bigpicture
Peter Bradley
Editorial Director
peter@dcvelocity.com
Karen Bachrach
Executive Editor
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Toby Gooley
Managing Editor
tgooley@dcvelocity.com
David Maloney
Senior Editor, Special Projects & eContent
dmaloney@dcvelocity.com
Mark Solomon
Senior Editor
mark@dcvelocity.com
Susan Lacefield
Associate Managing Editor
slacefield@dcvelocity.com
James Cooke
Editor at Large
jcooke@dcvelocity.com
Steve Geary
Editor at Large
sgeary@dcvelocity.com
George Weimer
Editor at Large
gweimer@dcvelocity.com
Erica E. Mac Donald
Assistant Editor
Sean Maloney
Assistant Editor
Keisha Capitola
Director of Creative Services
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Jeff Thacker
Director of eMedia
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Columnists:
Clifford F. Lynch
Don Jacobson
Shelly Safian
Kenneth B. Ackerman
Art Van Bodegraven
Barry Brandman
Worth the trip
Gary Master
Publisher
gmaster@dcvelocity.com
Mitch Mac Donald
Group Editorial Director
mitch@dcvelocity.com
Jim Indelicato
Group Publisher
jindelicato@dcvelocity.com
EDITORIAL OFFICE
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I ATTENDED MY FIRST COUNCIL OF LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
annual conference in 1988, and as a then-newcomer to logistics journalism, I received over those three days a rapid education in transportation,
warehousing, litigation, regulation, and more. All these years later, I still
come away from those annual sessions with new insights.
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), as
the group is now called, continues to offer both novices and seasoned professionals an excellent education in the latest thinking and practices as well
as the challenges currently facing the industry. We send a full complement
of editors to the conference every year not so much to report as to learn. It
is one of the most important events we attend each year and is crucial to
us in thinking about what we ought to be writing
about in the months to come.
No single report on the recent conference in
Philadelphia, which attracted something north of
3,000 attendees, can do justice to the breadth of opportunities available to attendees. Conference goers had
choices of sessions from among 30 tracks, with topics
ranging from insights into everyday operations to
views from military leaders on the challenges they face.
A few examples: Greg Forbis, a senior transportation
manager for Walmart, described that company’s extensive inbound transportation initiatives across its vast
and diverse distribution network. Representatives of
medical device maker Hospira and sporting goods
manufacturer Easton Bell Sports discussed how they
are working within their companies to develop a common set of metrics
for decision making across logistics, sales, marketing, and finance. Rear
Adm. Mark Heinrich of the U.S. Navy talked about the implications of
budget cuts on the military supply chain. In a compelling keynote presentation, Chiquita Chairman and CEO Fernando Aguirre described his experience on the TV show “Undercover Boss,” which included time operating
a forklift in a warehouse. (And, yes, he was properly certified beforehand.)
In a shift adopted a few years ago, the final day of the conference is
devoted to a handful of mega-sessions on major topics. This year, they
looked at the looming capacity crisis in trucking, safety initiatives in the
works for commercial carriers and what they might mean for operations,
ways to develop the next generation of supply chain talent, and how social
media may affect supply chain operations.
In a business environment where budgets are tight and operations are
often short staffed, it may be difficult to justify spending the time and
money on a conference like CSCMP. But for the thousands who do attend,
it generally proves a worthwhile investment.
