Happy Holiday Weekend! Today is a bank holiday in the UK
while here in the US we are honoring our military.
This week we are chatting about Chapters 8-9. Please be sure
to use #logclusters_4 when posting on Twitter. This helps me collect thoughts.
If you like,feel free to leave thoughts and questions here on the blog regarding past chapters.
A quiet week with no retweets or comments but a few folks decided to “favorite”
a few posts. Some thoughts that were posted on Twitter:
- A host of value-added services is done within logistics clusters. One that I’m most familiar with was when UPS repaired Toshiba laptops within the Louisville hub. The partnership dates back to 2004. Some background info can be found here.
- Not only has UPS repaired laptops, as part of their emphasis on healthcare logistics, the company also employs pharmacists. A bit of additional info can be found here.
- The more I read the more I started wondering how profitable are these value-added services? Are they mainly to attract additional business or are they in fact profit centers? Thoughts?
- One interesting point made in the book was the fact that logistics clusters encourage start-up companies. This does make sense considering Silicon Valley; an IT-hub is home to a lot of start-ups. Another example given was Memphis’ medical device cluster in which Y&W and Big River were created to supply major medical device companies such as Medtronics.
- Out of the various modes of transportation, what mode has benefitted the most with clusters?
- Another thought I had as I read, was as a logistics cluster grows, at what point do they no longer become economically viable?
- And finally, if you had the means to create and
build a logistics cluster anywhere in the world, where would it be? Just
wondering where you think future logistics hubs may be located within the next
10-20 years and also how will they differ from today’s logistics hubs?
