Applying Propagation of Variability for City Deliveries/Pickups

So far, all transportation routing algorithm and heuristics assumes that delivery/pickup performance is the same whether one traverses the route in a clockwise or anti-clockwise fashion.

In a city like Singapore with lots of buildings, time spent at a delivery point can be much longer than point-to-point. If time spent at delivery points are more variable going from clock wise to anti clockwise using propagation of variability approach, then one can decide if the clockwise or anti-clocke wise routing is superior.

jQuery to create superior Excel-like tables on webpage

There is a project need to create an excel like spreadsheet on a webpage but with superior predictive capabilities. Like typing postal codes to retrieve company names.

jQuery can do just that.

We just need to maintain a separate table of the company name with the corresponding address and postal code. So that when someone types in the company name, we can use the jquery's ajax capabilities to pick up the corresponding postal code and show it in the next column. Street name and unit number will show in the next two columns.

If the company name is not found, then the user have to type in the postal code, street name and unit number for the first time.

Information on creating an simple excel table using javascript jquery can be found below:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2185636/excel-like-application-in-javascript

Mail Supply Chains

It is a widely known fact that the postal service is value-for-money, relatively fast and is reliable.

With the emphasis on one-piece flow to balance supply with demand, my companies and small businesses can use our global mail infrastructure to reduce their own cost. Packaged foods, clothes, sauces to iPhones and iPads can all be delivered with bubble wrap protection in mail.

Companies might want to split their deliveries to use mail and share savings with their customers. Delivery space in their trucks will be freed up to do more businesses.

Vacuum sealing machines for items containing mostly air could be worthwhile investment, especially for relatively more expensive clothes, pillows and beauty products.

Google OCR API for Small & Medium Enterprises

Paper documents still often generated for deliveries and sales. For example, a small hawker or provision shop placing orders still prefers a hard-copy purchase order that he can refer to when goods arrive. Similarly, many receiving staff or QC still wants the handy printed delivery order and/or purchase order to check physical accuracy of goods, then chop and sign to return to delivery person.

Though we foresee that notepads and electronic papers will be available in the future, it will take some time for habits and preferences to change. Just think about how we still ask to check a physical copy of receipt when we buy stuff, then checking using SMS or
Email.

Couple this with the many invoices and delivery orders a company gets from its suppliers to staff purchases, there could be a good case to look into Google OCR API. Companies can generate insights from photographs taken from signed delivery orders to generate invoice straightaway, or orders written on paper.

OCR is not new, and is already used by companies to capture truck number plates.

Perhaps having a order form for customers to order. Then take a picture for OCR processing for supply chain efficiency is a good compromise between usual practice and changing technology overnight, especially for the long tail of customers and suppliers small businesses serve.

An article on how demo of Google API for OCR is as below:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-docs-ocr.html

Design Intellectual Property Protection Along The Supply Chain

For many in product design, there is a need to the product to generate sales and reduce per unit cost. At the same time, this raises the risk of someone copying the idea and design. So how does one reduce the risk of copying as they share the product to generate sales?

There are various options to reduce the risk of someone copying and selling. One obvious way is to patent the design. Another way is build a good volume in a lower cost location, so that the lower cost will deter potential counterfeiters.

Besides patents and industry knowledge on whether it is easy to create the same product, we can, and in most cases, should add product performance specifications, quality guarantee and serialization layers to deter copying.

By performance specs, you could clearly spell out the weight, rate of work, and size clearly. It is hard to create something with the same combination of performance. This is even more difficult if it is a product that can withstand harsh weather and drop environments.

In terms of quality guarantee, providing a 5 year 100% parts warranty will also be another layer of deterrent to potential counterfeiters. Providing the guarantee also allows one to learn about how your product can be improved. I think the cost of carrying additional parts in your house is minimal compared to the added assurance to beat counterfeiters.

One can also couple quality assurance with serialization of product to link to each buyer from the onset. One can verify each request of parts exchange (from your product warranty) by checking that the buyer details matches with the serialization given to it. The buyer can sign up for the warranty online (you can create this quite easily on a website) after he receives the product, and you can give the customer another code to authenticate with the product serial number that you kept, that is reference to this customer originally. One can also check specific details of the buyer when they file a part warranty claim.