DC Velocity - July 2013

Logistics gives back

Here’s our monthly roundup of community service and charitable work by companies in logistics and material handling:

▪ The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) received a contribution of $10,000 from Food Shippers of America for Oklahoma tornado relief efforts. ALAN is also working with Feeding America (FA) to deliver food and essential supplies to the disaster area. FA coordinated the truckload delivery of more than 2 million pounds of food to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, while ALAN sponsored material handling equipment and transportation for food distribution from the food bank. Companies that want to help with rebuilding can view requests for assistance at www.alanaid.org/how-to-help/offersupplies.

▪ NACCO Materials Handling Group Inc. presented a $7,750 check to United Way of Pitt County (N.C.) during a recent East Carolina University baseball game. NACCO donated $250 for every homerun hit this season by the ECU Pirates, who tallied 31 homers.

▪ Towlift Inc. donated a Jungheinrich forklift to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. This is the third lift truck Towlift has donated to support the organization, which distributes 46 million pounds of food annually in central and eastern Ohio.

▪ Total Quality Logistics (TQL) raised $17,025 for the Yellow Ribbon Support Foundation from its $1 Per Load fundraiser. The annual donation to the troops was presented to the foundation on Memorial Day at TQL’s Cincinnati headquarters.

▪ Penske Truck Leasing has established the Penske Truck Leasing Diesel Excellence Scholarship through a gift of $100,000 to the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) Foundation. Students in UTI’s auto diesel training programs with a 3.5 GPA or higher can apply for $3,000 scholarships.;

For the past several years, we’ve been fortunate to publish Steve Geary’s articles on the all-important subject of defense logistics. Among his contributions are exclusive interviews with many of the U.S. military’s top logistics and supply officers—including Rear Adm. Mark Heinrich and Brig. Gen. Kristin French—and a remarkable series of reports about logistics in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are subjects he’s especially well positioned to write about: The consultant has been working with the U.S. Department of Defense to help the military improve its operations, particularly in theaters of war. In 2007, Steve was recognized for “selfless service to our nation and the people of Iraq” by the deputy secretary of defense.

In addition to his defense credits, Steve is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee’s College of Business Administration and is on the faculty at The Gordon Institute at Tufts University, where he teaches supply chain management. He also serves as president of Supply Chain Visions Inc. and Supply Chain Vistas Inc., and vice president at the SEE Alliance LLC, consultancies that work in aerospace and defense.

You’ll find his incisive and often humorous comments at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/defense/. ;

Defense logistics blogger joins our ranks

inbound

Apple tops Gartner’s
“best supply chain” list
… again

Apple’s supply chain continues to outshine the rest, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. The consumer electronics company ranked number one on Gartner Research’s list of the top 25 supply chains for the sixth consecutive year.

The report, now in its ninth year, ranks companies for supply chain excellence based on execution metrics—including return on assets, revenue growth, and inventory turns—as well as on analyst and peer opinions.

This year’s list saw a lot of movement: The restaurant chain McDonald’s overtook Amazon.com to claim the number two position. Unilever shot up to number four from 10th place last year, while Intel climbed to fifth place from seventh. Three new companies—Ford, Lenovo, and Qualcomm—joined the top 25 this year.

In its report, Gartner identified several major trends among the top 25 companies. Analysts found more movement toward “demand-driven” supply chains that integrate demand, supply, and product to respond to ever-changing demand. The research firm also noted that more advanced companies are involved in a wide range of supply chain initiatives that include supply chain segmentation, cost-to-serve analytics, multitier visibility, and supply network optimization.

With respect to their supply chains, leading companies are also moving their focus away from efficiency and cost cutting and more toward enabling growth. At the same time, analysts said, top companies are making acquiring, developing, and retaining supply chain talent a major focus area.