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For good or ill, globalization has become the economic buzz- word of the 1990s. National economies are undoubtedly becoming steadily more integrated as cross-border flows of trade, investment and financial capital increase. Consumers are buying more foreign goods, a growing number of firms now operate across national borders, and savers are investing more than ever before in far-flung places. //

Whether all of this is for good or ill is a topic of heated debate. One positive view is that globalization is an unmixed blessing, with the potential to boost productivity and living standards everywhere. This is because a globally integrated economy can lead to a better division of labor between countries, allowing low- wage countries to specialize in labor-intensive tasks while high- wage countries use workers in more productive ways. And with globalization, capital can be shifted to whatever country offers the most productive investment opportunities, not trapped at home financing projects with poor returns.

Critics of globalization take a gloomier view. They predict that increased competition from low-wage developing countries will destroy jobs and push down wages in today's rich economies. There will be a "race to the bottom" as countries reduce wages, taxes, welfare benefits and environmental controls to make themselves more

"competitive". Pressure to compete will erode the ability of governments to set their own economic policies. The critics also worry about the increased power of financial markets to cause economic havoc, as in the European currency crises of 1992 and 1993, Mexico in 1994 - 1995 and South-East Asia in 1997. //

Despite much loose talk about the "new" global economy, today's international economic integration is not unprecedented. The 50 years before the first world war saw large cross-border flows of goods, capital and people. That period of globalization, like the present one, was driven by reductions in trade barriers and by sharp falls in transport costs, thanks to the development of railways and steamships. The present surge of globalization is in a way a resumption of that previous trend.

That earlier attempt at globalization ended abruptly with the first world war, after which the world moved into a period of fierce trade protectionism and tight restrictions on capital movement. Capital controls were maintained after the second world war, as the victors decided to keep their exchange rates fixed — an arrangement known as the Bretton Woods system, after the American town in which it was approved. But the big economic powers also agreed that reducing trade barriers was vital to recovery. They set up the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which organized a series of negotiations that gradually reduced import tariffs. GATT was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. Trade flourished. In the early 1970s, the Bretton Woods system collapsed and currencies were allowed to "float" against one another at whatever rates the markets set. This signalled the rebirth of the global capital market. //

Could the trend towards globalization be reversed a second time? Doing so might be more difficult than before. New technology and new types of financial instruments make it tricky for governments to impose effective capital controls. Likewise, the growth of multinational firms that can switch production from one country to another would make it harder to erect effective trade barriers. Another reason to suppose that globalization is more durable this time around is that free trade is built upon firmer institutional foundations than earlier in this century. At that time, free trade proceeded largely through bilateral treaties rather than multilateral institutions such as the WTO. Withdrawal from the WTO would not be done lightly. //

More recent reports have suggest continued increases but are based on self-reported data. Objective To examine trends and prevalence’s of overweight (be mass index BMI and obesity (BMI^SO), using measured and weight data.

Design, Setting, and Participants Survey of 4,115 adult men a women conducted in 1999 and 2000 as part of the National Hea and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally repi sentative sample of the US population.

Main Outcome Measure age-adjusted prevalence of overweight, obesity, and extreme obesity compared with prior surveys, and sex-, age and race/ethnicity-specific estimates.

Results The age-adjusted prevalence of obesity was 30. 5% in 1999 2000 compared with 22. 9% in NHANES III (1988 — 1994; p-.001). The prevalence of overweight also increased during this period from 55.9% to 64.5% (p<.001). Extreme obesity (BMI>4C also increased significantly in the population, from 2.9% to 4. 7% ( = . 002). Although not all changes were statistically significant, creases occurred for both men and women in all age groups and non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans Racial/ethnic groups did not differ significantly in the prevalence o obesity or overweight for men. Among women, obesity and over weight prevalence’s were highest among non-Hispanic black women More than half of non-Hispanic black women aged 40 years or older were obese and more than 80% were overweight. Conclusions The increases in the prevalence’s of obesity and over-weight previously observed continued in 1999 — 2000. The potential health benefits from reduction in overweight and obesity are of considerable public health importance.

Our dog, Rex, used tosh outside our front gate and bark. Every time lye wanted to come into the garden; he would bark until someone opened the gate. As the neighbours complained of the noise, my husband spent weeks training him to press his paw on the latch to let himself

in. Rex soon became an expert at opening the gate. However, when I was going out 10 shopping last week, I noticed him in the garden near the gate. This time he was barking so that someone would let him

My husband spent weeks training him out! Since then, he has developed another bad habit. As soon as he opens the gate 15 from the outside, he comes into the garden and waits until the gate shuts. Then he sits and barks until someone lets hire out. After this he immediately lets himself in and begins barking again. Yesterday my husband removed the gate and Rex got so annoyed we have not seen him since

The plane was late and detectives were waiting at the airport all morning. They were expecting a valuable parcel of diamonds from South Africa. A few hours earlier, someone had told the police that thieves would try to steal the diamonds. When the plane arrived, some of the detectives were waiting inside the main building while others were waiting on the airfield. Two men took the parcel off the plane and carried it into the Customs House. While two detectives were keeping guard at the door, two others opened the parcel. To their surprise, the precious parcel was full of stones and sand!

In this chapter a number of new concepts and ideas in logistics have been considered. The first of these was the development of trading on the Internet. A number of new and very different ways of conducting business were reviewed, and it is clear that most of these will have significant implications for logistics. The major implications should come from e - tailing, e - fulfillment and procurement .

The phenomenon of home shopping was also discussed. It was noted that it is important to differentiate between home shopping and home delivery because these are related but very different developments- Ones again it is clear that there will be some significant implications for distribution and logistics as these concepts become more established.

Packaging is important to logisticians for a number of reasons. Its shape may define how effectively the products can be loaded into transport containers in the form of either cartons or vehicles. For example, a cylindrical - shaped product is unlikely to fill a given cubic capacity as well as rectilinear shape. This has implications for how much product can be stored or transported in a given space and, as all storage and transport resources have a finite size and weight restriction, filling these spaces effectively is extremely important. The more products stored or transported in a given cubic capacity the more the associated unit costs, as well as the environmental impact, can be reduced.

Packaging is also important in protecting the products from damage in transit and even pilferage. Packaging in the form of unitized containers, whether they are pallets or reusable containers, will often require transportation back to the point of origin to facilitate reuse.

Many industries have developed forms of packaging that do all that is required of them whilst in transit between the point of origin and the user but that do not warrant the expense of returning them to the point of origin. Therefore the packing is only used once and they consigned to the rubbish tin. This principle goes all the way down to the level of the single tin or carton of food. In this case the consumer transports the container from the retail outlet to the point of use and then simply discards the container.

It is this type of packaging, in all its forms, that the environmental legislation aims to control. For logisticians the problem manifests itself in the form of reverse logistics. Waste packaging needs to be brought the opposite way up the supply chain or at least the obligation to do these needs to be dealt with. It is possible under the UK regulations to join a compliance scheme that help discharge the organization's obligations in this regard.

This section will describe a framework for conducting a benchmarking project. Given the diversity of organizations and processes it will not be possible to go into great detail. The Japanese are credited with starting the benchmarking approach to continuous improvement. At a very simple level employees are seconded to other companies in order that they learn new ways of working.

The following sections illustrate benchmarking approaches developed by Xerox:

Planning

1. Identify what is to be benchmarking.

2. Identify comparative companies.

3. Determine data collection method and collect data.

Analysis

4. Determine current performance' gap .

5. Project future performance levels.

Integration

6. Communicate benchmarking findings and gain acceptance.

7. Establish functional goals.

Action

8. Develop action plans.

9. Implement specific actions and monitor progress.

10. Recalculate benchmarks.

Maturity

11. Leadership position attained.

12. Practices fully integrated into process.

The following is a step - by - step guide to conducting a benchmarking exercise. Naturally each organization will have its own special needs and circum-stances that will dictate how they will conduct their own project, therefore this is only an example of how it may be undertaken.

The selection of a transport mode may be used lo create a competitive ser-vice advantage. When a buyer in supply channel purchases goods from more than one supplier, the logistics service offered, as well as price, may influence supplier selection. Conversely, if the suppliers select the transmission mode to be used in their respective channels, they can control this particular element of the logistics service offering and thus influence the buyer's patronage. To the buyer, better transport service (lower transit time and transit - time variability) means that lower inventory levels can be maintained and/or operating schedules can be met with greater certainty. In order to encourage choice of the most desirable trans-port service, and thereby lower its costs, the buyer offers to the supplier the only thing that it can - patronage. The buyer' s action may be to shift its share of purchases toward the supplier to seek the transport service that is appealing to the buyer rather than simply the one offering the lowest cost.

When there is choice among supply sources in the channel of distribution, transport service selection becomes a joint decision between supplier and buyer. The supplier competes for the buyer's patronage through the choice of a transport mode. A rational buyer responds to the choice by offering the supplier more business. How much more business a buyer should offer depends on the transport service differential created among competing suppliers. For a supplier to settle on a single transport service is difficult in a dynamic, competitive environment where suppliers can offer services to counter chose of competing suppliers, and the relationship between transport service choice and (he degree of patronage potentially offered by buyers is hard to estimate.

The development of an IOIS (interorganizational information system) for the logistics has three distinct advantages: cost reductions, productivity improvements, and product/market strategy. Five basic levels of participation for individual firms within the interorganizational system have been identified by Barrett and Konsynski:

A) remote I/O node, in which the member participates from a remote location within the application system supported by one or more higher - lever participants;

B) application processing node, in which the member develops and shares a single application such as an inventory - query or order - processing system;

C) multiparticipant exchange node, in which the member develops and shares a network - interlinking itself and any number of lower - level participants with whom it has an established business relationship;

D) network control node, in which the member develops and shares a net¬

work with diverse applications that may be used by many different types of lower

- level participants and finally;

E) integrating network node, in which the member literally becomes a data

- communications/data- processing utility that integrates any number of lower

- level participants and applications in real time.

This chapter will present an overview of some of the more sophisticated handing and storage systems to be of found in warehousing applications. They include highly mechanize systems, automated systems with computers controlling the physical movement and storage of materials, and robotic applications. Such applications may be said to be at the technologically advanced end of the equipment and system spectrum in the context of warehousing, although some of the technology is well established and has been with us for many years. "High-tech" installations are costly, involve 24 — hour working are somewhat inflexible and tend to require long payback periods. They should be based on some assurance of long— term demand for the products handled.

An example is the use of automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) using computer - controlled driverless high lift stacker cranes in high hay - ware-houses, a concept that has been with us since the early 1960's. In this sort of application the computer is used to manage control the physical movement of equipment, and hence of the materials being handled and stored. Many of the earlier stacker cranes were operator— controlled, hut the facility for on - board operation is now more usually maintenance purposes only.

High - tech solutions are not always the answer to every handling or storage problem. Systems should be designed that best meal the overall system requirements, and in some cases that will be a "low - tech" solution. One example of this was the building of a new clothing warehouse that had to be able to meet peak seasonal sales of up to three times the volumes experienced at other times of year. In this case the flexibility of a labor - intensive solution, in which the company could "throw people at the problem, was seen as a major requirement for meeting seasonality and peak sales volumes. An automated solution would have been underutilized for much of the lime.