Logistics Blog and Supply Chains Blog

Services are growing. A recent news article concerned a real estate agency supplying services to a telecommunications company. The work was to represent the telecom company in selling surplus property. Nothing surprising about the arrangement, except that the head of property investment at the telecom is involved in a business venture with the head of the real estate firm. So, … Read More

Lots of data. In keeping with the consumer space of social media and apps in the cloud, the IT industry is pushing the benefits of instant data (called big data) as one of the new ‘big things’ for industry (the other appears to be cloud computing). To emphasise the point, a coffee shop chain in the UK has stated that … Read More

Forecasts and truth. Your business depends on plans developed from forecasts; these inform logisticians of the future. Unfortunately, there are probabilities, uncertainties and associated risks, so the forecasts will be wrong; but they ensure your business is less wrong than if you did nothing. As an example, in my Newsletter for June 2013 (go to www.learnaboutlogistics.com to subscribe), I discussed forecasts … Read More

What is happening? The business media has recently noted changes to the outsourcing approach in two industries. The mining industry in Australia is changing its business model so that operations in the mines are undertaken by mine companies employees, rather than mining services companies. In the global courier, express parcel (CEP) industry, the major companies have been enlarging their fleet … Read More

A repeat performance. When things go wrong with your inventory, there can be some big numbers and, at the very least, it will  be supply chain, logistics and inventory managers who are looking for new jobs! Six weeks ago I discussed the likely ‘ripple’ effect from a retailer ‘discovering’ about $100m of excess inventory. This week there is another story. … Read More