CILT(UK) Annual Logisitcs Conference & Dinner 2011

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Follow us live here from 9am on Thursday 16th June 2011.

Professor Richard Wilding FCILT, Conference Chairman
Professor of Supply Chain Strategy, Cranfield School of Management

Professor Wilding’s opening address asked: What are the issues that have occurred in the last 12 months?

• Energy pressure
• Skills pressure
• Cash pressure 
• Time pressure
• Materials pressure

Innovation is all about creating value through the application of ideas that are new to you – look for those ideas. Share ideas and create innovation through mediums such as LinkedIn. How are we going to innovate in the future and how are we going to structure things?

We face new issues to overcome every day:

• Natural disasters
• People hoarding – causing bullwhip effect
• Child labour problems
• Snow – general weather problems
• Fires
• Storms

Ultimately, supply chain events destroy shareholder value! So these issues MUST be addressed urgently.

Ian Stansfield FCILT, Distribution Director, Asda

In summary, Ian advised logistics professionals to:

• Look to new business areas
• Work more closely with fleet and mechanical handling department – fuel, power, transport 
• Work more closely with our industry bodies – has started and is set to continue
• Look for new types of collaboration, in particular, collaboration with their people. Utilise the combined energy and innovative of a team of 15,000 people.
• Relationships based on trust are the most powerful. Governance and competitive issues are not going to disappear, there will be a resurgence in the use of third parties as these are ideally situated between competitors to share best practice.
• Agility and flexiblity will be the requirement from third parties. Those third parties that seize the demands of modern consumer living will be the most successful.

Steve Spall CMILT, Operations Director, Innocent Drinks

Innocent has experienced massive growth and has needed its supply chain operations to develop and grow exceptionally quickly, growing from £10 million to £100 million in 3 years. Key to its success is partnerships. Due to the nature of the business – fresh fruit and veg and shorter shelf lives – partnerships remain core to resilience as the business has grown and developed. Innocent expects much from its suppliers: they must be measured, market leading and improving; willing to participate in collaborative, sharing network; commitment to sustainability improvement; And gives much in return: Innocent will share long-term plans; have an understanding of suppliers and give them work that plays to their strengths; provides support from its engineers, food technologists and experts to help them remain ahead. In a nutshell, a win-win, collaborative partnership.

Richard Boxshall, Consultant – Macro Economics, PricewaterhouseCoopers

In his talk: Economic outlook - have we turned the corner? - Richard identified three economic trends to watch:

• Oil prices: three things that will impact this: global demand; supply; value of US $ (there is a close relationship between oil prices and the US dollar). The dollar has been in decline over the last decade; oil prices therefore are likely to trend upwards. High oil prices are here to stay.
• Shifting global economic activity: emerging economies (BRIC) will overtake G7 countries. UK’s share of world GDP is declining, but UK is still in the top ten. UK must take advantage of export to emerging markets and gear up to these new markets.
• Changing global trade patterns: the US dominated global trade routes in 2009. China will take over the US and dominate global trade by 2030. We should expect much more trade between Asia and Latin America, China and South Africa, for example. There are huge opportunities for logistics companies with global reach.

So, a major question on many delegates lips: How do we avoid a double-dip recession? There is lots of pressure on Government to go easy on its deficit. But the Government and Bank of England must stick to its guns. If private sector takes low interest rates and builds up its export market, we could shift the economy back on track. There are some uncomfortable years ahead before we get to a more comfortable state. In addition, UK should be looking to export services quite heavily, not just ramping up manufacturing export.

Chris Crean, Friends of the Earth, Our Environment

If everyone on the planet consumed at the same rate as us in the UK, we would need 3 planet Earths. If everyone consumed at the same rate as the average American, we would need 5-6 planet Earths!

We need to get to a point where we move away from poverty to a stabilised world that can be responsible for the damage it is causing now, but also that it has caused since the industrial revolution. In 2050 we will have increased from 7 billion to 9 billion population in the UK.

Much discussion focused around business travel plans and Institute Chairman, Paul Brooks, Unipart, pointed out to delegates that PTRC, one of CILT's group of companies, has put together a business travel plan solution to help organisations work with local transport organisations and other solution providers to put in place a sustainable travel plan. For more information, contact PTRC here.

Antony Spence FCILT, Head of Collection Services, The British Museum

Somewhat surprisingly, theft is the least of The British Museum's concern; risk of damage is far more paramount. Everything is unique and cannot be replaced. Temperature, humidity, light levels must all be monitored during transit to ensure none of these elements can damage the precious cargo.

Most of the problems The British Museum faces have probably been overcome by colleagues in the commercial sector – traditionally museums have just looked to one another for ideas and best practice - now it's time for more collaboration.

Steve Gooding, Director-General, Domestic, Department for Transport

The Government is absolutely clear that logistics and freight in this country is extremely important in creating economic growth and improving the quality of life. The Government cannot understand the real issues without talking to professionals within the sector.

It has got the industrial and commercial needs of the country at front of mind. Systems that can work as efficiently and reliably as possible. Emissions from freight transport are contributing 27% of UK carbon emissions – so absolutely key.

The current state of the economy – the Government’s top priority is tackling the fiscal crisis. Not just about paying down the deficit, it’s about rebalancing the economy.

Relative to other areas of Government spending, transport came out quite well – transport schemes and grant areas came out favourably against other sectors. Government sees the value in investing in the transport network. DfT is getting on with it, reducing headcount and reducing operations.

HGV charging scheme – the Government has a clear aim of giving UK haulage sector a fairer deal. Consultation is aimed for July. Simple, affordable and easy to administer – let’s get it working and look at clever options further down the line. Establish the principle that foreign trucks should pay to use the UKs road network so they don’t have an unfair advantage.

In terms of the Logistics Growth Review, a private-sector led recovery is already underway with 400,000 new jobs. Aiming to make the UK a great place to do business. Sector champions: CILT, FTA, RFG, RHA, SMMT – Government engaging with established sector bodies.

The general feel of the session was really that the Government wants to engage with our sector to move beyond a vague sense of 'why doesn’t the government do something', to 'why doesn’t the government do this?!' Your views are extremely welcome – email: freight@dft.gsi.gov.uk

The world that we are working in now and what is to come shortly would be unimaginable 100 years ago. But 100 years ago, they saw the move from horses to horse power; steam power to electric and diesel. Step changes are not limited to our time!

Panel debate

Panelists: Steve Beazley FCILT, Global Logistics Development Manager, British American Tobacco; John Corr, Tour Principal, Sound Moves (UK) Ltd; Linda Phillips FCILT, General Manager, Shell Petroleum.

The three panellists each started by highlighting some extreme logistical challenges:

• Sound Moves worked on a U2 tour which meant moving 215 40ft containers to very tight timescales (the next concert date/location)
• Linda Phillips in a previous role moved a diamond exhibition worth billions into the Natural History Museum. This took two weeks to set up, and then a bomb scare meant that everything had to be removed within 6 hours, without police support!
• British American Tobacco face the daily challenge of moving tobacco – which is obviously high value and easy to sell – so there are extremely high security risks in transport.

All three panellists have sighted innovation and creativity as key to overcoming all these logistics challenges.

And finally... 

Professor Richard Wilding FCILT finished off the CILT conference by sharing with delegates the key elements required to build the resilient supply chain to protect profitability. A fantastic day all round and a huge thank you to everyone attending and the organising team.