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The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence PDF

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The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence Supply Chain Thought Leadership Series The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence Research Sponsored by: i The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence Table of Contents Global Supply Chain – You Better Be Good…………… 1 Time and Distance……………………………..……………… 2 Where Do the Lost Savings Go? …………………………. 3 The 10 Capabilities of Global Logistics Leaders…….. 5 Lack of Global Technology Enablement …..………….. 13 Summary………………………….................................... 14 Sponsor Perspective …………………………………………. 16 About Supply Chain Digest……………………………...... 17 Global Logistics Capability Diagnostic………………… . 18 End Notes ……………………………………………………….. 25 ii The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence The Global Supply Chain – You Better be Good Globalization of the world economy and our supply chains has advanced at an almost unbelievable speed. Growth in world trade, and corresponding cargo container movements, continues II’’mm nnoott ssuurree to substantially exceed overall wwhhaatt ttoo tthhiinnkk aabboouutt economic growth, meaning that trade aallll tthhiiss gglloobbaalliizzaattiioonn volumes are doubling every 5-7 years. Being part of this global economy is high on the priority list of most companies today, whether it is to capitalize on global sourcing opportunities to reduce costs and assets, take advantage of private Let’s look at one real world example. A labeling strategies, or tap into the billion dollar division of a Fortune 200 surging business and consumer industrial company had succeeded for markets of China, India and other decades making glass-related products developing markets. for automotive, aerospace and other industries. Its success was in large Yes, The World is Flat, as Thomas part based on exploitation of its Friedman of the New York Times wrote manufacturing advantages: in his best selling book. What proprietary production processes, Friedman called “supply chaining” is significant investment in assets, and fundamental to this leveling effect, as its position as the low cost producer – barriers to trade and interdependence at least in North America. are reduced across the globe. Supply chain managers are caught in the But recently, due to the increased ease middle, with a changing decision of global sourcing, manufacturing environment and a lack of clear quality improvements overseas, and a information to help guide the decision reduction in glass-related tariffs, its process. market dynamics have changed substantially. In just a few short What this says very simply is that for years, the company is moving from most product-based companies today, using nearly 100% in-house excellence at the global supply chain production to being almost entirely won’t be just a desirable goal; it will in reliant on offshore sources (using both fact become a fundamental its own plants and those of contract requirement for the business to vendors). As a result, its huge succeed and prosper. It’s that domestic production asset base is important. largely being shuttered. Its manufacturing cost advantages are gone, and the company’s competitive 1 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence advantage based on traditional It’s pretty simple, really: going global production expertise and engineering means adding time and distance to is also quickly eroding. your supply chain. Those two factors add cost, complexity, and frequently risk. Does this manufacturer need to be great at the global supply chain to succeed? The answer is obviously Yes. Many companies early in their What’s equally clear is that many if not offshoring evolution find that most companies are very early in this managing this new set of skills and globalization journey, and are facing capability requirements is extremely vexing challenges to the smooth and challenging. Often, savings expected cost-efficient flow of goods across the from the global sourcing initiatives fail globe. Even those companies that are to materialize, at least in part. well down the global supply chain curve are finding that after getting the SCDigest, for example, recently basics down, they encounter a whole profiled a consumer hardware new set of opportunities and company that illustrates this reality1. challenges in achieving operations Under pressure from major big box excellence on a global scale. retailers for lower prices, the company is in the process of moving much of its Given this situation, global logistics manufacturing capacity to China and and trade management are becoming other low cost country sources. board level concerns. It’s therefore critical that supply chain and global To this point, however, the expected logistics organizations put in place the savings from offshoring have not people, processes and technology materialized. The company is just required to deliver world class cost and starting to analyze the factors, with no service performance. clear answers yet, other than a belief that there were many “hidden” costs Time and Distance that were not fully anticipated. Thomas Friedman is right, This is a scenario that we hear on a fundamental changes across many consistent basis. In fact, a recent areas of business, politics and the survey from McKinsey and the U.S. supply chain have “flattened” the Chamber of Commerce of Western world and led to an explosion of trade companies importing product from and global sourcing. Yet, as global China found that the majority of logistics professionals know only too respondents believed they were behind well, it is still a long way from their competitors in such areas as total Shanghai to Peoria, especially when landed cost savings from offshoring, the product being moved will have to on-time delivery, and other key supply go through numerous steps from chain metrics (see illustration below)2. manufacturing to delivery, involving Considering that generally companies multiple governments, companies and tend to over rate their performance third party service providers. versus others, this data is a powerful statement of the challenges of doing global supply chain well. 2 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence HHooww DDooeess YYoouurr CCoommppaannyy’’ss PPeerrffoorrmmaannccee iinn CChhiinnaa CCoommppaarree WWiitthh TThhaatt OOff YYoouurr CCoommppeettiittoorrss ?? TTaalleenntt DDeevveellooppmmeenntt QQuuaalliittyy SSoouurrcciinngg CCyyccllee TTiimmeess RReedduuccttiioonn iinn LLeeaadd TTiimmeess ffrroomm CChhiinnaa RRaattee ooff GGrroowwtthh iinn CChhiinnaa SSoouurrcciinngg TToottaall NNeett LLaannddeedd CCoosstt SSaavviinnggss ((PPeerrcceennttaaggee)) TToottaall NNeett LLaannddeedd CCoosstt SSaavviinnggss ((AAbbssoolluuttee)) TToottaall DDoollllaarrss SSoouurrcceedd ffrroomm CChhiinnaa 00 11 22 33 44 55 CClleeaarrllyy AAvveerraaggee CClleeaarrllyy ssuuppeerriioorr llaaggggiinngg bbeehhiinndd SSoouurrccee:: MMccKKiinnsseeyy//AAmmeerriiccaann CChhaammbbeerr ooff CCoommmmeerrccee A majority of companies believe they are executing Chinese outsourcing strategies less effectively than the competition Where Do the Lost Savings needs to hold due to the lengthening Go? of the supply chain. As a result, the company is trying to hit a total cost savings target that was not achievable Why do so many companies have from the start. problems achieving the level of savings they expected from offshoring and global sourcing initiatives? At the 2. The company cannot yet highest level, the challenges can be execute a global supply chain well: categorized in two inter-related areas: In this situation, the company has in fact well-estimated a realistic total supply chain cost, but much of the 1. The potential savings were savings slips away through problems simply over-estimated: When in execution. calculating the expected cost of globally sourced products, companies frequently miscalculate or fail to These execution issues often simply consider a number of cost elements. derive from a lack of experience and For example, the company may have global logistics skill sets, but the made assumptions about the total complexity of global logistics can transport costs to move the product create execution challenges even for from Asia to the home country that more seasoned organizations. In prove to be too low, or the company addition, the general lack of strong may find that it badly underestimated technology support for the global the amount of buffer inventory stock it supply chain versus other functions in 3 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence the company often compounds the execution challenges. Some of the specific areas where we frequently see challenges in global logistics execution include: (cid:1) Sub-optimal sourcing results due to inadequate total cost data (cid:1) High overhead costs to manage the global sourcing and logistics function Global Logistics and Trade (cid:1) High inventories and lost sales as Management Requires Learning the Rules of a New Game companies struggle to match supply and demand in the long supply chain expanded across multiple sourcing (cid:1) High costs for expedited freight relationships, third parties and transportation lanes, it becomes a (cid:1) High levels of inbound lead-time daunting challenge for the company to variability manage these logistics flows (cid:1) Reactive rather than proactive effectively. logistics management (cid:1) Disconnect between inbound Even those companies that have international movements and developed significant experience and domestic transportation operations capabilities with global logistics find that achieving true excellence is as Part of the challenge is that there is a much a journey as a goal. Few of long learning curve simply to fully these more experienced companies, understand the rules of this new global for example, have fully optimized total game. The daunting array of programs international and domestic inbound and regulations that must be managed flows, achieved the full level of supply just to keep compliant with chain visibility they desire, or have the governmental requirements alone agility they would like to make near takes a substantial effort on the part real-time decisions that can improve of importers and exporters. This is cost and service. especially true for those lacking one of the available tools for managing so But global logistics leaders are called “denied party screening,” getting closer to the level of producing compliant documentation capabilities that lead to and other paperwork, managing duties operational excellence, and which and tariffs, etc. we believe provide strong competitive advantage. But it goes much beyond just the regulatory aspects. Understanding these complex physical product flows, and most importantly the hand-offs between each step and node in the supply chain, is critical. When 4 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence The Ten Capabilities of Managing Total Delivered Cost Global Logistics Leaders s t8.0% s While “best practice” in this o C comparatively new discipline is being d 6.0% e t redefined on a continuous basis, c High Performers e p4.0% Supply Chain Digest has identified 10 x Low Performers E capabilities, encompassing processes, e to2.0% skill sets and technology, that c n companies striving to achieve global ria0.0% a Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 logistics excellence must develop. V They are detailed below. Leader in Delivered Cost Management At the end of this report, we also offer Have Small Actual-to-Budget Variance, a Global Logistics Capabilities While Low Performers Are Hit with Diagnostic tool that enables you to Unanticipated Costs compare your current capabilities in engines,” is simply required to make each of these 10 areas across three optimal sourcing and logistics advancing levels of maturity. We are decisions, and to ensure that confident you will find it valuable as a execution is aligned with upstream mechanism to identify areas in which sourcing decisions. One key metric: you are operating strongly, as well as how accurate are the actual delivered areas that need additional attention costs versus expectations? Many and support. companies experience high levels of variance, while capability leaders have relatively trivial variances month to 1. Total Delivered Cost month. Management Total Delivered Cost Management 2. Global Logistics Process involves the ability to analyze and Automation predict the total supply chain costs from the source of supply to its final In general, few companies have well point of distribution. It includes the automated global logistics processes. capability to roll up both international As a result, there are still many and domestic logistics costs by product manual steps in most organizations. and delivery route, plus the ability to Logistics personnel commonly spend accurately calculate all the applicable too much time on low value activities duty, tariffs and other customs-related needed to get the freight to move, and costs while factoring in any not enough time on developing better preferential trade agreements. More plans and approaches to drive advanced capabilities would include continuous improvement. the ability to model and estimate inventory levels and total carrying At the most basic level, we often hear costs. companies refer to this as the “ocean booking” problem – the laborious This level of capabilities, empowered process of simply identifying and by automated “total cost software transacting international moves. 5 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence But it is also much more than that. By deploying a robust, real-time The reality is that global logistics visibility system, a company like execution is simply much more Cisco is able to manage a totally complex than domestic transportation. outsourced global supply chain with Execution requires dozens of links; by a relatively small corporate staff, and many estimates, there can be as many manage performance as if the as 25-30 hand-off points within a functions were all handled internally. complex global move, involving multiple parties with greatly varying levels of technology. operational goals of nearly every company that does business globally. The ultimate goal in global logistics execution: “one touch” What is global supply chain visibility? information flow for all activities. It starts with the ability to answer very basic questions: Where is it? When Importers and exporters do, however, will it arrive? Is the expected date have control of their own technology different from the planned date? decisions. For a variety of reasons, automation of global logistics planning Event management/notification plays a and execution processes is well behind key role, since the amount of data most other areas of supply chain and generated means that the only logistics management. In some cases, manageable approach is to have existing ERP or logistics systems systems that proactively identify simply have not been architected to exceptions to the plan. In their most well-support offshoring strategies and basic form, visibility tools enable a global logistics requirements, leaving company to define a schedule for all of companies at a dead end. the activities within a particular move, with configurable tolerances. If an Global logistics leaders have deployed activity or milestone is not completed technology that greatly automates within the scheduled time, or no many of these manual booking information is received when expected, processes, managing global an alert is sent via any of numerous transportation carriers, rates, and mechanisms (email, page, etc.) execution in a single environment. notifying both the impacted party (e.g. the importer) and others (e.g., a freight forwarder) of the problem. The ultimate goal in global logistics execution: “one touch” information flow for all activities. Visibility systems should make it easy to find and drill down on information from many points of reference, such as the purchase order number, SKU, 3. End-to-End Visibility freight bill, etc. Users should then be able to easily see the related In the last 24 months, global supply information. Visibility systems should chain visibility and event notification also facilitate the development of have gone from being somewhat “role specific” system vague concepts to emerging as key configurations to meet the 6 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence information needs of managers in a pure logistics perspective, but also in transportation, purchasing, inventory the context of how the delay might management, and other areas of the impact production inventory levels, or business. merchandising or promotional plans. In a global logistics visibility system, While all exceptions need to be the timeliness and accuracy of monitored, some are more important information is critical. While there is than others in terms of the impact on no magic bullet that can solve all the the rest of the organization. Looking data quality issues, global logistics across areas to understand the impact leaders are using a variety of will reduce overhead costs and better mechanisms, such as direct EDI align logistics with the business. integration with ocean carriers, and web portals for other service Global logistics execution is complex – providers, to achieve high levels of it requires an advanced “traffic near real-time visibility, data control” capability in the form of real- timeliness and accuracy. Leaders are time visibility to avoid congestion and also monitoring incoming data for ensure the smooth flow of goods. potential quality issues, such as “syntax” errors or missing information. 4. Supplier Portals and ASN Facilities and touch points under direct Capabilities or indirect control should also utilize bar code scanning (and perhaps soon Integration with offshore suppliers can RFID) to generate status updates on be challenging, but it is essential to shipments and inventory, improving managing the global supply chain. both data accuracy and timeliness. Even companies that have achieved significant visibility for goods moving from foreign ports to domestic plants By deploying a robust, real-time and distribution centers are often visibility system, a company like high frustrated by the lack of visibility to tech giant Cisco is able to operate a the actual status of orders in the totally outsourced global supply chain offshore factories. with a relatively small corporate staff, and manage performance as if the functions were all handled internally. In addition, the ability to receive timely, accurate Advance Ship Notices Global logistic leaders reduce the (ASNs) from overseas suppliers is time and cost of inbound critical for both effective inventory processing by enabling their planning and to streamline the suppliers to produce ASNs and inbound flow of goods. properly label the goods. Most companies today are not well At the advanced end of global supply integrated with overseas suppliers, chain capabilities, companies are and many still receive information taking event notification to the next about what is on incoming shipments level. For example, they are look at via fax or other manual methods. potential shipping delays not only from Problems with the accuracy of that 7 The 10 Keys to Global Logistics Excellence information means that not until the 5. Total Product Identification and container is actually opened can what Regulatory Compliance was shipped be completely determined. Supply chain security concerns are growing, and are certain to increase. Many process, language, and This is true both internal to companies relationship barriers exist when trying as well in response to efforts led by to better integrate offshore suppliers. national governments. In the U.S., a Nonetheless, the availability today of variety of mandatory and voluntary web-based supplier portal technology programs, such as import and export to improve integration and visibility restrictions, Customs-Trade with overseas (as well as domestic) suppliers means the opportunity to Global logistics leaders embrace address these issues has never been a mindset that recognizes easier. security and regulatory trends and how they will impact their Many companies are providing ability to move product. suppliers with web-based tools that enable them to execute a growing list Partnership Against Terrorism (C- of processes, including: TPAT), Operation Safe Commerce, and many others place an increasingly difficult array of burdens in the (cid:1) Purchase order acceptance execution of global logistics. (cid:1) Production status updates (cid:1) Quality checking Not managing these requirements well (cid:1) Compliant bar code labeling of leads to a series of real and potential items and cartons problems: (cid:1) Shipment routing (cid:1) ASN generation (cid:1) Fines or other penalties for a failure to comply In the future, this will likely include (cid:1) Delays in the movement of goods capabilities to support encoding of inbound and outbound from a RFID tags as well. variety of causes, including problems with appropriate documentation and delays inherent Global logistic leaders reduce the time for those not participating in and cost of inbound processing by programs like C-TPAT enabling their suppliers to produce ASNs and properly label the goods. (cid:1) Risk to the company’s brands They also minimize inventory and should any problem with supply stocks outs through better visibility to chain security emerge actual order status at offshore production sites. One executive at a major specialty retailer recently had this to say: “We are aggressive participants in all aspects of regulatory compliance and non-mandatory programs that can help us ensure the smooth flow of 8

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