Category Archive

Relying on cost reduction. ‘You cannot shrink your company to greatness’ is a very true saying for any business, including those supplying logistics services. Understanding and adapting to the market situation will drive growth, but playing short term cost reduction games is not the road to glory. Cost reduction games are typically driven by senior management setting KPIs for middle … Read More

Over-promising is a problem. ‘Any-time’ buying and ‘free’ delivery sound attractive until there are unhappy customers demanding refunds because gifts did not arrive when expected. Over the Australian summer holiday I have read articles about the challenges in America of delivering parcels in time for the recent Christmas festivities. The two parties involved in the transaction both want delivery of … Read More

What gets measured gets managed. I am sure you have read articles about ‘managing by the numbers’ and as one who commenced his career as an industrial engineer, numbers have been a large part of my life. But the question to ask is what are the numbers there to do? In worker incentive schemes that were popular fifty years ago, … Read More

Customer service failures. Logistics can positively affect the performance of your post-sales service for customers, but this requires people that understand inventory management and are capable of implementing a company policy that considers customer service to be really important. This last week I have experienced poor customer service. One company tells me that to obtain service parts will take three … Read More

Write-down by Rio Tinto. We rarely have an opportunity to put a value on logistics, but recent reports have shed some light on what logistics can be worth to a business. In 2011, one of the world’s largest mining companies paid U$4.2b  for a coal mine in Mozambique. Last week they wrote the value of the mine down by U$3b. … Read More