“Well, you are costing me $10,000 an
hour for the ship to sit on berth,” the
military is going, “Yes, but I’ve got
eight more pieces coming from Iraq
that have to go to Kuwait and that
will be here at the port tomorrow;
those eight have to go with that
package to get home so that we cre-
ate a whole unit move.” The learning
here is the need to take a deep breath
and balance some things. One of the
lessons that I think the commercial
guys could learn from us is that at
the end of the day, it is a dollar busi-
ness on the commercial side, but
sometimes that investment of wait-
Finally...
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Driving Supply Chain Results
ing a few hours and building a little flexibility pays off tenfold down the road.
QSo the military is taking a look at it from an end-to-end supply chain
perspective?
AAbsolutely. The commercial carriers that are willing to be flexible and do
that, they become the preferred carrier
because they are helping the military.
Somewhere in Alabama or Georgia, they
need that entire package to arrive to keep
their system flowing. The carrier is a piece
of that supply chain, and when carriers
recognize that they are a valuable piece of
it, then they become the preferred carrier
and all of a sudden, magic things may
start happening in their lives. Yes, it could
cost them $10,000 here in the port, but if
they then become the preferred guy on
the list so they get the next bid, which is a
$7 million option, it may be worth it six
weeks from now.
QWhat important insights are you going to offer to your students at
Georgia Southern?
AThe biggest lesson I’m going to bring back into the classroom is the need
for young lieutenants and captains on the
military side and young zone managers in
distribution centers or assistant terminal
managers in trucking companies who can
see the consequences of their decisions.
You need people that can think. In a given
situation, what do I do? If you do this,
what is going to happen? Is it good, is it
bad? How did you think through that
process to get to that decision?
QIs there anything that you would like to add, any point you would
like to raise before we wrap this up?
AI am grateful to all of those folks who are over there now and wish them
Godspeed. There are going to be times
when your readers have the ability to help
returning veterans, and I hope companies
will continue to be there. I hope all your
readers will realize what tremendous
logisticians they are. You thanked me in
the beginning; let me thank all your readers for helping our guardsmen and
reservists go serve and reintegrate back
into your companies. ;
