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Vol 30 - No 03 - May 2004 London & Southern: Supply Chain Management: A Challenge for Small and Medium-sized Companies On the 5th March 2004, the EEF South hosted a half-day seminar given by the London & Southern Branch in their Hook, Hampshire offices. International research has demonstrated that a company with world class supply chain performance has half the supply chain cost of an average company. In this context supply chain costs includes a whole range of activities such as inventory holding cost, procurement cost, planning cost, expediting cost, warehousing cost, transportation cost etc. and it was claimed that for a typical company this will amount to 8 to 10% of turnover. In other words, moving from average supply chain performance to world class can put 4 to 5% of turnover to the bottom line. The seminar was sponsored by the DTI’s Manufacturing Advisory Service and discussed the elements of excellent supply chain performance, demonstrating tools and techniques which make a significant difference to your supply chain performance. Annie Pearson, Principal Manufacturing Specialist of the EEF, kicked off the event in terms of ‘why supply chain management is important and how the MAS supports it’. She gave a good insight into some of the savings and benefits achievable from excellent supply chain optimisation. Alastair Ross, MD of Supply Chain Analytics, then gave an overview of Supply Chain Optimisation issues, solutions, costs and processes. He demonstrated clearly how supply chain optimisation operates within a company’s business environment and provides the bedrock for effective sales and operations planning processes. Günther Kruse demonstrated a typical supply chain optimisation software solution, using a live installation of US supply chain optimisation software Zemeter. His presentation was followed by a couple of real case studies presented by Ives Franssen of Supply Chain Consultants Inc, Belgium. Dave Carter, Technical Director of Supply Chain Analytics finished the education sessions by addressing the question of installing supply chain optimisation software, ie. technical issues, costs and systems requirements. The sessions were accompanied by vigorous discussion that continued over an excellent buffet lunch. Our thanks go to EEF for their hospitality. The attendees enjoyed the stimulating presentations and debate plus the opportunity to see real software solutions in action. Twelve IOM members came to Hook – many more could probably have benefited. Günther Kruse, FIOM Related Topics:
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