Optimizing transportation costs includes analyzing agreements, auditing invoices and assessing value-added processes, says John Haber, founder and CEO of Spend Management Experts. But it's also about identifying contract "gotchas" and "smoke-and-mirror" pricing.
AIOE was organized last year to bring together operations executives of consumer packaged goods companies in order to develop and share best practices in production operations, says Tom Egan, vice president of industry services at PMMI, which launched the Alliance.
In addition to professional programs, the Warehousing Education & Research Council now assesses members' processes so they know if they accord with industry best practices, says Michael Mikitka, CEO of WERC.
With sales of roughly half a billion dollars, Dorman Products is one of the world's leading manufacturers of automotive parts for the aftermarket, selling more than 100,000 distinct products. The company has experienced sharp growth over the past four years, says director of corporate forecasting Donald H. Mitchell. Recently, it saw the need to transform its demand-planning process, in order to create "a more transparent environment."
As business continued to grow at Darice, reportedly the country's largest full-line arts and crafts wholesaler and distributor, so did inefficiencies in its distribution system.
It's imperative today to build a pathway to agility in your enterprise, but how do you accomplish that? You can't be agile if you don't have control, says Dave Brooks, senior director, strategic business solutions, Software AG. And control comes with end-to-end visibility, not only in your company but in all levels of operations at each of your partners.
The notion that companies are having no trouble finding supply chain talent is "a misperception in the marketplace," says Jason Breault, managing director of LifeWork Search. Media reports of high unemployment levels don't take fully into account the white-collar sector, where more than a million jobs have been added. Unemployment in that area is down to 4 percent, which isn't far from the 2-percent figure that is considered full employment, Breault says.
Order picking is indisputably the most labor intensive job in the warehouse, says Brian Keiger, global IT sales leader-logistics, KUKA Systems. But with SKU proliferation and the retirement of baby boomers, there will be more and more automation.
New, relatively inexpensive technologies can help you redeploy labor, cut costs, and remain flexible and performance-minded, says Frank Devlin, manager, advanced technologies, at The Raymond Corporation, a forklift manufacturer.
