Source: Fleet Owner, Apr 22, 2010 9:28 AM, By Sean Kilcarr, senior editor
A detailed analysis of so-called “sustainability” programs launched by many global third party logistics (3PL) providers finds most are maintaining and even expanding such efforts largely due to the costs savings they’ve generated.
The “Third Party Logistics Sustainability Report” compiled by Robert Lieb, professor of Supply Chain Management at Northeastern University and Kristin Lieb, assistant professor of marketing communication for Emerson College, shows that many large 3PLs increased their commitments to developing greener practices and building environmental sustainability programs despite the global recession of 2008 and 2009.
Sponsored by Penske Logistics and based on key findings from the 2008 and 2009 “3PL Provider CEO Perspective” surveys conducted by the Liebs, the report found that 28 of the 35 3PL CEOs polled said sustainability programs yielded overwhelmingly positive results. These were seen as reducing operating expenses, especially fuel costs, with one CEO noting that sustainability efforts resulted in a 40% reduction in fuel expenditures.
“I was first surprised by the breadth of the 3PL commitment to ‘sustainability’ efforts in 2008, then surprised again in 2009 as many expanded those efforts in the face of the global recession,” Robert Lieb told FleetOwner.
He said the 35 3PLs– including DHL Exel Supply Chain, Kuehne + Nagel Logistics, Landstar, Menlo Logistics, Penske Logistics, Ryder, Schneider Logistics, Transplace.com, and UPS Supply Chain Services to name a few – represent a total of $60 billion in revenue each year.
“Our research now indicates most [3PLs] are staying on the [sustainability] path in 2010 as they are realizing economic advantages from them,” Lieb added. “Many came back surprised themselves at the significant operating savings they were achieving through sustainability efforts.”
Some 63% of the 3PL CEOs surveyed reported expanding the existing sustainability programs in 2009, with 71% of CEOs indicating they had launched completely new sustainability initiatives.
Lieb stressed there’s no focus in the 3PL space on one particular sustainability path. Rather, most of the companies are taking a very broad approach across their organizations. They are engaged in everything from installing motion-detector light switches to reduce electricity use to building windmills at distribution centers to generate power, and even educing the work week from five to four days.
“We tallied 20 different sustainability programs affecting transportation alone,” he noted. “So no one thing stands out from 3PL sustainability efforts; these are very broad efforts.”
Interestingly, while the 3PLs said their customers are showing increased interest in their environmental sustainability capabilities, it’s not necessarily translating into new or increased business from their customer base.
Only six out of the 35 3PL CEOs polled reported that their company sustainability efforts led to increased business with both existing and new customers. Overall, despite their investments, most 3PLs said sustainability was very infrequently a determining factor in either extending existing contracts or securing new 3PL business.
“At this point, sustainability is not yet a decisive factor in whether 3PLs maintain or receive new business,” Lieb said. He pointed out that “a corporate desire to do the right thing” was by far the most important reason to commit to sustainability initiatives, noted by 24 out of the 35 CEOs. And “pressure from customers” ranked a very distant second – cited by only seven respondents.
On average, 21% of existing customers and 20% of potential customers raised sustainability issues in their discussions with the 3PLs, Lieb related. When asked what percentage of their existing contracts included sustainability performance metrics, the average response was just 2.5%, he said.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Top 3PLs find savings on path to environmental sustainability
Friday, April 16, 2010
Paper Converting Services
Midwest Warehouse offer these services at their paper converting machine company, Midwest Converting.
Midwest offers precision paper slitting, sheeting and trimming services and solutions through Midwest Converting. Midwest Converting does not buy or sell paper; instead they focus on providing the right mix of flexible, time sensitive solutions that enable customers to improve service, enhance converting capabilities and reduce cost.
Located in Bedford Park, Illinois, our paper converting machine company maintains a full compliment of machinery that includes 116” wide high-speed rewinders, 65” precision sheeting equipment and 110” wide trimmers. This wide variety of converting machinery gives Midwest Converting the capability to convert virtually any grade or type of paper, from 10 pound bag paper to 34 point board stock. Midwest Converting’s unique operation can accommodate one-ton to 1,000-ton orders anytime while still providing same-day and next-day service.
Midwest offers precision paper slitting, sheeting and trimming services and solutions through Midwest Converting. Midwest Converting does not buy or sell paper; instead they focus on providing the right mix of flexible, time sensitive solutions that enable customers to improve service, enhance converting capabilities and reduce cost.
Located in Bedford Park, Illinois, our paper converting machine company maintains a full compliment of machinery that includes 116” wide high-speed rewinders, 65” precision sheeting equipment and 110” wide trimmers. This wide variety of converting machinery gives Midwest Converting the capability to convert virtually any grade or type of paper, from 10 pound bag paper to 34 point board stock. Midwest Converting’s unique operation can accommodate one-ton to 1,000-ton orders anytime while still providing same-day and next-day service.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Case Study Spotlight: International Printing Services Corporation
Midwest Helps International Printing Services Company Achieve Logistics Excellence at Multiple Sites
"Midwest Warehouse is a really great company to work with. They are professionals who listen to our needs and quickly respond. They understand our goals and do whatever they can to help us achieve them."- Facility Manager, International Printing Services Corporation
The Client
As an international printing, document outsourcing and logistics services provider, this innovative company integrates leading-edge technology in its global manufacturing operations to deliver fast and accurate services to clients worldwide.
The Challenge
To maintain its position as a leading provider of a full range of print and related services, this client is committed to ensuring its customers’ printed materials and products are safely stored and accurately delivered from their point of origin to their final destination. To accomplish this objective, the client established a number of strategically located and networked facilities throughout the U.S. As demand for its products and services continued to grow, the client needed to optimize its logistics operations to keep pace with increased customer demand — without sacrificing quality or driving rates upward.
The Solution
Midwest Warehouse (Midwest) was engaged in 1997 to help the client improve its logistics capabilities at one of its key operations centers. To ensure the client’s needs were fully supported, Midwest established a team dedicated exclusively to providing the client with professional, accurate, timely and cost-efficient logistics services. Over the next five months, Midwest’s team helped the client consolidate two different platforms and successfully integrate two different cultures while also implementing enhanced processes. Working together, Midwest and the client were able to:
• Increase productivity and service levels
• Improve inventory accuracy
• Expedite product delivery
• Eliminate costly incorrect shipments
• Reduce costs
Based on Midwest’s demonstrated ability to drive significant business improvements and decrease costs, the client selected Midwest as its full-time, third-party warehouse provider at the facility. In this role, Midwest was charged with handling the client’s inbound/outbound and inventory process. Soon after, the printing services company engaged Midwest to help strengthen operations at multiple sites across the country.
The Results
Midwest and the client have remained trusted partners since 1997. Over the years, Midwest has helped the printing giant dramatically streamline operations, implement best practices and increase profitability at locations in five states. “Midwest is really proactive — not only in their services, but in helping us manage operations. They are sincere in making sure we are doing things right. If something is dysfunctional, they help us identify the issue so it can be resolved quickly, which in turn reduces our operating expenses,” said the client’s facility manager. “They also played an important role in helping us meet Six Sigma project management objectives.”
What to know how many pounds of freight Midwest managed?
Want to know the accuracy percentages we achieved in this relationship?
Please visit our Logistics Case Studies page.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management
The most requested article in the 10-year history of Supply Chain Management Review was one that appeared in our very first issue in the spring of 1997. Written by experts from the respected Logistics practice of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), “The Seven Principles of Supply Chain Management,” layed out a clear and compelling case for excellence in supply chain management. The insights provided here remain remarkably fresh ten years later.
By David L. Anderson, Frank F. Britt, and Donavon J. Favre -- Supply Chain Management Review, 4/1/2007
*Principle 1: Segment customers based on the service needs of distinct groups and adapt the supply chain to serve these segments profitably.
*Principle 2: Customize the logistics network to the service requirements and profitability of customer segments.
*Principle 3: Listen to market signals and align demand planning accordingly across the supply chain, ensuring consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation.
*Principle 4: Differentiate product closer to the customer and speed conversion across the supply chain.
*Principle 5: Manage sources of supply strategically to reduce the total cost of owning materials and services.
*Principle 6: Develop a supply chain-wide technology strategy that supports multiple levels of decision making and gives a clear view of the flow of products, services, and information.
*Principle 7: Adopt channel-spanning performance measures to gauge collective success in reaching the end-user effectively and efficiently.
Translating Principles into Practice
Reaping the Rewards
Managers increasingly find themselves assigned the role of the rope in a very real tug of war—pulled one way by customers' mounting demands and the opposite way by the company's need for growth and profitability. Many have discovered that they can keep the rope from snapping and, in fact, achieve profitable growth by treating supply chain management as a strategic variable.
These savvy managers recognize two important things:
1.
They think about the supply chain as a whole—all the links involved in managing the flow of products, services, and information from their suppliers' suppliers to their customers' customers (that is, channel customers, such as distributors and retailers).
2.
They pursue tangible outcomes—focused on revenue growth, asset utilization, and cost.
Rejecting the traditional view of a company and its component parts as distinct functional entities, these managers realize that the real measure of success is how well activities coordinate across the supply chain to create value for customers, while increasing the profitability of every link in the chain.
Our analysis of initiatives to improve supply chain management by more than 100 manufacturers, distributors, and retailers shows many making great progress, while others fail dismally. The successful initiatives that have contributed to profitable growth share several themes. They are typically broad efforts, combining both strategic and tactical change. They also reflect a holistic approach, viewing the supply chain from end to end and orchestrating efforts so that the whole improvement achieved—in revenue, costs, and asset utilization—is greater than the sum of its parts.
Unsuccessful efforts likewise have a consistent profile. They tend to be functionally defined and narrowly focused, and they lack sustaining infrastructure. Uncoordinated change activity erupts in every department and function and puts the company in grave danger of “dying the death of a thousand initiatives.” The source of failure is seldom management's difficulty identifying what needs fixing. The issue is determining how to develop and execute a supply chain transformation plan that can move multiple, complex operating entities (both internal and external) in the same direction.
To view the rest of the article, please click here.
For more information on how Midwest Warehouse and meet your supply chain needs, please visit our website or our Chicago third party logistics, food distribution and paper converting machine company pages.
By David L. Anderson, Frank F. Britt, and Donavon J. Favre -- Supply Chain Management Review, 4/1/2007
*Principle 1: Segment customers based on the service needs of distinct groups and adapt the supply chain to serve these segments profitably.
*Principle 2: Customize the logistics network to the service requirements and profitability of customer segments.
*Principle 3: Listen to market signals and align demand planning accordingly across the supply chain, ensuring consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation.
*Principle 4: Differentiate product closer to the customer and speed conversion across the supply chain.
*Principle 5: Manage sources of supply strategically to reduce the total cost of owning materials and services.
*Principle 6: Develop a supply chain-wide technology strategy that supports multiple levels of decision making and gives a clear view of the flow of products, services, and information.
*Principle 7: Adopt channel-spanning performance measures to gauge collective success in reaching the end-user effectively and efficiently.
Translating Principles into Practice
Reaping the Rewards
Managers increasingly find themselves assigned the role of the rope in a very real tug of war—pulled one way by customers' mounting demands and the opposite way by the company's need for growth and profitability. Many have discovered that they can keep the rope from snapping and, in fact, achieve profitable growth by treating supply chain management as a strategic variable.
These savvy managers recognize two important things:
1.
They think about the supply chain as a whole—all the links involved in managing the flow of products, services, and information from their suppliers' suppliers to their customers' customers (that is, channel customers, such as distributors and retailers).
2.
They pursue tangible outcomes—focused on revenue growth, asset utilization, and cost.
Rejecting the traditional view of a company and its component parts as distinct functional entities, these managers realize that the real measure of success is how well activities coordinate across the supply chain to create value for customers, while increasing the profitability of every link in the chain.
Our analysis of initiatives to improve supply chain management by more than 100 manufacturers, distributors, and retailers shows many making great progress, while others fail dismally. The successful initiatives that have contributed to profitable growth share several themes. They are typically broad efforts, combining both strategic and tactical change. They also reflect a holistic approach, viewing the supply chain from end to end and orchestrating efforts so that the whole improvement achieved—in revenue, costs, and asset utilization—is greater than the sum of its parts.
Unsuccessful efforts likewise have a consistent profile. They tend to be functionally defined and narrowly focused, and they lack sustaining infrastructure. Uncoordinated change activity erupts in every department and function and puts the company in grave danger of “dying the death of a thousand initiatives.” The source of failure is seldom management's difficulty identifying what needs fixing. The issue is determining how to develop and execute a supply chain transformation plan that can move multiple, complex operating entities (both internal and external) in the same direction.
To view the rest of the article, please click here.
For more information on how Midwest Warehouse and meet your supply chain needs, please visit our website or our Chicago third party logistics, food distribution and paper converting machine company pages.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Vote Midwest Warehouse for Inbound Logistics' Top 3PL!!
Vote Now for Midwest Warehouse & Distribution!
From Inbound Logistic's 3PL Excellence Survey's webpage:
“Each year, in its July issue, Inbound Logistics publishes the most definitive resource on third-party logistics and the outsourced logistics market. If you are already a subscriber, you know that we ask our readers which third-party logistics companies provide excellent service, and publish the results. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can get a list of this year's Excellence Survey winners, as well as the Top 100 third-party companies in the world, by checking the box below.
We're now conducting next year's 3PL Excellence Survey. The results will be presented in the July 2010 3PL issue. Give us your input and we'll express our appreciation by entering you in a drawing for a free 18-carat gold Parker pen, which includes a coupon for free engraving."
From Inbound Logistic's 3PL Excellence Survey's webpage:
“Each year, in its July issue, Inbound Logistics publishes the most definitive resource on third-party logistics and the outsourced logistics market. If you are already a subscriber, you know that we ask our readers which third-party logistics companies provide excellent service, and publish the results. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can get a list of this year's Excellence Survey winners, as well as the Top 100 third-party companies in the world, by checking the box below.
We're now conducting next year's 3PL Excellence Survey. The results will be presented in the July 2010 3PL issue. Give us your input and we'll express our appreciation by entering you in a drawing for a free 18-carat gold Parker pen, which includes a coupon for free engraving."
Friday, December 11, 2009
Midwest's Services
For best-in-class logistics services, check us out at Midwest Warehouse and Distribution System. We provide a wide range of logistics offerings that are available as stand-alone services or bundled together as an full specturm solution. We understand your supply chain needs. With our friendly, experienced staff that puts people first, we are able to provide unbeatable service and deliver exceptional results that save time, money and stress.
Services:
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Outsourcing and Respect
The idea of outsourcing often comes about when the CEO, controller, or another member of senior management reads an article—or has been speaking with a 3PL—about saving a minimum of 10 percent or more of their logistics costs by turning to a third party. However, I've found that these “savings opportunities” are often purely theoretical and are only supported by management due to their lack of logistics knowledge or their lack of confidence in the ability of its logistics team to efficiently manage its processes.
Of course, there are other times when the outsourcing conversation is sparked by the urgent need to reduce headcount.
The transportation teams that feel especially threatened are those that lack the experience, leadership, talent, knowledge, process excellence, and contingency strategies to guide their companies through today's global market. They often fail to anticipate and prepare themselves for tomorrow's challenges. And it often takes just one unpleasant and costly surprise to jumpstart the outsourcing movement in teams like these.
When I hear transportation leaders tell me that their companies keep reminding them that they're just another cost center, I tell them that it's their fault that management doesn't see them as a value-add to the organization. This tends to lead into the question: How do I get some respect?
The answer is simple. It's all about education and managing expectations—neither of which start in the middle of a crisis. Earning respect starts with your knowledge and command of the marketplace and your transportation governance, and it ends with programs that you have created to educate senior management and other organizations on a regular basis. As a quick reminder, I define transportation governance as “the direction and control associated with creation, administration, oversight, and enforcement of your company and supply chain's policies, regulations, and procedures related to the legal, safe, efficient, and service-effective movement of freight it controls either directly or indirectly.”
Transportation governance has both direct and indirect aspects. Direct governance includes: your carrier criteria and operating protocol/guidelines; selection and management of your carrier base; carrier due diligence evaluations, contract models and supporting documents; process with defined/flows/inputs-outputs; metrics and measures and dashboards; carrier performance reviews and process improvements; a carrier council to streamline processes and improve carrier and company productivity; greenfield projects and process improvements; and, of course, audits and benchmarking. Indirect governance, on the other hand, includes your command of the transportation industry including regulatory and political issues as well as a comparison of your approach to industry challenges versus that of your peers.
Read the rest of the logisticsmgmt.com article here.
Of course, there are other times when the outsourcing conversation is sparked by the urgent need to reduce headcount.
The transportation teams that feel especially threatened are those that lack the experience, leadership, talent, knowledge, process excellence, and contingency strategies to guide their companies through today's global market. They often fail to anticipate and prepare themselves for tomorrow's challenges. And it often takes just one unpleasant and costly surprise to jumpstart the outsourcing movement in teams like these.
When I hear transportation leaders tell me that their companies keep reminding them that they're just another cost center, I tell them that it's their fault that management doesn't see them as a value-add to the organization. This tends to lead into the question: How do I get some respect?
The answer is simple. It's all about education and managing expectations—neither of which start in the middle of a crisis. Earning respect starts with your knowledge and command of the marketplace and your transportation governance, and it ends with programs that you have created to educate senior management and other organizations on a regular basis. As a quick reminder, I define transportation governance as “the direction and control associated with creation, administration, oversight, and enforcement of your company and supply chain's policies, regulations, and procedures related to the legal, safe, efficient, and service-effective movement of freight it controls either directly or indirectly.”
Transportation governance has both direct and indirect aspects. Direct governance includes: your carrier criteria and operating protocol/guidelines; selection and management of your carrier base; carrier due diligence evaluations, contract models and supporting documents; process with defined/flows/inputs-outputs; metrics and measures and dashboards; carrier performance reviews and process improvements; a carrier council to streamline processes and improve carrier and company productivity; greenfield projects and process improvements; and, of course, audits and benchmarking. Indirect governance, on the other hand, includes your command of the transportation industry including regulatory and political issues as well as a comparison of your approach to industry challenges versus that of your peers.
Read the rest of the logisticsmgmt.com article here.
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