Nokian Tyres named company of the year
The Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association has named Nokian Tyres its 2021 company of the year.
Nokian Tyres' North American factory in Dayton, Tennessee, received the award as a result of its commitment to safety, robust community efforts, sustainability achievements and innovation, according to the company.
"We are honored to receive this recognition from CRMA because it shows that our people-first approach to manufacturing is effective," said David Korda, Nokian's Dayton factory operations director. "We will keep working hard to reward the trust our employees, community and customers have placed in us."
Nokian Tyres opened the Dayton Factory in 2019 and is growing production there with full capacity of 4 million tires per year expected once ramp-up is complete. Workforce at the factory has more than doubled in 2021, and Nokian continues to seek qualified workers.
The Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association, founded in 1902, works to enable cooperation, competitiveness and profitable growth for Southeast Tennessee manufacturers.
EPB, ORNL earn R&D 100 award
EPB and the Oak Ridge and Los Alamos National Laboratories jointly won an R&D 100 award for their project developing technology to protect America's electric grid from cyberattacks.
ORNL, Los Alamos and EPB have worked together for several years on the QED: Quantum Ensured Defense of the Smart Electric Grid project. Based on cutting-edge quantum science and network security, QED uses quantum communications in an effort to protect power grid control signals from third-party infiltration. EPB is the only utility in the United States that is field testing this quantum technology.
The technology harnesses single particles of light, or photons, to distribute cryptographic keys that can be used to lock control signals into secret codes to protect the electric grid. This novel method brings the security assurances of quantum communication systems to long-haul distances of electric grid systems.
The team has demonstrated the operational use of QED on part of a 21-kilometer field test bed on EPB's Smart Grid in Chattanooga. Together the scientists are seeking ways to escape the ongoing attack-defend cycle of cybersecurity breeches by developing this new method of protecting information.
"Successfully demonstrating QED in a real environment helps establish the feasibility of this technology for protecting critical energy delivery infrastructure," said Nicholas Peters, the Quantum Information Science section leader at ORNL.
The annual R&D 100 awards recognize significant strides in research and development in the past year that span industry, academia and government-sponsored research programs.
Kellogg's files lawsuit against striking workers
The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha. It's complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers who are entering the plant.
The cereal maker based in Battle Creek, Michigan, asked a judge to order the Omaha chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union to stop interfering with its business while workers picket outside the plant. The workers in Omaha and at Kellogg's three other U.S. cereal plants in Battle Creek; Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Memphis have been on strike since Oct. 5.
Two days of contract talks earlier this month failed to produce an agreement.
Luxury sales rebound to pre-pandemic level
A new study shows that the personal luxury market of high-end accessories, leather goods and apparel has snapped back to pre-pandemic levels.
The Bain consultancy says U.S. shoppers have powered that recovery, outspending those in China in pursuit of the latest fashion trends. Global consumer spending on personal luxury goods, including the latest sneaker trend or design collaboration, is forecast to spike by 29% this year to 283 billion euros.
That's a return to 2019 levels and a turnaround from the gloom of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns that shuttered stores and halted international travel. The recovery is expected to be supported by a strong holiday shopping season.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner