thoughtleaders
Jeff Reagan
OVER THE COURSE OF HIS LOGISTICS
career, Jeff Reagan has gained the kind of
broad experience few can match. He has
worked at companies ranging from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart to The Facility
Group, a consulting and engineering concern, in a wide variety of positions. His
duties have included overall direction of
large-scale projects in areas such as operations, industrial engineering, network planning, facilities, quality assurance, and environmental safety and health. Common to all these roles has
been a keen focus on continuous improvement of supply
chain operations.
Reagan joined his current employer, MSC Industrial
Supply, seven years ago as director of industrial engineering. Since that time, he has progressed up the ladder to his
current position as vice president of supply chain engineering for the company, which distributes MRO (maintenance,
repair, and operations) supplies to approximately 350,000
industrial customers throughout the United States.
A The greatest obstacle I see is the ever- increasing drive for value-added services
by customers, specifically to service level. At
MSC, customer service is our focal point and a
competitive advantage. All customers demand
the perfect order. As we strive toward that goal
and continue to improve our supply chain
model, that in turn raises the minimum expectation from our customers. This is a never-ending process that becomes more challenging
with every improvement we implement.
QHow important is the role of customer service in logistics?
A In my opinion, customer service is priority number one in any supply chain. Customers evaluate you on
your ability to deliver and meet their needs, which are always
evolving and growing in complexity. Whether you’re serving
the end user or another business, your company’s ability to
meet customers’ delivery expectations is critical. At the end of
the day, if you don’t meet or exceed your customers’ service
expectations, you’re going to lose them to the competition.
QWhat do you consider to be your greatest profession- al accomplishment to date?
A Building and leading the team that embarked on our CFC (customer fulfillment center) optimization strategy at MSC. This strategy was the largest investment in the
company’s history and transformed the way we service the
customer. Through that set of implementations, MSC created a paradigm shift within our existing operations that
has translated to tremendous bottom-line savings for the
company and improved our customer service.
Q
What do you consider to be the greatest obstacles
businesses face to supply chain optimization?
QHow important is the role of existing and emerging technologies in logistics?
A Technology—both existing and emerging—is imper- ative in logistics and is an enabler to quality, visibility,
speed, and execution. The path of continuous improvement
requires that your logistics network be plugged into the
marketplace and that you recognize opportunities as they
emerge. Also, your leadership team must understand and be
willing to invest in the right technology and take the appropriate level of risk to continue to drive successful change in
the supply chain. Otherwise, the competition is going to
leave you behind.
Gerry Smith
GERRY P. SMITH JOINED COMPUTER
maker Lenovo Group in August 2006 as senior vice president, global supply chain. Since
Lenovo had acquired IBM’s PC Division a
year earlier, Smith was heavily involved in
consolidating the two supply chains. Under
his leadership, the supply chain has
increased customer satisfaction and
improved serviceability results, while simultaneously reducing end-to-end and materials costs.
Smith is currently responsible for end-to-end supply
chain management, encompassing order management, sup-
ply/demand planning, procurement, manufacturing, and
logistics. Before joining Lenovo, he was vice
president and general manager of the display
line of business for Dell Inc. In that role, he
was responsible for all development, pro-
curement, and operations worldwide.
QAt Lenovo, you’ve been instrumental in developing a more agile and effective supply chain for your company. What
was the biggest hurdle to accomplishing that?
A When I joined Lenovo five years ago, we needed to simplify and integrate the
global supply chain. It was shortly after Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC Division, so we actually had two separate
