3M streamlining its supply chain

3M Co. is working on streamlining its supply chain, and the effort is featured on WSJ.com this week -- with a plastics-specific example. The story, "3M Begins Untangling Its 'Hairballs'," goes into detail about the company's efforts to simplify its supply chain -- and save money in the process. The example cited is a plastics-intensive product, the Command picture-hanging hooks, made of molded plastic and sticky polyethylene foam. Until a recently, manufacturing the hooks involved work at four different factories. Now, according to the story, 3M's goal is to have "fewer, larger, more efficient plants, and spread them out around the world. More production will be done in what 3M calls 'super hubs,' plants capable of making scores of products for a region of the world." This strategy could be bad news for custom plastics processors -- although its likely to create opportunities for some that have the ability to take on bigger projects.