To be successful with any change initiative - such as a warehouse reconfiguration, a change in processes or in ways of working - getting the direct input of the warehouse team to your work at all stages is of paramount importance. These are the people who will be most affected by the change and involving them early and at all stages enables them to:

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Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), businesses with less than 500 employees, face a special set of challenges by virtue of the position of relative weakness they occupy within supply chains.

This vulnerability comes about either by dint of the fact that SMEs find themselves as suppliers to dominant lead companies such as large retail chains and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), or by dint of the fact that they are in competition with such lead companies.

Consequently, an issue of premier importance to SMEs is the management of the relationships that they maintain with these customers. These relationships are pivotal to the ability of SMEs to maintain their supplier status.

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The Story of Warehousing

From its origins in the days of ancient Egypt and Babylonia through to our own times, the story of warehousing has been an unending adventure. From ancient granary store to lynchpin of today’s global supply chains, the modern warehouse has become a sophisticated, high-tech work centre and a cornerstone of competitive advantage.

Today, the rate of change in the practice of warehousing is accelerating and the gap between the best performers and the rest is widening. This is because these best performers realise that the latest technologies and best practices can make major contributions to profitability, market share and environmental responsibility.

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What is the Supply Chain?

In business, what people commonly refer to as the ‘Supply Chain’ is seldom, in practice, a sequential chain nor is it solely concerned with the supply of materials or products.

In fact, what people are really referring to in these instances more often resembles a complex network of entities, people, processes and relationships interconnected by flows of information, materials and finance for the purpose of delivering a total product offering comprising of the product itself, information and service to the end user.

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Improved supply chain performance that is achieved through initiatives such as collaborative partnership between suppliers and buyers or the introduction of lean production systems involves fundamental changes in the way work is organized and the way that cost, waste, efficiency and other key attributes of the system are viewed and measured.

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There are new emerging trends that are driving ever increasing degrees of complexity in the supply chains of the twenty-first century. What are they and how are they contributing to this complexity?

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Who is calling the shots in the integrated supply chains of the twenty-first century and what are the means by which this control is exercised? The answer is that there are various means and ways by which this is done depending on the particular industry sector and its legacy, the type and scope of the particular supply chain, and nature of the products or commodities.

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The systems approach applied in a supply chain context advocates the view that it can be helpful to conceptualize of supply chains as systems or more fully as ‘total product systems’. There are a number of important advantages in taking this view that can help avoid some of the more common pitfalls of more traditional reductionist approaches.

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An extremely topical forum is to be held on Operational Efficiency in Global Logistics at the London Hilton Metropole on 16th and 17th June 2009. Case studies will be presented by leading companies including PepsiCo, Sara Lee, O2, Lego and Asda. To find out more…

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There has never been a better time to get started on the road to operational efficiency and best practice. Operations have become complacent and inefficient over the years of economic good times. Massive improvements in performance coupled with savings and efficiencies are being pursued vigourously by the most forward-looking organizations to ensure that they will be ready, fit and able when the up-turn comes.

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