Tag: Staples

OM in the News: 3-D Printing at Staples Office Supply

Printing of the head, from the movie "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"
Printing of the head, from the movie “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”

The exciting topic of 3-D printing (see Chapter 5) continues to evolve, now with a new process called “Selective Deposition Lamination” (SDL). Each 3-D printer builds up objects, layer by layer, but what the layers are made of varies from one to another. Some extrude filaments of molten plastic. Some spray special “inks,” such as liquid polymers that solidify when exposed to ultraviolet light. Some use powdered plastic or powdered metal that is then fixed in place with a laser or an electron beam.  For all of these, the process can be expensive, as manufacturers put a high markup on their printing materials, just as the producers of 2-D printers do on their ink. Now, reports The Economist (Aug. 10, 2013) there is yet another way.  Office supply company Staples is introducing machine prints that are made of a substance that Staples has in abundance: sheets of paper–at 5% of the cost of the materials for other 3-D systems.

In the case of SDL, the process starts by the machine applying drops of adhesive to a sheet of paper. Then the machine slides a second sheet of paper on top of the first and presses them together to bond them. The process continues, layer by layer, until the object is complete. It is then removed from the machine, the supporting material is peeled away, and the finished item, which has a consistency similar to wood, is revealed. Adding color involves old-fashioned 2-D printing. Each sheet, before it is put in the stack, is printed top and bottom with appropriate ink in a pattern that follows the edge of the item at the level this sheet of paper will occupy.

Staples hopes people will use their imaginations and print all sorts of other things as the firm expands the service throughout its chain. One day, as more office documents migrate to cyberspace, 3D printing with paper may even overtake the 2D sort. (For a lengthy overall look at 3-D printers, see The Economist –Sept. 7, 2013).

Discussion questions:

1. Why are 3-D printers an important OM tool?

2. How does this printing differ from earlier technologies?

OM in the News: Which is Better–Electric Cars or Electric Trucks?

My blog on Oct.31, 2010 dealt with forecasting the demand for electric cars. Who doesn’t  love the idea of electric vehicles (EVs)?  But as we wrote: “everybody feels that everybody else should be driving environmentally-friendly vehicles”. With gas hovering under $3/ gallon, does it really pay financially for you or me to invest in a $40,000 Chevy Volt?

Maybe not, but logistics managers at such firms as Staples, Frito-Lay, FedEx, and AT&T have come to find that electric trucks make a lot of sense for their commercial delivery fleets. As The Wall Street Journal (Dec.8,2010) writes:” electric delivery trucks…make more sense in many ways than electric cars”. That’s because delivery trucks generally drive  short, defined routes each day–better suited to the limits in range of EVs. And  EVs have lower maintenance costs, a big concern to companies with large fleets.

“We’re a business here”, says  Staples’ VP-Fleet  Services. “They have to justify themselves”. Staples just bought  41 trucks from Smith Electric Vehicles, in Kansas City, and plans to double the order. The trucks have a top speed of  50 mph, and can carry 16,000 lbs. They cost about $90,000, which is $30,000 more than a diesel, but Staples expects to recover that expense in 3.3 years. The EVs have no transmissions; need no fluids, filters, or belts (which cost around $2,700/year); have “regenerative” brakes that last 4-5 years, vs. 1-2 on regular trucks; save $700/year because there is no exhaust system  to maintain; and cut fuel costs by $6,500/year. It all adds up to $60,000 savings over the 10 year life of a truck.

Frito-Lay, with an order for 176 Smith trucks, plans to convert 2,000 more delivery vehicles to EVs. Similarly, FedEx, which has 19 EVs in London, Paris, and LA, expects a proliferation of electric trucks. Its not a “good deed for the sake of a good deed. There is a great return on that investment”, adds a Frito-Lay OM exec.

Discussion questions:

1. Do you think use of electric trucks will spread faster than electric cars? Why?

2. What limits the proliferation of electric trucks?

3. Make the case for the USPS to switch to an EV fleet.