Trevor Long
Sales director
Eyefreight
Remarkably, the biggest challenge is convincing brands of the potential to shift cost-cutting efforts to focus on cost of distribution and away from cost of manufacturing. New cloud-based technologies have changed the equation. For years, manufacturers and brands have worked to reduce cost of manufacturing to reduce the net landed cost of goods and succeed in increasingly competitive marketplaces; as this strategy reaches its limits, companies increasingly turn to the often more rewarding opportunity to reduce cost of distribution. When their cost of distribution represents a significant portion of their net landed cost of goods, some of the world’s top brands are putting cloud-based automation technologies in place to quickly boost shipping efficiencies. These companies are rapidly achieving 10-30 per cent reductions in net landed cost of goods without renegotiating rates. We must raise awareness of the immense opportunity to reduce costs through the supply chain.
+44 (0)7867 474 310
t.long@eyefreight.com
Toby Munyard
Vice president
Efficio
The conflict between supply and demand will become a key challenge for companies over the next 12 months. Since the 2008 economic crisis, the balance between supply and demand has been equalised, with the reduction in material output and produced components and the mothballing of facilities. As a result of this, and as global demand begins to increase, there is likely to be a shortage in supply and scarcity of materials. Businesses will need to manage their supply chains and relationships with suppliers early to ensure that when suppliers are making choices they are at the forefront of their minds. The development of supplier management programmes over the next 12 months will ensure that the influence businesses have over suppliers’ decisions is not only associated with price. The programmes will also aid in developing a relationship that not only brings their supplier closer to them but also manages supply chain risk.
www.efficioconsulting.com
Stuart Robertson
Director
Exostar
We believe one of the most important concerns in supply chains now is the issue of supplier disruption and product availability. One key to mitigating this risk is insuring seamless connectivity to all trading partners through a managed solution. Exostar’s “Community Cloud” model was designed to ensure customers have full transparency into their supply chain without compromising security. This level of integration requires a much tighter level of information security and is often subject to government standards as well as company procedures and audit controls. It means that system-level access and authentication must be rigorous and specific to the individual. Achieving secure collaboration across multi-enterprise supply chain platforms requires specialised technology such as extensive identity access management and multi-factor authentication.
07849 829754
stuart.robertson@exostar.com
Stewart Kelly
Associate
Oliver Wight EAME
The consumer is king, and the king is fickle. Today’s big challenge is optimising the supply chain to stay ahead of ever-changing trends. Too often optimisation is to a presumed fixed-demand pattern but planning over a 24 to 36 month horizon will reveal future changes in demand and allow businesses to prepare for them well in advance rather than trying to respond to variation in the short term when it’s too late. There’s a similar challenge with analytics, which will play an increasing role in understanding cause and effect for demand and supply variation. But beware, this only works for organisations which already have real control over their processes; the analysis is wasted if you are unable to act on it. So processes first, then analytics. Finally, aligning the supply chain to meet (segmented) demand in the most profitable way is key: it’s easy to be agile with inventory, people and transport to spare. Being profitably agile? That’s more difficult.
www.oliverwight-eame.com
Mark Coxhead
Managing director
Woodsford Tradebridge
Growth is a double-edged sword for businesses. It consumes vast amounts of cash as debtors and stock levels grow, and if suppliers let you down it can be catastrophic. In sectors such as construction, economic growth periods can be as dangerous as downturns. This is a problem that is made worse by the availability of finance to many SME suppliers remaining tight. Innovative UK companies are now using supplier early-payment programmes to address this risk, funded by a new breed of alternative finance providers such as Woodsford Tradebridge. Construction companies paying early to ensure they remain the “customer of choice” for the best sub-contractors. Fast growth retailers providing key suppliers with supply-chain finance to help them meet rapid volume growth. Service companies winning work on extended terms backed with a new source of working capital for their supply chain.
woodsfordtradebridge.com
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