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CILT(UK) Annual Logistics Conference & Dinner 2009
Wednesday 20th May
Riding out the storm - CILT logistics conference
Speakers at last week's Annual Logistics Conference from CILT(UK) produced a series of innovative ideas for surviving the recession. Titled Riding out the storm the event was attended by some 150 delegates in Birmingham on 20 May.
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited's Chairman of the Environment, Lawrence Christensen CBE FCILT, said that actions taken to reduce global warming had to both hit the green agenda and save money. Christensen told delegates that Sainsbury's plans to halt all landfill waste from the company by 2012 would save £9 million per year, as well as generating other benefits in the process. Mike Brannigan, Chief Executive of TDG, agreed, saying: 'We have yet to find anything green that does not have a payback.'
Craig Bunker FCILT, Managing Director of Key3 Partners, said that cutting rates during the recession was ‘suicidal'. He said that there was a positive need to be charging the right rate for the right job. Sadly, many hauliers simply did not understand which of their contracts yielded the best profits. Bunker was also concerned that industrial relations legislation was ‘constraining business' at this difficult time. He said that it was important to treat people properly but that some recovery plans could be badly hit by the redundancy process. ‘The hoops are too large' he said.
Bunker regretted that good transport managers 'are rarer than they should be'. He said that the image of the industry did not help in attracting the right people and that there was a lack of appropriate training in some areas. He pointed out that some transport managers were responsible for a £6 million spend but had been given no financial training.
Robin Proctor, Group Supply Chain Director, Travis Perkins Group warned of the need for all parts of the supply chain to be speaking the same language - the language of profit as opposed to cost. Proctor told delegates that they should not be beguiled by the notion that retail sites enjoying a 99 per cent stock availability should be regarded as a success - there should be a concentration on the items which were not available and that, in all probability, were responsible for a superior profit margin. Travis Perkins had now started a daily process of advising their suppliers on the extent of lost profits due to non-availability - this action concentrated supplier's attention on dealing with the problem and had produced dramatic improvements.
Other speakers included Chris Tyas, Business and Supply Chain Director for Nestlé UK and Ireland, Professor David Menachof from the CASS Business School, and Paul Archer from consultants Oliver Wight.
The speaker presentations will be available to download shortly.
