Category Archives: Miscellaneous

If There Is One Constant in Global Business …

… it’s buyer-beware. And one can’t help but heed the truth when you read this recent article over on Forbes on India’s Restaurant Secrets. Quickly getting to the point, the article notes that:

“Today’s Special” can mean three things:

  • the restaurant is trying to get rid of old food,
  • the chef is experimenting with new food, or
  • there is a genuinely good ingredient that’s come in and the chef wants people to enjoy it.

There’s very little difference between this situation and the situation you are faced with when a supplier puts up a large stock of inventory for auction at low, low prices. Either:

  • the supplier is trying to get rid of obsolete inventory,
  • the supplier is trying to push a new, struggling, product line, (which will likely be discontinued in the near future) or
  • the supplier was so proud of a particular product that it got a little too enthusiastic in a production run and/or just wants to get the product out there (expecting that word of mouth will lead to many profitable sales in the future).

When Looking To Your Norther Neighbor …

… don’t forget to look to the east as well!

A recent blog on ocean freight over on the Logistics Management site noted that, while the long term viability of U.S. West Coast ports is being called into question lately, Canada’s two leading Pacific Rim ocean cargo gateways are thriving. To date, the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia had an overall tonnage increase mid-year of 20% and the neighbouring port of Prince Rupert has sailed safely through the receding global economic storm, reaching its highest volume throughput since 1997.

What disappointed me is that the article completely neglected our major eastern port, Halifax, where container throughput climbed 41.4% this year. Specifically, container throughput in first quarter climbed 41.4% to 99,450 TEUs from the same quarter last year. While this doesn’t yet put Halifax on par with Prince Rupert (as one TEU is about 12 register tons), Halifax is gearing up for growth. The Port Authority and the Federal Government are investing 73 Million to improve the port’s infrastructure to handle the world’s biggest ships. Plus, with the second largest natural harbour in the world, there’s lots of room for expansion!

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Best Practices Must be Adapted for Maximum Benefit

In a recent article over on the Supply Chain Consultants site, Harpal Singh asks if “best practices are always best”. It’s a good question, because the answer is no, or at least not if you blindly follow the advice of your competitor.

While every company executes similar functions — HR, Legal, Marketing, Product/Service Development, and Supply Chain — every company has differences that make it distinct. As a result, no process or practice can be expected to work out of the box without some tailoring.

For example, company X’s cost saving strategy might be reducing the number of shipments by using the available storage space in buildings they own (and which would otherwise go unused) to achieve that goal while company Y’s cost saving strategy might be JIT shipments because they don’t own any storage space and rental costs in local warehouses are quite high. As a result, while both might be standardizing on the same inventory management system to achieve inventory improvements, the systems would have to be configured differently.

Similar scenarios can be imaging in supplier selection (depending upon the desired characteristics of the supplier), carrier selection, and joint product development. While there will be lots of similarities (as both should be using e-Sourcing, e-Procurement, modern web-based IMS/WMS applications, etc.), there will be lots of differences in the nuances of the implementation. However, that does not mean that you can sweep someone else’s best practices under the rug, because if they come from a big, successful, global corporation like Apple, GE, Sony, P&G, or Unilever, there’s a lot of meat on the bone and you just have to figure out how to get the right cut.

For more tips on how to make best practices work for you, check out Harpal Sing’s article.

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