What gets measured gets managed. I am sure you have read articles about ‘managing by the numbers’ and as one who commenced his career as an industrial engineer, numbers have been a large part of my life. But the question to ask is what are the numbers there to do? In worker incentive schemes that were popular fifty years ago, … Read More
Logistics can improve your customer service
Customer service failures. Logistics can positively affect the performance of your post-sales service for customers, but this requires people that understand inventory management and are capable of implementing a company policy that considers customer service to be really important. This last week I have experienced poor customer service. One company tells me that to obtain service parts will take three … Read More
The value of logistics to your business
Write-down by Rio Tinto. We rarely have an opportunity to put a value on logistics, but recent reports have shed some light on what logistics can be worth to a business. In 2011, one of the world’s largest mining companies paid U$4.2b for a coal mine in Mozambique. Last week they wrote the value of the mine down by U$3b. … Read More
Reverse logistics does not tell the whole story
Improve the productivity of materials. My previous blog discussed price volatility for hard and soft commodities. This situation is unlikely to change, being influenced by factors of supply availability and disruptions, plus spikes in demand. The flow on effect of volatile raw material prices is that producers must take action to protect their businesses, as materials are a high percentage … Read More
How do you measure productivity in logistics?
The price of commodities. Australia has an open market for fuel. The price of petrol at service stations can change each day; sometimes by large amounts – last week the price increased in one major city from $1.23 to $1.46 per litre. So what has this got to do with logistics? Oil is a hard commodity, like iron ore and … Read More