Archive for July, 2009
I came across a white paper from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) called “Seizing Opportunity: Linking Risk and Performance”. In one place, the paper highlights a “global automotive manufacturer” that was “experiencing significant losses due to a key risk in its supply chain: supplier bankruptcies.” The company faced the direct costs of those failures, as well as the “indirect costs derived from the poor product quality, unreliable supply, and management distraction” that… Continue reading
Transportation Procurement Remains Hot
· CommentsBack in May, I wrote a piece on how transportation procurement is “hot” right now (plus a follow-up piece called “Transportation Procurement: Another Viewpoint”). A couple of weeks ago, I gave a keynote presentation at a transportation management seminar organized by Manhattan Associates and CSC for executives in the Boston area. Terry Norton, VP of Transportation Lifecycle Management at Manhattan Associates, presented some interesting data on… Continue reading
I recently received a newsletter from Lehigh University’s Center for Value Chain Research that showed the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) definition of “marketing” right next to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) definition of “supply chain management.” Here are their definitions:
AMA – Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers… Continue reading
World Trade to Decline 10 Percent in 2009
· CommentsLast Wednesday, the World Trade Organization released its annual report highlighting trends and statistics in global trade (see “World Trade Report 2009”). The WTO is forecasting a 10 percent decline in world merchandise trade this year (the WTO had predicted a 9 percent decline back in June, so their outlook has darkened). World merchandise trade slowed down significantly in 2008, growing only 2 percent in real terms, compared to… Continue reading
Benchmarking a Private Truck Fleet
· CommentsThe National Private Truck Council (NPTC), a U.S. trade association focused on the interests of companies with private fleets, conducts an annual Private Fleet Benchmarking Survey. This survey has three goals: (1) to validate private fleet performance based on comparative peer data; (2) identify areas of improvement and opportunity; and (3) identify the significant trends affecting private fleet operators.
In many cases, benchmarking data is difficult to use—i.e… Continue reading
If SpongeBob Worked in Logistics…
· Comments…UPS would be driving yellow trucks, forecasts would always be optimistic, truck drivers and warehouse employees would be the happiest in the world, and every day would be “The Best Day Ever“.
SpongeBob SquarePants turned 10 years old recently, and if you’ve never heard of SpongeBob, then you certainly don’t have kids or watch Nickelodeon or get out much (the show attracts over 3.5 million viewers, airs… Continue reading
Eric Peters, the CEO of TrueDemand Software, was in to brief us recently. During our conversation, Eric commented that many folks believe Walmart is performing well financially because low-cost retailers tend to have a competitive advantage during a recession. However, he believes Walmart’s recent gains in logistics efficiencies are also contributing to the company’s financial success. As an example, Eric highlighted Walmart’s “Win-Play-Show” assortment strategy, and he pointed… Continue reading
It’s been a bit over a month since Con-way Freight announced its TrueLTL Pricing model. You can read the press release for the details, but in a nutshell, TrueLTL is a capped pricing model for “large” LTL shipments-i.e., shipments generally between 2,000 and 20,000 pounds that can fit in a 28-ft trailer (a “pup”). Many of these shipments currently go via truckload or multi-stop truckload because traditional LTL pricing… Continue reading
