January /February 2023 Inside Logistics

cover image: Emily Atkins

Publisher | Delon Rashid (416) 459-0063 delon@turnkey.media

Editor | Emily Atkins (416) 262-4106 emily@turnkey.media

Contributing Writers | Delbert Cope, Norm Kramer, Jerry Peck, Christian Sivière, Sofia Spoltore, Creative Director | Samantha Jackson

Video / Audio Engineer | Ashley Mikalauskas, Nicholas Paddison

Sales | Delon Rashid, (416) 459-0063 delon@turnkey.media Peter Bulmer, (585) 653-6768 peter@turnkey.media

Production and Ad-ops | Tracy Stone tracy@turnkey.media

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Put a stop to modern slavery

FORCED LABOUR, SLAVE LABOUR, human trafficking – if you think these are problems that impact other parts of the world, think again. New research shows that up to $48 billion in Canadian imports every year have been tainted by child labour alone.

The number of people in modern slavery has risen significantly in the last five years. Globally, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 28 million people were living as forced labourers in 2021. That’s 10 million more than 2016 estimates. Women and children remain disproportionately vulnerable.

Modern slavery occurs in almost every country in the world, and cuts across ethnic, cultural and religious lines. Most cases of forced labour (86 percent) are found in the private sector, while the remaining 14 percent are in state-imposed situations.

“It is shocking that the situation of modern slavery is not improving. Nothing can justify the persistence of this fundamental abuse of human rights,” said ILO director-general, Guy Ryder.

“We know what needs to be done, and we know it can be done. Effective national policies and regulation are fundamental. But governments cannot do this alone. International standards provide a sound basis, and an allhands-on-deck approach is needed. Trade unions, employers’ organizations, civil society and ordinary people all have critical roles to play.”

I would add corporations to that list. Preventing and avoiding the use of forced labour should be at the top of companies’ ethical sourcing priorities. Due diligence in selecting suppliers, and vetting their suppliers, is critical if we are to stop this reprehensible practice.

In this issue we look at two examples of government action that will penalize companies found to be relying on slavery for production of their goods. Canada’s parliament is considering a bill that will require companies to publicly report on their efforts to prevent the use of forced labour and child labour within their global supply chains (See page 8). In the US, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) specifically targets imports from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China where forced labour is prevalent (page 22).

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ISSN 0025-5343

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Such legislative initiatives are a step in the right direction, but until companies around the world govern themselves and enforce their own ethical sourcing mandates, it will be impossible to eradicate the use of slaves. What is your organization doing to ensure it’s not part of the problem?

The end of an era

Boeing builds the last 747

By Emily Atkins

THE LAST 747 has rolled off the Boeing assembly line. A ceremony in January celebrated the end of the jumbo jet era that was launched by the iconic plane back in 1967. The last 747 is a freighter that was delivered to Atlas Air and will be operated Apex Logistics, a Kuehne+Nagel company, under a long-term agreement. This aircraft is the final of four new Boeing 747-8 Freighters Atlas ordered in January 2021.

Boeing and Atlas Air joined thousands of people –including current and former employees as well as customers and suppliers – to celebrate the delivery of the final 747 to Atlas, bringing to a close more than a half century of production.

Boeing employees who designed and built the first 747, known as the ‘Incredibles’, returned to be honoured at the Everett, Washington, factory where the journey of the 747 began in 1967. The factory produced 1,574 airplanes over the life of the program.

“This monumental day is a testament to the generations of Boeing employees who brought to life the airplane that ‘shrank the world,’ and revolutionized travel and air cargo as the first widebody,” said Stan Deal, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

“It is fitting to deliver this final 747-8 Freighter to the

Continued on pg 7

“This monumental day is a testament to the generations of Boeing employees who brought to life the airplane that ‘shrank the world,’ and revolutionized travel and air cargo as the first widebody.”

– Stan Deal, president and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplane

Atlas Air takes delivery of the last Boeing 747.

largest operator of the 747, Atlas Air, where the ‘queen’ will continue to inspire and empower innovation in air cargo.”

As the first twin-aisle airplane and ‘jumbo jet’, the Queen of the Skies enabled airlines to connect people across vast distances and provide non-stop trans-oceanic flights. Its development solidified Boeing’s role as an industry leader in commercial aviation.

The airplane’s core design with its distinctive hump and seating in the upper deck has delighted generations of passengers and operators alike. Boeing continued to improve on the original design with models like the 747-400 in 1988 and the final 747-8 model that was launched in 2005.

“We’ve carried everything on the 747 from race cars to racehorses, from rocket parts to satellites, electronics, overnight express shipments – and various forms of perishables like fresh flowers, vegetables and fish. The 747 has also been critical to carrying life-saving goods like medicine, vaccines and personal protective equipment during the pandemic and other times of need,” said John Dietrich, president and CEO, Atlas Air Worldwide.

“As the world’s largest operator of 747 freighters, Atlas is especially proud to take the last 747 ever to be built. We are grateful to Boeing for their shared commitment to safety, quality, innovation and the environment, and for their partnership to ensure the continued success of the 747 program as we operate the aircraft for decades to come.”

Moving what Matters

TRANSATLANTIC OCEAN RATES are remaining elevated in early 2023, with prices still more than 250 percent higher than in 2019.

Carriers began shifting vessels to this lane as demand out of Asia waned, helping push rates down 40 percent since August 2022. However, carriers have started removing capacity here, too, with recently blanked sailings, according to Freightos, which said in a recent analysis that supply and demand are now mismatched on the transatlantic.

In the first week of February, transpacific rates dropped by one percent, to US$1,307 per FEU. This rate is 91 percent lower than the same time last year. Asia-US East Coast prices held pat at $2,652 per FEU, and are 84 percent lower than rates for this week last year. Meanwhile Asia-N. Europe prices dropped by 15 percent to $2,920 per FEU, and are 80 percent lower than rates for this week last year.

The good news is that lower volumes are leading to less congestion and more vessels arriving on time at West Coast ports. However, falling rates are also pushing smaller carriers – who started transpacific services at the height of demand – to quit the lane. And some of the large carriers are suggesting the combination of excess capacity and falling demand could lead to a price war.

For over 100 years, Oceanex has been providing efficient and reliable intermodal transportation services safely and with environmental leadership. With our fleet of 3 vessels and the largest dedicated fleet of containers and trailers servicing the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, we keep retail shelves stocked and deliver the materials that build and support our communities, keeping the economic engines of the province running.

Child labour implicated in Canadian imports

CANADIAN CONNECTIONS TO child and forced labour continue to worsen, creating urgency for government action, according to a new report by aid agency World Vision Canada.

The Supply Chain Risk Report 2023 reveals that the value of Canadian imports of everyday products, like electronics and clothing, that are at risk of being produced by child or forced labour, has increased to $48 billion as of 2021.

The report shows a surge in imports of risky goods of over 50 percent in the last 10 years, including a 71 percent increase in electronics to $22.1 billion, a 67 percent increase in clothing to $10.7 billion, and more than 869 percent increase in imports of protective rubber gloves to more than $800 million in 2021.

World Vision Canada warns the problem is worsening due to climate change, conflict, Covid-19 and rising costs, leading to conditions that mean the number of child labourers has increased for the first time in two decades. Now, 160 million boys and girls are trapped in child labour, including 79 million who work in jobs that are dirty, dangerous

and degrading.

“Progress in the global fight to end child labour is being lost. Clearly, we need leadership from the federal government to ensure that companies are doing everything they can to both support Canadians who wish to make informed purchasing choices, and to reverse these trends in their global supply chains,” said Michael Messenger, president and CEO

of World Vision Canada.

The report urges parliamentarians to pass Bill S-211, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, which is slated for its third reading in the House of Commons in March. If passed, this bill would require companies to publicly report on their efforts to prevent the use of forced labour and child labour within their global supply chains.

of global logistics executives say they are bracing for recession amid higher costs, slowing demand, and ongoing supply chain disruption arising from China’s battle to contain Covid, Russia’s surveyed for the 2023 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index also say their shipping, storage and other logistics costs remain well above pre-pan-

“Carriers and shippers are feeling the effects of higher energy prices, tight labour markets and broader inflation even though freight rates have fallen and ports have cleared cargo backlogs,” said Agility vice-chair-

“Three years after the start of the pandemic, there is still a lot of volatility in supply chains. Now there’s fresh uncertainty as consumers and

Almost all respondents (97 percent) indicate that their businesses have been hurt by higher costs or other supply chain challenges as a result of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. There is an even split between companies planning to reduce their reliance on Chinese sourcing and those planning to expand in China. But only 11 percent of respondents say their company’s

Photo: World Vision Canada

Real estate prices remain elevated

PANDEMIC-RELATED SUPPLY chain constraints, which helped drive commodities costs up, continue to have a lingering impact on overall costs and material lead times for construction of new industrial buildings.

According to Cushman & Wakefield’s North American Industrial Costs Guide, the significantly higher interest rate environment in the United States and Canada has also provided additional upward pressure to costs.

“Construction activity in the industrial sector has raced to keep up with robust demand of the last two years in North American markets. While industrial construction pipelines continue at historically high levels, the sector is facing several headwinds,” said Brian Ungles, president, project and development services at Cushman & Wakefield.

“The demand for industrial space – largely fuelled by the e-commerce sector, has led to historic levels of construction, and competition for materials and labour. This along with widespread inflation, has driven construction costs higher.”

The industrial sector has been among the winners in the wake of the pandemic.

Skyrocketing e-commerce demand –along with focus on improved supply chains and increased interest in manufacturing onshore – has driven North American industrial demand over the past three years. In the U.S. alone, over 1.3 billion square feet (bsf) was absorbed

between 2020 and the end of 2022. The priciest markets are located in the Western U.S. and Canada. Of the top six most expensive markets, four are located on the West Coast and two are located in Canada. They are Portland; Calgary; San Diego; Seattle; Oakland; and Montreal.

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movers + shakers

Jon Turner took over as vice-president cargo at Air Canada on February 18, 2023. He replaced Jason Berry, who has returned to work at Alaska Airlines as senior vice-president of operations. Turner moves from the position of vice-president, inflight services. Turner became president, Rouge Operations in June 2019, with oversight for all aspects of Air Canada Rouge. Previously, he was vice-president, maintenance and engineering. He also served as president and CEO at Sky Regional, which operated flights under the Air Canada Express brand, and before that was executive vice-president at Air Transat. Turner holds a Bachelor of Engineering from McGill University.

Trailcon Leasing has promoted John Foss to vice-president, national accounts. Foss joined the company in 2005, and assumed positions of increasing responsibility since then. Foss is a member of the Ontario Trucking Association

board of directors and has recently been appointed to the board of directors of Trucking HR Canada. He has also been the Toronto Transportation Club president three times and remains an executive trustee.

Broadcaster Ben Mulroney is joining the advisory board of same-day, on-demand local delivery company Trexity. After a 20-year media career, Mulroney is shifting his focus from broadcast news to project development.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has appointed three new executives. J'Maine Chubb has been appointed chief financial officer. Chubb was most recently CFO of TravelWIFI in Houston, and for six years served as the CFO and controller for Houston Airport System. Chubb also held positions at Halliburton and Schlumberger. He holds a BSc in Accounting and an MBA from Wayne State University in Michigan. Chubb took over from retiring CFO Ian Clarke, who left after five years with GTAA.

Bernardo Gogna has been appointed chief infrastructure officer of the GTAA. Gogna took over the role on February 23, 2023, following the retirement of vice-president, airport development and terminal services, Pat Neville. Gogna was previously senior vice-president for AECOM Arabia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Previously, Gogna held senior airport development positions at Los Angeles World Airports and Royal Schiphol Airport Group.

Khalil Lamrabet has been appointed chief commercial officer of the GTAA . Lamrabet began this new role February 27, 2023. Lamrabet was previously CEO of the Saudi Air Connectivity Program in Riyadh and senior vice-president of aviation development for Abu Dhabi Airports. He also spent 10 years as director, aviation business development at Dubai International Airport. He earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnique Montréal and a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from McGill University.

HOW POLARIS TRANSPORTATION GROUP CONTINUES TO “RAISE THE BAR” WITH A CLEAR VISION

How does a rapidly evolving transportation company maintain the personal customer service and care of a boutique operation?

Polaris Transportation Group President and CEO, Dave Cox joined his family-owned business in 1998 and has since been overseeing its ongoing growth and success. Founded in 1994 by his parents, Larry (1945-2017) and Geri Cox, Polaris originally served as a regional freight broker trusted for delivering personal, professional services to their customers.

Polaris is now one of Canada’s largest privately held LTL carriers. Known as #CrossBorderPros, they transport hundreds of thousands of shipments between Canada and the USA every year, offering competitive transit times including next-day services to and from Toronto and select USA cities.

Their leadership team has established a unified vision honouring its fundamental values in the form of a Brand Promise – which is shared throughout all departments and divisions of the company:

“To provide industry-best cross border supply chain solutions & customer experiences through innovation and technological development while focusing on our people, customers and communities.”

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Polaris has maintained steady growth since initially serving as a preferred carrier for a small group of regional customers, “We’ve always been favoured for being agile and attentive,” Dave Cox recalls. With continued expansion, they needed to ensure they could continue taking the same personalized approach with every customer.

Their focus shifted toward technology. Cox comments, “We were thinking Next Generation Transportation. We knew technology was the answer and would allow us to scale up our business while actually improving our ability to serve.” He continues, “Our shift to a more digital and automated operation has pushed us forward and has become a real differentiator for us.”

Under the lead of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dave Brajkovich, Polaris has implemented an extensive list of digital initiatives. This began with adopting robotics – more specifically robotic process automation – for running systems in the background that would otherwise require intensive data entry labour. Now, approximately 80% of the company’s shipping documentation processing is automated.

In 2019, Polaris opened an entire division dedicated to technology development, NorthStar Digital Solutions (NDS), who launched the FR8Focus application in 2022.

In collaboration with Radaro, FR8Focus was custom-built to alleviate operational pain-points in the LTL and TL marketspace by “Connecting the road to the back office.” It offers real-time fleet and freight visibility while automating shipment document processing and unifying communications between the driver, dispatch, office and end customer.

“FR8Focus delivers internal and external solutions for carriers with speed, accuracy and simplicity. It consolidates all order data for shippers, consignees, brokers and clients to access in one place,” Brajkovich explains. Integrating FR8Focus into Polaris’ operations has relieved employees from repetitive manual tasks so they can tend to more enriching work. Dave Cox shares, “We provide a more convenient shipping experience for our clientele. At the same time, we’re making jobs for our Polaris people more fulfilling.”

PEOPLE MATTER

Polaris is committed to helping employees with their careers so if they leave after 10 or 20 years, they’d think, “Wow, this is a company that really cared about me.” With a strong HR department led by Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Laura Muir, they have fostered a positive work environment that promotes the wellbeing of their people and attracts the top talent needed to take the company to the next level.

As CHRO, Laura Muir is responsible for Polaris’ meaningful employment, “Employees don’t want to be seen as a number. They really want to feel valued, recognized and like they can impact the decisions that are happening around them.”

When a Polaris employee signs on, every effort is made to ensure they have a solid foundation, understand the culture and join a peer group. The company offers ‘fireside chats’ with Dave Cox, where new hires can ask questions and get a sense of the bigger picture.

Cox comments, “Professional development is so important. We mentor our internal talent to help them fulfill their career goals, move to the next level of leadership and to help build the next group of successors at Polaris.”

Polaris offers numerous learning and training programs, including their recently opened Larry Cox Academy, to support their team’s professional development. This is while providing a culture of diversity and inclusion in which everyone has equal opportunities to thrive. Recently, they were selected as the 2022 recipient of the Trucking HR Canada Achievement of Excellence for Women in the Workplace Award, which recognizes their commitment to women’s careers since the very beginning when founder Geri Cox set a fine example for females in the trucking industry.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Polaris’ values extend beyond their operations. While focusing inward on their people and elevating customer service standards, they designate significant time and energy to their humanitarian efforts. Year after year, Polaris has been finding more ways to raise funds, donate food and essentials and make positive contributions to all communities the company touches.

Dave Cox reflects, “We’re in a fortunate position to be able to make a real impact and we’ve always enjoyed doing it.”

Polaris supports a long list of organizations, including grassroots groups that

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 380

TRANSPORTATION ASSETS: 200 trailers, 135 trucks

DIVISIONS: 4

Polaris Transportation Group, Polaris Commercial Warehousing, Polaris Global Logistics, NorthStar Digital Solutions

FACILITIES: Head office 7099 Torbram Rd, Mississauga, ON Polaris Commercial Warehousing 205 Bethridge Rd, Etobicoke, ON

NUMBER OF CLIENTS: 1,500+

INDUSTRIES SERVED: Dry freight of all kinds including CPG (consumer package goods), appliances, medical supplies, dry goods, paper products, electrical, auto parts and high value products.

To learn more about Polaris, visit polaristransport.com

To learn more about NorthStar Digital Solutions, visit northstardigital.solutions

may not get the same attention larger charities receive but serve equally important local causes. Cox reflects, “I take immense pride in our team’s kindness and generosity,” adding, “It is our responsibility as a corporation to assist these groups that are helping our neighbours in need and I take that very seriously.”

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Over time, Polaris has shown an unwavering commitment to their customers – from the small group they served in the beginning to the 1,500+ they have now. They’ve remained proactive in providing solutions for evolving shipping demands, offering convenience with end-to-end supply chain services across their 4 divisions: Polaris Transportation, Polaris Global Logistics, Polaris Commercial Warehousing and NorthStar Digital Solutions. Their ongoing efforts to best serve their customers have earned them several awards as selected by reputable industry organizations and the North American shipping community.

Cox closes, “I am so proud of our leadership group and the entire team for helping to bring our vision to life. Not only are they working incredibly hard, they are working together as one to make Polaris a better company each and every day.”

With a clear vision built upon a solid foundation of family values, Polaris is elevating industry standards to benefit their customers and the entire shipping community. Fulfilling their Brand Promise enables them to consistently provide that original boutique experience as they continue raising the bar.

THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT

General Motors kicked off production of its BrightDrop electric van in Ingersoll, Ontario, in early December.

T he event was a big deal, marking the start of a new lease on life for the company’s Cami plant, along with the announcement that DHL Express Canada would be the Canadian launch customer for the last-mile delivery van.

BrightDrop, GM’s electric van startup is a built-in Canada success story

BrightDrop is a GM spinoff company that is producing the vans, along with a powered cart that allows drivers to offload more parcels at each stop. The van is known as a Zevo 600, with an advertised all-electric range of close to 400 km per charge. The company plans to start manufacturing the smaller Zevo 400 later in 2023.

T here are already more than 150 of the vans on the road with the company’s launch customer FedEx. They were delivered in California to FedEx Express in December 2021. This is part of a larger agreement

between FedEx and BrightDrop that will see FedEx incorporate 2,500 total Zevo 600s across FedEx operations over the next few years. And FedEx is not alone in betting on the van. BrightDrop says it has orders or commitments for more than 25,000 units on the books.

In Canada, DHL has ordered 100 of the vans, and expects them to be operating across the country by the end of the year, said DHL Express Canada’s CEO Andrew Williams in an interview. They’ll be rolled out in major centres first, with the rest of the country seeing the EVs later, he said.

For DHL, the addition of the BrightDrop vans is part of broader sustainability initiatives, which target zero emissions by 2050, and a 60 percent g reen fleet by 2030. Williams said the fact that the BrightDrop van is made in Canada is partly behind the acquisition, but the range and driveability of the vehicle were more significant factors in the decision.

“They’ve done significant amount of work to increase and improve the

range, as well as building a truck that works for our environment and our drivers,” Williams said. “When you’re putting new vehicles into your fleet, you want to make sure that your team members who are going be operating them every day are comfortable in the vehicle.”

With the 400-km range, Zevo 600 vans might not need recharging for up to five days, said Steve Hornyak, BrightDrop’s chief commercial officer, in an interview. He cited an existing customer that is able to get that much time in between charges. That allows users to mix and match vehicles within their fleets to take advantage of the charging infrastructure they have, he said.

This is particularly important as fleets dip their toes into the uncharted waters of EV deployment. “When you don’t have as much infrastructure, if you can maximize and optimize the whole process, you can deploy more EVs,” Hornyak said. “So that’s another opportunity.”

A nalyst Jamie Fox of research firm Interact Analysis suggests that the BrightDrop user Hornyak cited has found the sweet spot for minimizing the cost of ownership of EVs in a delivery fleet. Using almost the entire range every day, from 95 to five percent, is “not ideal for battery life”, he said. “But if you’ve got a 200 mile range, and you’re running at a hundred miles per day, you can run the battery from 70 percent to 30 percent every day. And if you do that, the batteries last, like, forever, easily beating the lifespan of the vehicle.”

Deciding what charging infrastructure to buy and where to put it is another significant piece of the EV cost equation, and one that can be a deterrent to EV acquisition for both large and small fleets. Large fleets may face significant costs in organizing sufficient electricity supply to their location, while smaller fleets may not be large enough users to make charger installation cost-effective.

When it comes to installing the charging equipment, Hornyak points out that BrightDrop’s association with GM is a benefit for buyers of the vans. For smaller fleets, GM will connect them with a fleet management company like Element, for example, which can help with the decision-making process. And, he added, “from an infrastructure perspective, with GM Energy, we’ve got a number of very large partners allowing us to do everything from temporary charge stations to full blown infrastructure. So, we’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle, which is quite nice,” he said.

They’ve done significant amount of work to increase and improve the range, as well as building a truck that works for our environment and our drivers.

– Andrew Williams, DHL Express Canada

Photo: Emily Atkins

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Continued from pg 15

A van ‘ecosystem’

DHL has also been participating in pilot testing of the Trace electric cart that can be purchased with the vans. It has capacity to carry up to 200 pounds (91 kilograms), and is self-propelled, although not (yet) autonomous. Williams said the cart trials have shown it’s well suited in urban centres and in areas where a driver may park a vehicle and then make multiple delivery stops while on foot.

According to BrightDrop, using the cart – which was designed in GM Canada’s Ontario lab – can make urban deliveries up to 25 percent more efficient. Hornyak said that the carts have been tested not only in Toronto’s urban core, but also in New York City, where they provided excellent results.

Hornyak said delivery companies can gain efficiencies by employing gig workers to take the carts from higher-paid van drivers and walk around with them to the final drop-off addresses. “Think of it as bifurcating the process of driving and the last hundred yards,” he explained. “And then you can use either a gig workforce or your own workforce for that last hundred yards. You can better leverage skills, and also, the driver’s more expensive for the most part than the runners. So, now you can lower your total cost delivery.”

BrightDrop has also introduced a version of the cart for grocery fulfillment that has lockable, self-contained and temperature-controlled bins. Hornyak says the grocery carts are designed for in-store picking operations where there just isn’t enough volume to use an automated micro-warehouse or a centralized facility.

According to Rueben Scriven of Interact Analysis, using the carts for in-store fulfillment offers ergonomic benefits for the picker since it is self-powered, and once filled, it can be placed at the entrance of the store for customers to retrieve their orders. “The Trace cart will eventually get loaded into the van and then be used for the customer delivery, and it will be autonomous in nature as well,” he said. “So it will be following the delivery driver as they go out to the customer door. As the system gets more and more integrated, there’ll be more and more efficiency gains that can be developed.”

Continued on pg 21

An automated Seegrid tugger brings body parts from staging to the assembly line.

DHL Canada’s Andrew Williams said the vans are comfortable to drive and offer great visibility.

DHL was announced as the Canadian launch customer at the BrightDrop plant opening.

One of the assembly robots manoeuvres a body panel on the assembly line.

Photo: Emily Atkins

Photo: Emily Atkins

Photo: Emily Atkins

Photo: Emily Atkins

Continued from pg 19

EVOLUTION OF AN EV PLANT

GM claims that the conversion of the Cami manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, was the fastest ever in its history. From 2017 until April 2022, the plant built Chevrolet Equinox SUVs. Retooling began in May 2022, and the first BrightDrop van rolled off the line at the end of November 2022, just seven months later.

The first 150 vans, built for FedEx, were manufactured in Michigan at a partner’s plant. Developing the equipment and flow there allowed GM to “develop and home in on what the manufacturing environment needed to look like,” recounted GM Canada CEO Marissa West in an interview.

“We learned a lot. It was done very manually. It was a bit of a prototype assembly line, if you think of it that way. But then we knew exactly what we needed to do in terms of the design of the manufacturing facility when got into the space that we needed.”

Once the retooling began, BrightDrop closed the temporary manufacturing plant and shipped the robots and equipment from the line there to Ingersoll. The Cami plant renovation project included everything from tearing up concrete on the floors, to knocking holes in the side of the building to bring in the huge equipment.

“To accomplish everything that we needed to accomplish in seven months is extraordinary,” West said.

“The ingenuity and the problem solving on the fly really required us to take a completely different approach to retooling a manufacturing plant. So when you talk to anyone from the team, you see an incredible amount of enthusiasm about how they needed to work collaboratively. And it really is a great demonstration of the Canadian can-do, will-do culture that we see in all of our assembly plants.”

The plant is highly automated, with massive robots – one is called Godzilla – taking on much of the heavy lifting in assembling the large pieces of the vans. But there is also a significant human element, with workers from the old Equinox line embracing the chance to learn new skills and work with the automation. Early in the process a team affixes the battery to the underbody with the help of a robotic positioner, while at the end the last step is aiming the headlights with the assistance of another robot.

Full production was slated to begin in January with a single shift and 400 workers. West said that by the end of 2023 there will be three full shifts and 1,200 workers as the BrightDrop Zevo 400 starts production. The company plans to produce 50,000 vans there by the end of 2025.

The Trace carts are currently in use for in-store order fulfillment.

Workers assembling one of the first vans.

The final step on the line is adjusting the headlights with the help of a collaborative robot.

Photo: Emily Atkins

Photo: Emily Atkins

Photo: BrightDrop

THE UYGHUR FORCED LABOR PREVENTION ACT

When you go shopping for a new product, what influences your final purchasing decision? Price? Availability? Quality? Brand?

For many people, the decision comes down to some balance of these common factors. However, a rising number of consumers now say they also consider the wider societal and environmental impacts of their purchases. Where was the product manufactured? Were the materials ethically sourced? Is this brand known for supporting fair labour practices?

These kinds of considerations hold heavy weight for today’s shoppers who value sustainability. Whether they’re purchasing clothing, food, electronics, or any other type of goods, they want to buy from companies with similar values. They’re even willing to pay more to do so. In one recent survey, 40 percent of consumers agreed that their purchases are influenced by societal factors – like how a company supports human rights. Other research has found that more than 83 percent of consumers would pay more for a product they could be sure was ethically sourced. Similarly, many investors now prioritize companies that demonstrate strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics. More than 25 percent of global investors say ESG is central to their investment approach.

Overall, it’s abundantly clear that ethical, sustainable business practices are good for business, good for people, and good for the planet.

Unfortunately, many companies are still unaware – or worse, turn a blind eye – when it comes to serious human rights violations across their supply chains.

Eradicate human rights abuses

As of 2021, an estimated 50 million people were living in slavery – with 28 million of those people working under forced labour conditions. Though awareness is rising, abuses like slave labour, child labour, and inhumane working conditions remain endemic in the global supply chain.

Now, governments around the world are issuing rules designed to tackle slavery and drive businesses to adopt ethical practices. These regulations hold companies more accountable for conducting due diligence when working with external partners, purchasing materials, and importing and exporting goods. One of the most recent policies is the United States’ Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). This legislation marks a big step to strengthen U.S. policy on importing goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where forced labour is all too prevalent.

What exporters to the U.S. need to know

A timeline of forced labour

The XUAR is a large territory in Northwest China. The area is rich in natural resources, including industrial materials like oil and natural gas. It is also a significant source of agricultural products that enter the global supply chain. In fact, Xinjiang produces 85 percent of China’s cotton and 20 percent of world’s cotton supply. Unfortunately, all these resources are entwined with conflict and human rights abuses.

The XUAR is home to about 12 million Uyghurs. They are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority completely distinct from the Han people, China’s ethnic majority. Over the past few decades, the region has been filled with inter-ethnic friction, where acts of repression, intrusive surveillance, and horrific violence have been inflicted by the Chinese government on the Uyghurs and other minorities.

Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained more than a million Uyghurs in what it calls “voluntary vocational education and training centres”. In reality, they are forced labour camps. There, Uyghurs are forced to work without pay, while subjected to political indoctrination and inhumane punishments. Families and communities are being separated, as some are shipped to work in factories elsewhere in China. The oppression is so widespread that any business sourcing materials from Xinjiang is almost certainly capitalizing on forced labour and supporting severe exploitation.

Guilty until proven innocent

As reports of injustices against the Uyghurs gradually spread, governments around the world began to take action. On December 23, 2021, US President Joe Biden signed the UFLPA into law. And on June 21, 2022, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began enforcing the act.

The UFLPA presumes that any goods mined, produced, or manufactured (either wholly or in part) in the Xinjiang region are a product of forced labour – and thereby prohibited from U.S. importation unless importers can prove otherwise. Put simply, it’s a matter of “guilty until proven innocent.”

Importers now need to either:

 Provide documentation to CBP proving that their goods are were sourced completely from outside Xinjiang.

 Or, request an exemption backed by definitive evidence that their goods were not made with forced labour.

Without proper documentation, goods may be subject to seizure and forfeiture. Any business found in violation of the UFPLA may face severe penalties. And that’s not to mention damage to brand reputation that comes along with an association to forced labour.

However, the complex and fragmented nature of today’s global supply chains make it a big challenge for importers to conduct proper due diligence. Take a fashion retailer, for instance. That company may import finished pairs of jeans from a factory in Mexico, and it can show documented proof. But where did that factory source its denim? And where did that entity source its cotton? Product provenance gets more complicated and clouded the farther you look back up the supply chain.

Using technology to support compliance

To help U.S. companies navigate UFLPA compliance, the U.S. government has issued an updated version of the Xinjiang Supply

Chain Business Advisory. The advisory outlines risks businesses should consider when conducting human rights due diligence. It also emphasizes the need for end-to-end supply chain visibility, traceability, and documentation.

Moving forward, businesses will need to know their risks and really know their products. Having the right supporting technology will be crucial. A great place to start is with automated global trade compliance software. The software automates trade documents and electronic customs reporting, enabling companies to satisfy compliance requirements, minimize regulatory exposure, perform due diligence, and ensure documentation accuracy – eliminating the time, costs, and labour involved in handling it all manually.

Here are four key tools to look for in an automated global trade compliance solution:

1. Restricted party screening: The U.S. government provides a list of entities in Xinjiang that mine, produce, or manufacture goods with forced labour. The entity list changes frequently, making it nearly impossible for companies to stay on top of changes through manual processes. Using Restricted Party Screening software, companies can automated compliance screening for due diligence. They can get automated alerts on changes, and ensure their partners are low risk.

2. Global trade compliance analytics: Businesses need ongoing insight into their compliance activities and data. Analytics tools can offer real-time visibility into compliance processing – including screening throughput, transactions under review, and failures. These tools can also monitor license and permit records expiration dates. Overall, these insights help business leaders to make smarter decisions in real time to support trade compliance.

3. Supplier relationship management: Many businesses still use spreadsheets and manual processes to manage and collaborate with their suppliers. But this approach is time consuming, costly, and leaves everyone open to risk. Supplier relationship management software serves a single, digital system for managing supplier information, improving supplier selection, and monitoring supplier performance. The software also automatically collects and organizes supplier documents required for regulatory compliance.

4. Import management: By automating import processes, companies can prevent costly delays and clear their trade goods through CBP and other government agencies in a quick and efficient way. Import management software ensures imports are properly classified with the correct commodity codes, then proactively identifies any incoming goods with admissibility requirements. It can also automatically produce the proper import documentation, and screen suppliers and supply chain parties from end to end.

Supporting a sustainable future

Government regulations like the UFLPA are undoubtedly a step in the right direction for combatting forced labour. But fully eradicating human rights abuses in the global supply chain will require the combined power of governments, consumers, and businesses alike. Armed with the right information and tools, businesses can begin to play their part in the effort to create ethical supply chains and a sustainable future for all.

Jerry Peck is vice-president of product management at QAD

Innovations

that count

A peek at Promat innovation award contestants

At Promat 2023, organizer MHI will present the 2023 Innovation Awards. The MHI Innovation Award serves to educate and provide valuable insights on the latest manufacturing and supply chain products and services. The winners will be decided from among the following contestants, based on presentations at the show. Entries are judged in three categories: Best new product, best innovation of an existing product and best IT innovation. Here are our picks.

HYDROGEN FUEL CELL

Plug Power has come up with a new high-voltage 80VDC hydrogen fuel cell for lift trucks, designed to increase warehouse productivity. With its continuous 19.1Kw high power output and refuelling time of less than three minutes, it promises to increase fleet uptime. When combined with Plug’s Green Hydrogen the company claims it reduces C02 emissions up to 85 percent compared to any lithium or lead-acid battery.

NARROW AISLE FORKLIFT AND SLIP-SHEET

Irish forklift specialist Combilift comes in with two products this year. The Aisle-Master OP (AME-OP) is a stand-on articulated forklift that the company says is the first of its kind. It allows narrow-aisle operation, delivery from truck to rack, bulk picking and item order picking. The step-through operator compartment has design copyright protection. Its patented chain steering system allows the truck to articulate more than 205 degrees. The AME-OP is available in a number of variants, with lift capacities from 4,400 to 5,500lb, lift heights up to 39ft and can operate in aisles as narrow as 76 inches with a 48-in. deep pallet.

Combilift’s second entry is a slip-sheet designed for loading containers. The Combilift Container Slip-Sheet (Combi-CSS) is a free-standing, electric-powered, semi-automated machine for loading and unloading containers from 20 to 53 feet long. It has a container-chassis docking system and a bi-direction, horizontally moving Hardox Steel Slip-Sheet with a capacity of 65,000lb. A full load of product can be prepared on the plate and loaded into the container. It can load 20-foot containers in three minutes and allows for reduced product handling and lift-truck utilization, increasing safety, and reducing product damage.

The Aisle-Master OP (AME-OP) is a stand-on articulated forklift.

AUTONOMOUS FORKLIFT

Ontario-based Otto Motors has entered its “Lifter” autonomous forklift. Its core skill is autonomously picking up and dropping off pallets from the floor to other equipment, such as a conveyor up to 30 inches off the ground. Lifter recognizes and moves pallets to and from stands without operator intervention, for one-touch autonomous lane clearing. Using AI capabilities, it can pick up and drop off pallets that are off-centre by up to 15 degrees, and safely pierce stretchwrapped pallets with up to four wraps of clear ply, the company says. With a maximum payload capacity of 2,650lb, Lifter works alongside people, other vehicles, and existing infrastructure for as little as $9/hour, according to Otto Motors.

Ground Mounted Trailer Support (GMTS) that automatically prevents trailer collapse. The company says the design was inspired by a customer that wanted a ‘No Boots on the Ground’ approach to keep workers safe. Collapsed into a low profile, speedbump-like unit, the incoming trailer can be backed over the GMTS into its dock position. When the truck departs, a push of a button from safely inside the dock makes the GMTS rise from the ground, to support trailer and forklift working within.

SMART LABELLING

Pineberry Manufacturing, from Oakville, Ontario, has entered its InstaPrint solution. It allows customization and printing directly onto a wide range of materials with ink-receptive surfaces such as cardboard, postcards, envelopes, boxes, paper bags, wooden planks, or thicker objects like blister envelopes or folded boxes ready for shipment.

LITHIUM-ION BATTERY MANAGEMENT

Quebec-based UgoWork’s Fleet Management Portal is a lithium-ion battery management system that translates kWh, amp hours, pedal time and unit temperature data into information fleet managers can use to increase uptime and reduce costs.

RETROFIT DOCK LEVELLER

pany says its TLH Retrofit leveller is the only retrofit horizontally storing dock leveller in North America with telescoping lip design for precise control of lip placement on the trailer, resulting in safer and more efficient loading. It is designed to retrofit into a standard existing six- by eight-foot, or seven- by eight-foot dock pit. The telescoping lip design provides the safety of horizontal storage without sacrificing the four-corner seal at the dock.

REWRITABLE TOTE LABEL

The Ricoh Laser Rewritable Labeling System uses a dedicated label that can be rewritten, erased, and then rewritten at high speed while permanently attached to a reusable tote. This eliminates the need for label replacement and label disposal work, plus the procurement of label stock. This improves efficiency, reduces waste and cuts costs. The durable label can be used for a long period of time even under harsh outdoor conditions. The new Laser Rewritable Labeling System, allows both human- and machine-readable real-time information to be rewritten and erased without removing the label.

LIGHT DUTY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

BATTERY MANAGEMENT FOR WAREHOUSE DEVICES

Mississauga, Ontario-based SOTI’s XSight offers diagnostic intelligence and support for battery powered warehouse devices. In an environment where 35 percent of IT leaders reported up to 25 percent of annual budgets being allocated for battery replacement, XSight, with features like a Smart Battery Dashboard, can predict when batteries will fail. This allows businesses to proactively replace them, reducing chances of downtime and contributing to less e-waste. SOTI XSight allows IT teams to track the health of device accessories, identify specific issues and address them to reduce the need to replace entire device fleets based on estimated warranty or for the latest model.

TRAILER SUPPORT

Ideal Warehouse Innovations, based in Woodbridge, Ontario, has developed a

Nordock is promoting its telescoping-lip dock leveller for an award in the innovation of an existing product category. The com-

Bastian Solutions’s ML2 mini-load autonomous vehicle is designed to automate a variety of light- and intermediate-weight applications. The ML2 can tow, convey and lift carts, cases, bins and other small to medium payloads. An independent drive suspension system, true ZTR (zero turn radius) and bi-directional travel makes the ML2 unlike any other mini load vehicle on the market, Bastian says. Equipped with modular payload deck configuration options, the ML2 can accommodate a wide array of tasks and payload needs.

Lifter from Otto Motors can autonomously lift pallets up to 30 inches off the ground

The TLH Retrofit leveller is designed to retrofit into a standard existing dock

Bastian’s ML2 is suited for lightweight applications like bins or totes

FOUR WAYS

IT INNOVATION WILL CHANGE SUPPLY CHAINS IN 2023

Watch for big data, AI and IoT advances to change the way you do business

We all know we’ve been through two years of crazy upheaval and disruption, and yet it also feels like a golden age of innovation and technological advances. 2023 is going to be the most exciting year yet. Here’s my take on the technologies to watch in the year ahead.

Big data as a service (BDaaS)

Supply chain professionals are now more aware that they don’t have to build their own data lakes, data warehouses, and other infrastructure that used to require entire teams and lots of resources. Increasingly, they are signing up with companies that will aggregate data from multiple sources in any format and ensure that it is fully governed for quality and security.

A governed, centralized data repository that can handle semi-structured and unstructured data enables teams to access all relevant data for easier, custom analysis. These new tools let companies put supply chain data next to other sensitive information like financials or customer details, making advanced analytics much more comprehensive and useful.

As a result, the supply chain industry will increasingly see performance data integrated into executive dashboards as it’s leveraged in new ways. By eliminating a huge IT burden, companies can now better use all their data, and this will cement the supply chain’s presence in the boardroom. Look for logistics BDaaS to take off in 2023.

More natural interactions with AI

AI is rapidly becoming more usable outside of the niche realm of calculating an ETA or a route. And while AI models have been evolving for some time, we will see a paradigm shift in how people interact with machines.

For the supply chain industry, imagine a future where, rather than wading through a sea of dashboards, you can prompt AI to give you the information or analytics you need. More specifically, I’m referring to the shift from clunky user interfaces and search engines, to naturally conversing with AI tools that deliver content – or code – that can be remarkably sophisticated and human-like.

And if you think I’m exaggerating the possible implications, consider that Google management recently issued a “code-red” to various internal teams over concerns that ChatGPT – the AI chatbot created by OpenAI – represents an existential threat to the future of Google’s ubiquitous search engine.

While the potential is massive, it’s also well-known that ChatGPT is far from perfect today. It can’t tell facts from misinformation. It sometimes spits out offensive responses and outright makes stuff up. So, these new AI bots very much need thoughtful training and shepherding from human partners – which brings me to my next prediction.

The rise of “prompt engineering”

As we begin to interface more naturally with AI, we’ll see the rise of the “machine-assisted developer” and “prompt engineering.” For an explanation of prompt engineering, I asked ChatGPT for a definition.

Here’s what I got:

Prompt engineering is the process of designing and creating prompts for language models, such as chatbots or virtual assistants. These prompts are used to guide the conversation or task being performed by the language model, and are typically designed to be clear and concise, while also providing enough context for the model to understand and respond appropriately.

The goal of prompt engineering is to create a seamless and natural

user experience, while also ensuring that the language model is able to accurately understand and respond to user input. This can involve testing and iterating on different prompts to find the most effective ones, as well as ongoing maintenance and updates to keep the prompts relevant and accurate.

Not a bad explanation. We’re at the start of a genuine paradigm shift in how developers will work, where the job won’t be to write the perfect line of code, but rather to effectively prompt AI to output the perfect line of code. Personally, I’ve always appreciated the creativity and craft inherent in great coding. It’s not just math. And going forward, the new and highly creative skill of prompt engineering will be in greater demand as we rely on talented developers to get the best out of AI – which, as the Financial Times rightly pointed out in a recent article, is simply not “quite smart enough yet for just anyone to be able to use them successfully.” And won’t be for some time to come.

IoT delivers

IoT devices will continue to come down in price, while capabilities improve. New form factors and more highly attuned sensors will give supply chain professionals the ability to not only track orders and individual assets with unprecedented precision, but also the ability to monitor pressure, temperature, light

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

CHATGPT –THREE RED FLAGS FOR S UPPLY CHAIN USERS

What does ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, mean for supply chains?

Supply chain guru Kevin O’Marah, founder of Zero100 and former director at Amazon recently suggested that it breaks the trust required for successful supply chain operations. “If you can’t spot the difference between what the chatbot says and what your best people would say, you are in trouble. At first, it will seem innocuous or even helpful, especially if the ChatGPT answer is 80 to 90 percent correct. In time, however the lack of human perspective bridging information sucked from hundreds of websites to the context of your question, will fail you, and perhaps spectacularly,” he blogged on the Zero100 website.

“ChatGPT will worsen the trust deficit, at least for now, by enabling people who know nothing about a topic to sound like experts. Supply chain leaders should learn how to use this new tool/toy if we want to maintain and build trust with customers.”

He added that using the tool may stifle innovation because “it can answer questions, but it can’t imagine operational breakthroughs.”

Furthermore, O’Marah said while the results of a ChatGPT serach may look credible, there’s no research trail, no citatiions, nothing to back the answer up. In short, treat it with a good deal of skepticism.

and other critical environmental factors at every step of the journey.

These are highly valuable capabilities for shippers and customers of everything from ice cream and other perishable goods to pharmaceuticals that require 100 percent cold chain integrity from the manufacturer to the final destination. With 5G networks practically ubiquitous right now, we’ll see an explosion in the use of IoT devices in the supply chain in the coming year.

Data as the common thread

The common theme in 2023 is one we’ve all become very familiar with – data. IoT devices will create more of it – people estimate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day; BDaaS will help us store and manage it; and AI will make better use of it. While creating, storing and making use of data has been generating billions in profits for many companies for many years, the supply chain industry is just now catching up.

There’s no better evidence for the market opportunity than the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft all making plays for their slice of the logistics data pie. And I suspect that there’s plenty to go around.

Delbert Cope is an IT professional, with experience as CTO at Fourkites, Blue Newt Software and has been involved in numerous startups.

The year in review2022

According to Trucking HR Canada’s January 2023 Labour Market Snapshot, total Canadian employment in trucking and logistics during 2022 was 737,000 workers, down from 755,000 in 2021 but still well above the 10-year average of 705,000 (2013 to 2022). The sector’s unemployment rate averaged 3.2 percent in 2022, down from 4.5 percent in 2021. These numbers indicate that the labour supply in trucking and logistics shrank by 3.7 percent, down by over 29,000 workers from 2021.

The number of vacancies for shippers and receivers and for delivery and courier service drivers rose between Q2 and Q3 of 2022 by 660 vacancies and 1,110 vacancies respectively, while the number of vacant dispatcher jobs fell by 195 positions in Q3. As a result, shortages seen earlier in 2022 persisted through the third quarter.

A SNAPSHOT

OF THE CANADIAN LABOUR MARKET

Shortages still plague logistics sector hiring

Estimated labour shortages, selected key occupations, trucking and logistics sector, Q3 2022

Truck driver shortage and recovery

In the third quarter of 2022, Canada’s truck driver labour force amounted to close to 320,000 drivers including those who are fully employed or who are actively seeking work. 60 percent of these drivers work directly in the truck transportation sector, with the remaining 40 percent working in industries such as construction, agriculture, mining and oil & gas extraction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and more.

“ Even before the pandemic, the driver shortage was threatening growth. In 2020, Trucking HR Canada estimated that the driver shortage was costing the truck transportation industry as much as $3.1 billion in lost revenues every year. And other sectors are experiencing the impact of the driver shortage too. For example, the Forestry Products Association of Canada estimates that the truck driver shortage is costing their industry about $450 million in lost business.”

Angela Splinter, CEO of Trucking HR Canada

Rising wages

According to Normandin Beaudry’s latest report, 48 percent of organizations changed their projected salary increases for the coming year. In Canada, the average budget was higher than initial forecasts and historical twenty-year trends, increasing from 3.8 percent leading up to last summer to 4.2 percent in fall 2022, excluding wage freezes.

Regional success

“Despite volatile economic conditions, organizations are continuing to invest in their pay raise budgets to adapt to an extremely competitive job market,” said Darcy Clark, senior principal, compensation at Normandin Beaudry.

Although the number of companies in Greater Montreal between 2012 and 2021 decreased from 6,297 to 6,089, the total number of jobs in transportation and warehousing increased by nearly 24 percent, from 43,700 to 54,100. In terms of indirect jobs, namely the role of logistics at manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, we can factor in about 75,000 additional jobs, for a total of close to 130,000 jobs in Greater Montreal.

Source: Trucking HR Canada. (2023). Labour Market Snapshot: January 2023. Ottawa: Trucking HR Canada.

THE THREE AMIGOS AND A NORTH AMERICAN SUPPLY CHAIN

Friend-shoring makes it to the agenda as Canada, Mexico and the U.S. get together

THE TERM FRIEND-SHORING came up a lot during the “three amigos” summit in Mexico City a few weeks ago. These meetings between Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, United States President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are held about every two years.

This edition had a full agenda, focusing on migration, energy and trade. Trade is vital for both Canada and Mexico – 75 precent of our exports go to the U.S., while 80 percent of Mexican exports go there. Incidentally, Canada is the first destination of U.S. exports, so we believe we are an important customer and hope they feel the same way about us.

Border concerns

Migration and border issues are of paramount importance to the Mexico-U.S. relationship, as almost 2.4 million migrants arrived at the border in 2022. As well, the U.S. immigration system needs to address the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, so this is a politically charged issue for our neighbours.

Work needs to be done on energy policies. The U.S. has become a major exporter of oil and gas, mostly through fracking, an environmentally questionable practice. Canada is in an odd position: we are a substantial energy producer but our green agenda limits the development of the appropriate infrastructure necessary to enable more exports, particularly to Asia, let alone supplying energy to Central Canada. So our energy exports, coming mainly from Alberta, increasingly move to the U.S. by rail. Mexico on the other hand, continues to cling to fossil fuels, with questionable policies that favour the state-owned company PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos).

Regional supply chain

The most promising outcome of the summit is the statement made by the three amigos that they want to create a North American regional supply chain, to lessen our dependence on other countries, particularly China. This is a

legitimate goal, given the supply chain disruptions experienced during the pandemic, as a result of which, reshoring has become a priority for many countries.

To clarify the terms, offshoring is the relocation of manufacturing from a given country to a low-cost, often far away country. It started in the 1960s and intensified in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, resulting in Asia becoming the factory of the world. Reshoring refers to moving that production back to the original country where the products are used, or at least closer to it, hence the creation of the term “regional supply chains”.

Systematic offshoring led to globalization, and the pandemic illustrated how we became unreasonably dependent on these low-cost countries for our supplies. Bringing manufacturing closer to consumption greatly reduces the risks of disruptions.

Friend-shoring

Friend-shoring, a “cousin” of reshoring, refers to relocating supply chains to countries with shared values, in particular democracy and respect for the rule of law, to encourage manufacturing and stimulate economic

growth within that group. In short, we should not continue to support and strengthen autocracies and adversaries, just because they have lower costs.

What are examples of friend-shoring and who would benefit, and want to move away from authoritarian regimes for key products? Limiting our purchases of energy and raw materials from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine is a good example, though we haven’t gone to the extent of cutting supplies from those other countries that support Russia, directly or indirectly. That’s probably because there would be too many, in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Looking at semiconductors, there are developments with South Korea and Europe. Countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have started to benefit from companies moving production out of China. Toymaker Lego recently broke ground in Asia on a new massive factory located not China, but in Vietnam. Apple has announced plans to move some iPhone production to India, in order to cut its reliance on China. One could object that Vietnam is not a particularly democratic country or that the Hindu nationalism promoted by India’s P.M. Modi is not very inclusive, but this is another debate.

In the same vein, many companies in the automotive, toys and electronics sector have moved production away from China to Mexico. Hopefully Canada will benefit as well, although we remain concerned about recent U.S. tendencies to favour local production, as we saw in the Infrastructure Act and as we heard in President Biden’s latest State of the Union speech about creating American jobs. And speaking about friend-shoring, Europeans are as concerned as we are about the protectionist wind blowing from Washington.

Hopefully some of this is politically motivated and the advantages of a strong North American supply chain will prevail. So, in a generally less-friendly world, let us embrace friend-shoring!

CHRISTIAN SIVIÈRE runs Solimpex, and is an international trade consultant and lecturer. christian.siviere@videotron.ca

THAT WAS CLOSE:

Five things to examine after a near miss

WHEN YOU IGNORE a near miss, you are wasting a golden opportunity to prevent the same circumstances from arising again and causing injuries to workers. Most of us are used to the idea of reporting a hazard when we see one. We know that it is our responsibility to ensure something is done about it before anyone is harmed. We also know why it’s important to report incidents when someone has been hurt.

However, when no one notices the hazard beforehand and no injury or damage occurs, do you still need to do something? Reporting a near miss is somewhere between reporting a hazard and reporting an incident. It can be a bit confusing. A near miss is an incident in which there is no injury or property damage, but, given a slight shift in time or position, injury or damage could have occurred.

All organizations, including warehouses, need to include near misses in their health and safety reporting strategies. They provide a golden opportunity to control a hazard that you may not have known existed, without anyone experiencing an injury. A near miss report will trigger an investigation that lets you identify the root causes and develop controls to prevent what could be a costly incident that impacts both employees and the business.

Encourage near miss reporting

Near misses can be common events in warehouses. Here’s an example: an employee is walking near a loading dock, where lift trucks are emptying trailers and driving goods to other areas of the warehouse. Suddenly, a lift truck seems to come out of nowhere and very nearly hits the pedestrian, who takes evasive action. The driver and pedestrian acknowledge each other with relief, but don’t report the close call.

Non-reporting of near misses hampers your efforts to protect workers, so it’s critical to understand why workers are

Hygiene for Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS).

hesitant. It may be fear of getting themselves or others in trouble. That’s a sign that you need to develop a more positive safety culture, one where reporting is safe, not punished.

Communicate why you need near miss reports, what you will do with them, and how they can help prevent an incident from happening. Don’t discipline; commend. Give workers who may still be reluctant an easy way to report near misses anonymously.

Get to the root cause(s)

When you receive a near miss report, it needs to be analyzed to isolate root causes and identify controls. There are five elements to look at: people, equipment, materials, environment and processes. Ask questions to help you figure out all possible contributing factors.

Using the warehouse near miss example above, for instance, you could ask:

People:

Was the operator trained to provide right of way to pedestrians?

Does the operator use their horn to warn pedestrians of their presence when necessary?

Equipment:

Does the lift truck have safety features including spotter lights to warn pedestrians before the lift truck can be seen?

Do all pedestrians wear high visibility apparel?

Material:

Can the operator see over the pallet load when

travelling forward?

Are pallet loads secure to prevent unwanted movement when stopping or turning corners?

Environment:

Are pallet loads stored on the floor in designated areas to reduce pallet clutter?

Are there designated aisleways for lift truck operators and walkways for pedestrians to ensure separation between the two?

Process:

Has an assessment been completed to determine “no pedestrian zones”?

Are employees permitted to walk throughout the warehouse without using designated walkways, resulting in operators encountering pedestrians unexpectedly?

Control the situation

Once the root cause(s) has been identified, the next step is to develop and implement appropriate controls to eliminate risks. These might include:

 People: Provide training to both operators and pedestrians, which includes right of way at intersections.

 Equipment: Install safety features on lift trucks including spotter lights and ensure everyone wears CSA approved high visibility apparel.

 Material: Keep loads on forks at a height that gives the operator a clear line of sight.

 Environment: Store pallet loads in marked designated areas and install floor markings to separate the lift truck aisleway from the pedestrian path.

 Process: Establish “no pedestrian” zones where there is busy lift truck movement, such as loading docks, and enforce.

When you take the time to report, investigate, and analyze near misses, you greatly contribute to a healthier and safer workplace for all. If you ignore them, you waste an opportunity to protect everyone who enters your workplace.

NORM KR AMER, CRSP, P.MM, provides expert, in-depth health and safety consulting services for WSPS as a Warehouse Specialist in the GTA region.

TONI VOLPATO, CRSP, CIH, provides indepth consulting services as a Specialized Consultant in Occupational