NITROGEN PACKAGING

Nitrogen is an inert gas that barely dissolves in water and is not combustible. Therefore, it is an ideal gas for inertisations in different industries. Its low boiling point (-196ºC) makes it the ideal refrigeration agent for freezing and refrigeration processes.

The Nitrogen applies in various sectors:

– Chemical industry: Inerting or blanketing for flammable chemicals, bulk materials or powder, Temperature control in tanks and reactors, Freezing of pipes for repair and maintenance work.

– Welding and cutting: Auxiliary gas for laser and plasma cutting, Gas for root protection in pipe welding.

– Automotive and transport: Root protection in the welding of automobile components, Filling of aircraft tires and race cars.

– Metallurgy and metal industry: Heat treatment of metals to provide a surface of more quality and flexibility, Lace of metal pieces, Fine in the production of steel and aluminum.

– Environment: Recovery of volatiles (VOCs) from gas and vapor emissions, Recycling of plastics and tires through the cryogenic grinding process.

– Feeding: Freezing and refrigeration of food, Gas for food packaging in modified atmosphere, Cryogenic grinding of spices, Cryo Cooking with nitrogen in haute cuisine.

– Health: Cryogenic conservation of biological samples, Cryosurgery and dermatology, Propellant gas for medical devices.

– Pharmaceutical industry: Auxiliary material for the production of active substances, Inertization of equipment, Temperature control in reactors.

 

PACKAGING

Bottles and liquid containers: Nitrogen in bottles and blocks of high pressure (200 and 300 bar) from a capacity of 1 to 235 m3. Also liquid nitrogen in fixed or transportable cryogenic containers (dewars) of various sizes.

Liquid supply: liquid nitrogen by tank truck offering cryogenic storage tanks of different capacities.

Supply On-site: For a greater demand of nitrogen exists installation of on-site generation plants.

Gas pipeline supply: To large consumer customers located in large industrial areas the supply is provided through a network of gas pipelines to ensure the greatest flexibility and reliability of supply.

 

 

PANTRY HOME LOGISTICS – STOCK ZERO

The best example of a daily logistics is your home, yes, your home, more concretely your pantry.

The pantry of our houses is as a warehouse in the factories. We have two kinds of products stored, perishable and non-perishable. All the foods and drinks are consumed as a FIFO (First In First Out) System, because this kind of products have sell-by-date. But in the case of toilet paper it doesn’t matter the system we use because de durability of this type of products is greater.

On the occasion of the economic crisis the consumer behavior has changed. Consumers buy more frequently and, consequently, store less quantity and throw away less food. That is, they rationalize purchases and the quantities of food they cook.

This trend coincides with a technique “Just in Time” or zero stock. This technique consists in that companies tend to have the minimum warehouse in order not to incur fixed costs and adjust their orders according to their sales forecast, transferring stock management to their suppliers. These in turn will do the same with their suppliers and so on.

Currently we only buy what is going to be consumed. The objective is to maximize the budget, limit the losses and store when the product has long duration and very attractive prices.

Below you can see an interesting video explaining how Toyota apply Just-In-Time concept:

ZARA PACKAGING

Regarding my first post in the blog, I want to talk about Zara again, but in this case about packaging.

When you buy a Zara product by internet you receive it in a package like this:

Inside the box, the clothes are very well bent and with its plastics. But I wonder, is it necessary so much material in the package? Because the clothes can be only inside the box, without other papers, in order to decrease the costs in materials.

Maybe it is a reason for marketing, making to the customer to buy more by internet because when you receive the product you can be sure it is in perfects conditions and quality.

You can see a very interesting video about ZARA`s strategy below:

AMAZON DASH BUTTON – KANBAN METHOD IN YOUR HOME

Amazon has created a new way to replenish your home products, now you don’t need to go to the supermarket and buy them, you just have to press a button located near to the product you want to replenish and then it is directly bought by Amazon Prim and delivered in your home 24 hours later.

This button is associated with a Prime product from the Amazon catalog and is connected to home Wi-Fi, so that when you press it, a purchase of that product is automatically generated, which you can have the next day in your house thanks to the Amazon Prime one day delivery.

For more information you can take a look to the web page: 

https://www.amazon.com/ddb/learn-more

Below you can see the promo video of Spain:

 

DELIVERY OF FOOD AT HOME

I am sure all of you have order food at home, such as pizza, kebab, chinese food, etc. When I have ordered it I always think how they plan the logistic for deliver the food in the corresponding address.

I propose two options:

1. A FIFO (First In First Out) system: They deliver the orders in the sequence in which they have been requested regardless of the location of the address.
2. A FIFO system taking into account the location of the address, that is to say, they deliver the orders in the sequence in which they were requested, but also, they have into account if the orders are close on the dealer’s route.

I think the second option is better for the reason that they can save gas money and deliver time, because the same delivery man can deliver several orders in the same journey. But it has a little problem, they must wait a bit between some requests in order to have deliveries in the same route.

FOOD LOGISTICS IN THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF BURGOS (SPAIN)

The food logistics in a hospital must be very rigorous because each patient has a different diet with different restrictions, intolerances and allergies. I am going to explain how the University Hospital of Burgos works.

On the ground floor of the building there are different rooms, each for a type of food such as meat, fish, vegetables, etc. so as not to mix them and cause problems due to allergies and intolerances. (See video, min. 1:12 to 1:40)

The meals are prepared in other room considering the diet of each patient supervised by a dietitian. Each meal is located into a cart which preserves temperature, both heat and cold. (See video, min. 2:52 to 3:15)

All the carts are sent to the corresponding floors of the hospital where the nurses can distribute the trays with the food to each patient. (See video, min. 3:15 to 3:44)

After the patients finish the meals, all the trays are in the carts again and are gone down to the ground floor again in order to clean them up. (See video, min. 3:44 to 4:34)

Video:

 

MILK PACKAGING

Why 1L milk packages have square shape and 1,5 L milk packages have circular shape? The latter has only 0,5 liters more and the shape is different, which is the reason? But the shape is not the only difference, the square shape packages are made of paper-based material and the other ones of plastic material.

For the contrary, in the case of juices all are saved in paper square packages, independently if they have 1 or 1.5 L. Maybe the reason why all of them are in square shapes is because this way is cheaper and the material of this kind of packages are suitable for a good conservation of the juice.

But then we can ask ourselves, depending on the amount of milk, Does the method of preservation is different? It has no sense, so, maybe the reason is simply aesthetic or one way to quickly differentiate one size from another.

Also exists other types of milk packages such as transparent glass bottles, for natural milk which needs to be consumed quickly, and plastic bags, which are used in other countries. You can see the plastic bag packaging process in the next video:

ZARA – LOGISTICS IN SALES PERIOD

In the beginning of the year and in summer season, is produced the biggest movement of products between seller and consumer, this is the sales period. Nowadays, with sales on internet, this movement increase considerably. I want to focus on textile sector, more concretely in Zara, from Inditex.

Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies. It belongs to Inditex, one of the world’s largest distribution groups with eight brands (Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe) and 7504 stores in 94 markets around the world, of which 2266 are Zara shops. The customer is at the heart of their unique business model, which includes design, production, distribution and sales through their extensive retail network.

In last winter sales period I went shopping and I thought about the big logistic organization must exists in order to supply the needs and requests of customers in shops and online orders.

When you buy a product in Zara webpage you can choose the store in which you are going to pick up your purchase. In my case, my delivery would be in Valladolid, city with 5 Zara stores, then I get a question, the delivery time will be the same if you choose any store in the same city? or on the contrary, does it depend on the store you choose?

This both previous questions make me think about more issues:

• How they plan which product must be delivered in one store or another?
• All the products which are delivered to the same city come from the same warehouse? If this is not the case, what is the meeting point to gather all the products?
• Are they shipped in the same truck?
• If a store has more order volume, do they get the orders quickly due to transportation costs will be lower since the transport truck will be full?
• Exists movement of products directly between stores or they must go to warehouses firstly?

In order to answer some of these questions, you can see the following video, where is explained that the suppliers send their merchandise to their distribution center in Spain and from there, all of these clothes are distributed to each of their stores around the world. Distribution is done twice a week and in this way what they achieve by this is that what is being offered in the stores is constantly updated.

Inditex has 10 logistics centers located in Spain, close to the head offices of our eight brands. Most production is also carried out in proximity, cutting travel distances, and reducing energy consumption and emissions.

Their logistics centers are next ones: Arteixo (A Coruña), Cabanillas del Campo (Guadalajara), Elche (Alicante), Meco (Madrid), Narón (A Coruña), Onzonilla del Campo (León), Palafolls (Barcelona), Sallent (Barcelona), Tordera (Barcelona) y Zaragoza.

You can find more information about Inditex logistics in the link below:

https://www.inditex.com/how-we-do-business/our-model/logistics

Of course, this information is not enough to answer all the questions in detail, because it is more concrete and specific of the internal management of the company.

Zara is an example, but all the questions proposed can be applied for other companies which distribute a lot of different products to stores located throughout different places in the world with several stores in the same city.

Sources:

https://www.inditex.com/