Case study: Toyota fleet management system gathers global fork-lift truck data remotely

Toyota Material Handling Europe has developed an operational fleet management system that monitors and controls fork-lift trucks globally. The system, which the company uses at its manufacturing plants in Sweden, France and Italy, and offers as service to its customers, is built using Microsoft technology.

It won two awards in the Computer Weekly European User Awards for Enterprise Software – one as the best private sector entry, the other for best of show.

CIO Håkan Borglund (pictured) describes the Toyota I_Site service as “a fleet management system, which is very interesting especially if you have a big fleet of fork-lift trucks”.

He says its business intelligence functionality is built into the application, into the business logic: “You can have triggers for various things. For example, if a truck touches something and that suggests goods are damaged, you can see details about the event: when it happened, who was driving. It can indicate what training is needed for the driver. It is really alive. It is not something you download once a month.”

At the heart of the system is a black box on a fork-lift truck. Toyota I_Site collects data from the fork-lift truck, transmits the data to a central database using wireless technology and the regular mobile networks, without the need to install software or hardware. The data can then be analysed over a web interface.

“Originally, we wanted to predict when service was needed for the trucks – that then enabled other functions, such as safety,” says Borglund. “It is a global system, and can be deployed anywhere using a mobile network, including in our own factories.”

Toyota Material Handling Europe's fleet management system is designed to address the problems material handling companies experience in optimising their truck fleets, improving the logistics process and reducing overall energy consumption.

The division makes Toyota fork-lift trucks and BT warehouse equipment – industrial equipment for material handling. Toyota acquired BT in 2000. As well as the three European factories, it has sales and marketing companies in 30 countries.

Borglund, who is based in Sweden, runs an IT department of 200, consisting of two teams – information systems and IT infrastructure.

The information systems team has a business relationship management structure, with a business systems manager for each process. “We have close co-operation with the business,” says Borglund. “I am glad that we have that. It works well as a set-up.”

The I_Site system, built on Microsoft’s .Net framework, is now in its third version. Borglund confirms it is being used in the company’s own factories and that there are some 10,000 black boxes beaming back data from fork-lift trucks worldwide.

"We have a fair mix of standard and custom-built systems," he says. "M3 is our ERP [enterprise resource planning], which is standard. But we are not afraid to build things ourselves.”

Borglund, who came to Toyota from the airline industry, says the KPI-driven service culture of that industry has informed his work at the Japan-based automotive company, which is well known for its culture of continuous improvement – the "Toyota Way".

Bits Blog: Lenovo Is Top Supplier as Global PC Sales Fall

Move over, Hewlett-Packard. You’ve just lost pride of place in an increasingly dubious tech category.

International Data Corporation and Gartner, both industry analyst firms, just released their statistics on worldwide personal computer shipments for the second quarter, and Lenovo was the top supplier, with H.P. second and Dell a somewhat distant third.

No one looked good here, though. In Gartner’s report, total PC shipments worldwide were 76 million, down 10.9 percent. I.D.C. put the number at 75.6 million, down 11.4 percent. Every one of the five major companies followed by the two research firms (Acer and Asus were the other two) had sales declines worldwide, compared with a year earlier.

Gartner analysts described the five consecutive quarters of falling shipments as the longest decline in the history of PCs.

H.P. was able to hold its own in the United States, its home market. According to I.D.C., the company shipped four million PCs in the quarter, a drop of 4.1 percent from a year earlier. Dell had a 5.8 percent sales increase, to 3.8 million units. Apple’s Mac computers were third, with 1.8 million units sold, a drop of 0.5 percent. Lenovo had a sales increase of 19.6 percent, to 1.5 million units, I.D.C. said. The Gartner numbers were roughly similar, though Gartner recorded a sharper sales drop for Apple.

Much of the problem is that the market is maturing, said Jay Chou, an analyst at I.D.C. “In America and Europe, all homes have computers, even multiple computers,” he said. “The new purchases are tablets and smartphones.” Lenovo did better over all, removing H.P. from I.D.C.’s top spot for the first time since the end of 2006, he said, “because of a shift to emerging markets. Lenovo is based in China, so they have a head start there. They also have been aggressive about building sales channels to new markets while they protect their home turf.” Gartner noted that across the Asia/Pacific region, except for India, PCs showed weakness.

Another difficulty is that the machines these companies make are now too good. “PCs last longer. They have bigger hard drives. And they have a processing capacity that most people never fully use,” Mr. Chou said. That makes it harder to sell replacement machines. “It’s a tough business for everybody. We don’t expect prices to go up soon.”

Gianni Nunnari Tapped as Producer of the Year at Ischia Global Fest

ROME – The Ischia Film & Music unveiled its full lineup Monday, revealing its producer of the year and European studio of the year honorees, adding to a star-studded guest list already announced that includes actors Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage and Vanessa Redgrave, producer Arnon Milchan and director Baz Luhrmann.

The picturesque island festival, off the coast of Naples, will honor Iginio Straffi’s Rainbow, creators of the animated Winx Club franchise, as European studio of the year. During the Cannes Film Festival, Straffi was honored by the Ischia fest as Italian filmmaker of the year, an award presented by actor Christoph Waltz.

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Additionally, the event will honor Gianni Nunnari, whose production credits include 300, Seven and The Departed -- as producer of the year.

Fashion icon Kenneth Cole and Italian directors Marco Bellocchio, Giuseppe Tornatore and Cristina Comencini also are expected to attend the event, the most high-profile guest list yet for the 11-year-old event.

Among the lineup highlights are the Kennedy family documentary Ethel from Rory Kennedy, Roman Polanski’s La Venus a la fourrure (Venus in Fur) and Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby -- all set to screen at the festival’s signature lagoon screening venue.

More than 60 films will screen at the July 13-21 festival, spread among four venues on the island.

Gartner downgrades 2013 global IT spending forecast on currency shifts

Gartner has lowered its expectations for growth this year in global IT spending, saying it will rise 2 percent to $3.7 trillion. Earlier this year, the analyst firm predicted 2013 growth of 4.1 percent.

The reduction "mainly reflects the impact of recent fluctuations in U.S. dollar exchange rates," Gartner said Tuesday.

Predicted weaker sales for devices played another role in Gartner's downgrade, analyst and managing vice president Richard Gordon said in a statement. Gartner had previously forecast 7.9 percent growth in device revenue, but has now dropped that estimate to 2.8 percent due to continued decline in PC sales.

"While new devices are set to hit the market in the second half of 2013, they will fail to compensate for the underlying weakness of the traditional PC market," Gartner said in a statement.

Meanwhile, tablet sales are expected to grow 38.9 percent and mobile phones 9.3 percent in 2013, according to the announcement. Overall, device revenue will total $695 billion in 2013, Gartner said.

Enterprise software revenue is expected to show the most strength, rising 6.4 percent this year to $304 billion, driven by higher demand for CRM (customer relationship management) software.

Data center systems sales will rise 2.1 percent to $143 billion and IT services revenue is set to jump 2.2 percent to $926 billion, both slightly higher growth rates than in 2012, according to Gartner.

The largest segment in Gartner's survey, telecom spending, will rebound this year, growing 0.9 percent to $1.65 trillion. "Fixed broadband is showing slightly higher than anticipated growth," Gartner said. "The impact of voice substitution is mixed as it is moving faster in the consumer sector, but slightly slower in the enterprise market."

Last year, telecom spending fell 0.7 percent.

Gartner is planning to discuss the forecast in more detail during a webcast July 9.

Polio Outbreak In Somalia Jeopardizes Global Eradication

Health workers vaccinate a boy against polio at a May immunization drive in Mogadishu, Somalia.

A big worry among people trying to wipe out polio is that the virus will regain a foothold, somewhere to launch a comeback — someplace, perhaps, like Somalia.

Polio has paralyzed 25 kids in Somalia and another six in a Kenyan refugee camp since early May, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative reported Wednesday. Before this outbreak, Somalia hadn't had a polio case in more than five years.

There were only 223 polio cases around the world in 2012, the lowest ever recorded. Even in the remaining three endemic countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria — polio was only showing up isolated in a few remote areas.

This outbreak in Somalia could threaten that progress.

The recent cases are probably just the tip of the iceberg, says Sona Bari, from the World Health Organization. "The last time we saw an outbreak in this part of the world it involved Yemen, most of the countries in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and led to about 700 cases," Bari says.

Somalia is a tough place to fight polio. It has very low rates of immunization for most diseases, including polio. Vaccination teams can't even enter parts of Somalia because of violence.

Just last week, Islamic extremists launched a suicide attack on the United Nations headquarters in Mogadishu. After a 90-minute gun battle, 22 people at the compound died.

Despite the security problems in Somalia, emergency responses to the polio cases are underway. Local health officials in Somalia have launched three massive vaccination drives, Bari says, and Kenya has already carried out two special immunization campaigns in the refugee camp.

When outbreaks like these occur, she says, the goal is to break the poliovirus's transmission cycle by trying to get more than 90 percent of the local population vaccinated.

"The virus is looking for children in which it can circulate," Bari says. "The virus can't live out in the sewage or in the environment on its own. So it needs human beings. And it looks for people who are not immune, who are going to allow it to continue transmitting."

This outbreak is still in its early stages, she says. And WHO expects to see more polio cases reported from Somalia in the coming weeks. But, Bari says, polio workers are hopeful that the emergency vaccination campaigns are reaching enough children to slow the spread of the virus.

There have been 77 polio cases reported worldwide so far this year, compared with 84 to this point in 2012. But almost half of this year's cases have occurred in Somalia and Kenya.

US regulator sues ex-MF Global boss

Mr Corzine is a former governor of New Jersey US regulators have charged the former chief executive of brokerage firm MF Global with failing to properly manage the company, which allegedly misused customer funds before its collapse.


The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said Jon Corzine "did not act in good faith" and did not diligently supervise.

About $1.6bn (£1bn) of client money went missing before the firm filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2011.

Mr Corzine has denied the allegations.

The CFTC also settled charges with MF Global itself, with the firm agreeing to pay a $100m penalty and all the funds it still owed to commodity customers.

The regulator also charged MF Global's former assistant treasurer, Edith O'Brien.
Transformation plan Continue reading the main story

Turning a profit is not the only job of the person at the top of a CFTC-regulated firm”

End Quote David Meister CFTC enforcement director MF Global collapsed after making a $6.3bn bet on European sovereign debt, and customers were left reeling when it emerged that more than $1bn of their money could not be found.


Most of that money has since been returned but Mr Corzine, a former governor of New Jersey and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has said he did not know where the money went.

The CFTC said that Mr Corzine joined the company in March 2010 with a plan to transform the firm from a futures broker into a major investment bank.

But it said his strategy called for increasingly risky and larger investments of the firm's money, and "he knew that the firm was relying more and more on proprietary funds that it held alongside customer funds".

It said he did not ensure the company did not use customers' money to support its own proprietary operations.

"Turning a profit is not the only job of the person at the top of a CFTC-regulated firm," said David Meister, the CFTC's enforcement director.

"Particularly in times of crisis, the person in control, like the CEO here, must do what's necessary to prevent unlawful uses of customer money, so that customers' money is still there if and when the music stops."

CFTC charges Corzine in MF Global collapse

WASHINGTON - A top U.S. regulator charged former MF Global chief Jon Corzine over the collapse of the futures brokerage, blaming the former Goldman Sachs co-chief executive with being a key actor in one of the country's 10 biggest bankruptcies.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Thursday it will seek in a civil case to ban Corzine and former Assistant Treasurer Edith O'Brien from the industry, and also seek penalties against the two.

"Mr. Corzine is charged with being more than a passive actor in the downfall of MF Global," CFTC enforcement head David Meister said on a call with journalists. "He lacked good faith and ... violated his supervision obligations."

The CFTC also settled with MF Global Inc, which agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and funds still owed to customers, but will continue to pursue MF Global Holdings Ltd.

The futures brokerage collapsed in October 2011 under the weight of aggressive bets on European sovereign debt, after Corzine - a former New Jersey governor and U.S. senator - sought to transform the brokerage into a global investment bank.

But investors quickly lost confidence in the company's health when the European economy weakened in the middle of 2011, asking MF Global to put up more money to secure the trades, and causing its remaining cash to rapidly vanish.

Customers were left reeling after it was discovered that about $1.6 billion was missing from their accounts and that the company had used the money to stop gaps in its business, which unlawful and caused a political fire storm.

"This is an unprecedented lawsuit based on meritless allegations," said Andrew Levander, a lawyer for Corzine. "Mr. Corzine did nothing wrong, and we look forward to vindicating him in court," he said.

O'Brien's lawyer had no immediate comment.

In its investigations, the CFTC found that MF Global's company treasurer was describing the liquidity situation as "skating on the edge" and recommended to "take the keys away" from Corzine, which did not happen.

Corzine has often struck a defiant tone when testifying in late 2011 before lawmakers about the debacle, pointing the finger at back-office dealings he had no insight in, and denying knowledge of any instructions to misuse customer funds.

And O'Brien invoked her constitutional right against self-incriminated and refused to answer questions when called to testify. But the CFTC's complaint places the two firmly at the heart of the $41 billion bankruptcy.

GAME OVER

In the last week the company existed, Corzine was aware of its true low cash balance, but he continued to pay large obligations, the CFTC said in its complaint.

"Our investigation also recovered an audio recording of (O'Brien) saying to a colleague that it could be 'game over' from a regulatory perspective if the customer funds weren't returned," Meister said on the call.

"Given what (the CFTC) must have perceived to be the challenges of the facts I think they've crafted a complaint that lays out a good theory," said Gary DeWaal, who formerly worked as a senior trial attorney for the agency. "From a drafting perspective, the complaint tells a complete story," he said.

But another lawyer, asking to speak anonymously, said there was little in the complaint that pointed to fraud, reducing chances of any criminal charges.

But U.S. Representative Michael Grimm, a New York Republican, urged prosecutors to bring criminal charges against Corzine, saying there was growing proof that he had committed perjury in his testimony before lawmakers.

The CFTC also sought an order for Corzine and O'Brien to disgorge any salaries or bonuses, or trading profits, that they had received from any unlawful actions.

Louis Freeh, the trustee liquidating MF Global, has said in the past he believed customers would get all their money back when the company in April won court approval to liquidate its assets, and end its $40 billion bankruptcy.

Most customers have already been reimbursed for about 93 percent of the value of their accounts.

There was praise from across the political spectrum for the CFTC's action. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, and Texas Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer cited the importance of futures markets for farmers, who use them to protect against wild swings in commodity prices.

But not everybody was happy.

"I don't think the penalty is high enough," said Dean Tofteland, a Minnesota farmer, who is still missing about $20,000 he had at MF Global when it collapsed.

"Apparently there's still this mindset out there that people can get away with stuff like this if you're well connected like Jon Corzine is," he said.

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IM Global Taps Former Huayi Brothers Media Corp High Flier to Spearhead Beijing Ambitions

IM Global, one of the leading foreign sales, financing and production companies, will open Beijing offices in China at the end of June.

The bold expansion plans into Far East, announced by IM Global founder and CEO Stuart Ford, aim to harness the region's international sales activity and oversee the releases of IM Global’s movies in mainland China "as the territory becomes an increasingly important piece of the distribution jigsaw puzzle."

The company has hired well-known local executive Leslie Chen, who was most recently head of international sales at Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, to oversee its ambitions.

Chen played a part in launching sales on major Asian titles such as Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon by Tsui Hark; Aftershock by Feng Xiao Gang ; If You are the One II by Feng Xiao Gang; Starry Starry Night by Tom Lin; Love by Doze Niu and Tai Chi Hero by Stephen Fung.

IM Global will also base day-to-day management and operations of its Apsara pan-Asian distribution label out of Beijing after Chen’s arrival.

Said Ford: "We’re excited at the prospect of expanding our sales and distribution activities across Asia in the next few years. Leslie is an outstanding hire for us and I look forward to her playing a prominent role in our pan-Asian distribution and sales business in years to come."

Said Chen, “I am very happy to join IM Global and contribute my knowhow and experience of the Asian market to such a dynamic, fast-growing company. It will be an exciting and challenging new journey for both of us."

The move comes less than month after Ford signed a multiyear contract extension as CEO of the company.

 

BIS to global central banks: Time to reduce stimulus

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted that the central bank would pull back on stimulus measures later this year.

But a powerful group, representing global central banks, wants more.

In its annual report, the Bank for International Settlements suggested that global central banks should stop relying on stimulus to grow their economies and instead encourage authorities to speed up reforms.

"We are past the height of the crisis, and the goal of policy has changed -- to return still-sluggish economies to strong and sustainable growth," said the BIS, a consortium of central banks like the Fed and the European Central Bank.

"Can central banks now really do "whatever it takes" to achieve that goal?"

Related: Fed sets road map for end of stimulus

The report stated that the initial purpose of stimulus programs was to do "whatever it takes" to prevent financial collapse.

But at this point, the BIS called the programs "cheap money" which delays needed reforms in the economy and the financial system.

Investors have been skittish around any kind of central bank pullback talk. U.S. markets fell two weeks in a row after the Fed suggested it could start easing up on its controversial stimulus program, which is pumping $85 billion a month into the U.S. economy.

 

Central Bank action in China and Europe also has people on edge.

The People's Bank of China, which maintains tight control over the banking system, has been taking a tough line with Chinese lenders. It refused to inject cash into the financial system last week despite rocketing short-term borrowing costs, rattling investors.

The ECB, meanwhile, is in a wait and see mood and seems poised to move in the opposite direction.

The bank says it is ready to do more if an economic recovery fails to materialize later this year. It has discussed negative interest rates to ease a credit squeeze by encouraging banks in depressed southern Europe to lend more money to businesses and consumers.

Europe is constantly wrangling with the long-running debate over spending cuts and tax increases that have formed the core of the eurozone's response to its credit crisis. In recent months, European policymakers have gone out of their way to acknowledge that there are limits to austerity programs.