In this issue of Supply Chain Standard magazine:

DECEMBER 2008

Time to take stock of the supply chain
At a time when businesses across the world are facing tough economic times, retailers have the option to take stock and review their strategies and identify the appropriate back office improvements to deliver an agile and flexible supply chain without high-cost infrastructure changes. For most retailers, weathering the current storms involves three key strategies: enhancing the customer experience to maintain market share; ensuring that they deliver the right products to meet consumer demand; and - of course - trimming whatever costs from the back office that they can.

NEWS
 

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VIEWPOINT

Time for a new approach
The third party logistics industry is in a difficult place. Despite efforts to differentiate themselves with customers, they are still seen as commodity suppliers by many customers and margins are thin, typically around one per cent for a haulier. While there is a lot of talk about 3PLs being supply chain partners, the reality is often very different. They share minimal risks with their customers and simply provide services, in the worst cases, on a cost plus basis with no incentive to reduce costs. A new model that genuinely ties in with their customers and shares some of the risk is needed if they are to become partners.

What makes a winning chain?
Successful companies have a certain set of characteristics which are responsible for their winning supply chains. There is a common pattern among the top performing companies regardless of the industry in which they operate their core business. Our belief is that these world leading supply chain ideas, techniques and processes can be translated and incorporated independent of your industry category.

Strategies for survival
We may or may not yet be officially using the "R" word but with the stock market in freefall, house prices plummeting and the sterling exchange rate reminiscent of the 1990s, it certainly feels as though recession has well and truly arrived.

Think service for Software
The way that logistics software is bought and run is going through big changes as companies that provide applications switch from programmes installed on computers in their customers' premises to ones that are sold as a service via the web.

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