Read the report that Heres Stad from Reed Business wrote from this discussion with representatives from Canon, Zeeman Textielsupers, Philips Lighting, SCA, Heineken, Ministry of Defense, Capgemini and Reed Business.
The restaurant of the Eurotower, with a clear view on one of the largest logistical hot spots, the Habour of Rotterdam , was the appropriate setting for a discussion about Supply Chain Integration. The Supply Chain professionals were giving different statements to react to and this resulted in an interesting afternoon.
Three-quarter of all companies would like total costs reduction
"This is true for our company,“ says Schelte Halma from Zeeman. “What we see, when margins are getting smaller, creativity becomes more important. Especially within the Supply Chain it’s still rather easy to reduce costs, compared to other industries. The organization is more than willing to listen to the solutions the Supply Chain managers have in mind."
Erwin den Exter (Capgemini) presented results from recent 3PL studies. Three-quarter of the shippers aims for a reduction of their costs in logistics, when cooperating with logistical service providers. This is more important than creating flexibility (demand driven supply chain) or decreasing fixed costs.
Micha Koster (Reining) would like to see that the business would be less focused on the rate, and would pay more attention to joined efforts to improve the Supply Chain. "If we work together in a smarter way, we automatically will reduce costs. In the end it will not be beneficial for any of us, if we only look for the lowest quotations."
Shippers fall back on mechanisms
According to Micha Koster the logistical service provider could be the independent party in the supply chain and therefore be the one that ensures optimization. Theo Habets (Canon) has a different point of view. He states: “ We handle our own logistics and store our products in our DC’s. For us, Supply Chain is in fact a core process. It’s only with regards to the flow of goods return (cradle-to-cradle) that we are looking for more intensive cooperation.
Hylke the Cock (Philips Lighting) experiences that most logistical service providers think "Inside out" instead of "Outside in": "Therefore cooperation is vulnerable and problems will arise quickly. For example the recession could be an immediate show stopper for a cooperation. Almost automatically, shippers will fall back on their primary mechanisms and rates will be more important than quality."
Rogier Mensert (SCA) does not consider the logistical service provider to be the weakest link, but he does agree that it is a critical link. "You have to cooperate with a partner that understands your way of working. They have to be able to connect with the size and the culture of your own company. And will the success stories about Supply Chain be more than just fairy tales? I think so, but only in case of a restricted scope."
Complex process should be written down in a fixed Service Level Agreement
Ronald Schepers (Consafe Logistics) introduces SLA’s into the discussion. Henk Schoonhoven (Heineken): "At Heineken everything is written down in agreements, also with regard to our internal processes. We are obligated to do so because of the US export regulations. And when talking about demand driven Supply Chain, to be frank, I think we are more into the demand creation. "
Evert-Jan Nieuwkerk (representing the ministery of Defence ): " It’s rather difficult to describe the complex processes of supply chain in a couple of simple, fixed SLA’s. This will never be perfect, but it’s better to have some level of SLA’s then no agreements at all. But we must not overreact and make Supply Chain bigger than it is. Ten years from now we will still ship containers all over the country and all over the world. Not that much innovating, I would say".