added the following disclaimer: “PSE&G doesnot sell or install electric generators and does not provideinstructionsor advice about connecting them to building or home wiring systems.To find a licensed electrician, consult your local phonedirectory.”Top Of PageOutsourcing Logistics: Con-WayYou have a great idea, and you can sell it, but youcan’t package it. it. Or you have a great idea, and you can packageit, but you can’t sell it or distribute it. Or maybe what you needis an effective database.At South River Park, a new warehouse center at Exit 8A, Con-WayIntegratedServices can take any of 12 problem areas off your hands(609-655-1400,https://www.con-way.com).Con-Way Transportation started out as a trucking firm in Chicago buthas grown to be a nationwide jack-of-all-trades. “We have stateof the art tools for managing transportation and logistics functionsfor clients who would not be able to afford it,” says JimReid,director of sales and marketing of the Chicago-based firm. “Acompany that is growing like crazy can outsource their supply chainto us. What they get is somebody to manage that business on a dayto day business.”The parent company was mainly an “LTL” or “less than truckload” firm as opposed to a package delivery service or a fulltruckload firm. Within the $2 billion parent firm, there aresubcompaniesthat can supply chain management solutions, warehousing,transportationmanagement services, distribution, logistics, telemarketing, all typesof fulfillment, and E-commerce.For a variety of clients ranging in size from $500,000 to $5 million,Con-Way can do value-added services to a product before the productreaches its final destination. These services might includerelabeling,ticketing, reboxing, repackaging, or even getting a shipment throughcustoms. Perhaps random samples need to be taken for a quality checkbefore a container is loaded onto a trailer, and then the containerneeds to be repackaged and relabeled. All of this activity needs totake place in a multipurpose warehouse. Cranbury’s is one of foursuch facilities, and Con-Way expects to have a network of 10warehousesby next year.Says Reid: “Nobody is going after the market we have — bothwarehouses and transportation management.” A client from Turkey,for instance, can take orders but needs help on distribution. “Wecreate the invoice, mail the invoice, we source the order and clearcustoms. All the client does is marketing and collecting.”For a company selling candles for home parties, the warehouse workerswill assemble kits, taking items from a dozen palettes and reboxingthem. Another client, dealing in automotive parts, may need theworkersto handle sheet metal without denting it.The new warehouse in Cranbury has state-of-the-art systems and itsclient base is expanding by an account every couple of weeks. Oneperson needs to be hired for every two accounts. All the workers mightwork in one area of the building for one week and move to a differentclient the next week.If a company needs 20,000 feet one month and 10,000 feet the nextmonth, Con-Way helps them meet those changing staffing and spaceneeds.”We can give a price on per unit or per case basis, versus fixedcosts on labor and fixed costs on handling. We give predictabilityand price-ability.” The minimum charge is for 1,000 feet ofstorageand 1/2 a person, but some clients bill in the millions of dollarsper year, others do only $50,000 worth of business.”We want to make our clients John Q and Mary Public look and feellike a Wal-Mart. We give them the tools to understand their businessand get more control over it,” says Reid, noting that his clientshave real-time access to their inventory on a variety of platforms.”We use their inventory database with a software platform byDescartesSystems (from Toronto) that translates from anything, and we alsohave a database engine. No one else is using this as we are, tocommunicateto the client and allow our systems to communicate with eachother.”– Barbara FoxPrevious StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
