Reduce spending in your business. Are ‘savings’ in maintenance expenditure real savings? In a future time, when the original decision maker has moved to another job, additional expenditure will be required to keep the items or equipment operational. A recent court case in Australia found an electricity utility guilty of causing a devastating fire that killed a number of people … Read More
Getting Procurement from good to great – where to start
Starting the improvement process. How should an effective Procurement function operate? There will be different ideas at the detail level, but are there some main points that would find general agreement? These thoughts came about recently while having coffee with a colleague who has recently completed a consulting assignment. The assignment was to advise on ‘reducing the cost of purchased … Read More
Think about Supply Chains and Logistics as Strategic
Innovation in your supply chains. You cannot cut your business to glory. There comes a time when being smarter is the better option. After some seven years of hearing and reading about re-organisation and retrenchment as a solution to business challenges, is it the right time to invest in smarter supply chains? This thought was triggered by a recent report … Read More
Logistics Service Providers can improve their business
What do shippers require of their 3PL suppliers? A third party logistics (3PL) service provider is unlikely to be equally good at every part of their service offering. So what aspects of the service should 3PL businesses and their shipper clients aim for? The events firm Eye for Transport has recently asked shippers and retailers in North America to rank … Read More
Making your supply chains really effective takes time
Productivity as a part of your business. Achieving substantial improvements to the supply chains and logistics of your business is not a five minute exercise. Productivity improvement always involves managers actually managing; that is, allocating resources to achieve the desired outcomes. And that can mean people changing their role in the business or being retrenched – always a difficult exercise. … Read More