INDUSTRY - MITRANS MEETING 2011

In conjunction with our last Green and Reverse Logistics workshop in March 2011, Malaysia Institute of Transport (MITRANS), UiTM is conducting and expanding the discussion with more various stakeholders in the industry (i.e. manufacturers, third party logistics and government agencies).

MITRANS is taking the lead in green supply chain initiative in Malaysia with the collaboration of Malaysian Logistics Council. Thus, the meeting will be focused on the business sustainability agenda, experience sharing, getting feedback and establishing the network.

 The details as below:

Venue              : i-Learn Meeting Room, MITRANS UiTM, Shah Alam

Date                : 26 April 2011

Time                : 2.30 pm- 5.00pm

 Agenda:

Time	Agenda
2.30pm - 3.30pm	Introduction and presentation from MITRANS
3.30pm - 4.30pm	Round table discussion
4.30pm - 5.00pm	Hi-tea

Please call Ms. Hasmawati Mat Hassan at 013-3991835.

Toyota Sells One-Millionth Prius in the U.S.

TORRANCE, Calif., April 5, 2011 – Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today announced the one-millionth sale of the Toyota Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid gas-electric vehicle, in the United States. It is the third milestone for Toyota's hybrid lineup in the last six months that started with the announcement of worldwide Toyota Prius sales topping two million in October 2010 and overall global Toyota hybrid sales passing three million last month.

"Since the Prius went on sale eleven years ago not a year has gone by when it hasn't been the number one selling hybrid vehicle in the U.S," said Bob Carter, Toyota Division group vice president and general manager. "Prius has become synonymous with the word hybrid and as we see fuel prices starting to rise again, it has accounted for more than 60 percent of hybrid passenger car sales so far this year. Prius paved the way for hybrids and while it is still the hybrid leader in sales and fuel economy, I'm proud to say that since its introduction, 13 other auto brands have seen the benefits of hybrid technology and joined the hybrid market."

The third-generation Prius topped the EPA's list of the Most Fuel Efficient Vehicles for 2011. It has been named the Best Overall Value of the Year for the last nine years in a row by IntelliChoice, and has the highest owner loyalty of any mid-size vehicle for four of the last five years according to R.L. Polk. More than 97 percent of all Toyota Prii sold since 2000 are still on the road.

Since it was introduced in the U.S. in 2000, Prius, when compared to the average car, has saved American consumers more than an estimated 881 million gallons of gas, $2.19 billion in fuel costs, and 12.4 million tons of CO2 emissions.

In January 2011 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Toyota debuted the Prius v, the first vehicle to be debuted as part of the Prius family marketing strategy. Prius v, which goes on sale in third quarter of 2011, is a mid-size vehicle that provides more than 50 percent additional interior cargo space than the current Prius. In early 2012 Prius will launch two more Prius family members – the Prius c compact hybrid vehicle and the Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicle.

Our comment :

Toyota is very well known for innovation. Not only for their product, their supply chain management has created a new benchmark and admired by their competitors and other industries. We had a great opportunity to have a speaker from UMW Toyota Malaysia in our last workshop series, we admired on how well their lean supply chain management being synchronize into their most popular TPS (Toyota Production System). Hybrid cars will be the next generation preferred model. Toyota not only lean in their practice and process, they really mean GREEN!

Agility Invests In Malaysia Logistics Facility

Friday, April 01, 2011 — Logistics Insight Asia - Top Story

Agility has broken ground on a logistics facility in Melaka, Malaysia. The new facility is scheduled to open in September and will house the Melaka branch office of Agility.

The new logistics center will support a variety of industry sectors and will target the growing alternative renewable energy industries in Melaka. It will also provide a full range of vendor managed inventory (VMI) and other logistics services to Agility's customers in this sector.

"Agility is at the forefront of developing its logistics services for the renewable energy sector in Malaysia," said Mike Gildea, Agility, CEO, Southeast Asia. "We are very proud to support the pioneering work of the State of Melaka in developing the Melaka World Solar Valley to facilitate industries in this fast emerging market sector. Malaysia is a strategically important country for us and opening this facility is another example of our long-term commitment."

The new 11,890 square meter hub will incorporate the latest energy saving technology and has been designed to meet the latest ecological standards, to include maximizing the use of natural light to reduce energy costs. The hub will be TAPA certified and will have 10 loading docks, a full staging area and will be able to handle both dangerous and non-dangerous goods.

Agility provides logistics services in Malaysia with 500 employees, seven offices and 50,000 square meters of warehouse space. Its Malaysia office serves customers in a range of industries, comprising automotive, hi-tech, retail, renewable energy and telecommunications.

Our comment; To drive a green initiative in Malaysia, we should look at the commercial sector. The focus should be more on the whole supply chain. The closed loop supply chain from the source until the end plus with the extension of the reverse supply chain, from procurement, manufacturing and packaging, storage, distribution and recycling.

While it is very good for this company (Agility) to start with their green building, we hope the manufacturers (their customers) will also playing their role for this green initiative.

The companies can start by looking at their 4Ps; Processing, Partners, People and Profitability.

We are saying the best approach for greening our transportation is by looking at the whole supply chain. Not by the transportation alone. We hope this will be a good start from the 3^rd party logistics like Agility to initiate this green agenda in Malaysia.