26 DC VELOCITY OCTOBER 2013 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Bender Group, a third-party logistics company,
recently leased a 50,296-square-foot building in
Kansas City, Kan. The new facility will serve the
Central U.S. market. … Third-party logistics service provider Ceva Logistics is creating a campus
that consolidates several facilities in Mt. Juliet,
Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. The company has
also opened a new multiuse location in
Richmond, Va., that will focus on the logistics
requirements of several global brands as well as
a health-care cold chain hub in Miami. … Invata
Intralogistics Inc., a provider of automated fulfillment and distribution center solutions, was
awarded another multiphase build-out of a DC
in Santiago, Chile, for a global health-care products leader.
ground breakers
For the past few years, the logistics profession
has been paying more attention to packaging—
realizing that it can play a key role in reducing
damage rates, driving sales, and increasing cube
utilization. Perhaps the most recent indication
of that increase in interest is third-party logistics
service provider Genco’s announcement earlier
this year that it was launching a contract packaging business unit.
Genco has performed contract packaging for
its customers for many years. The recent
announcement, however, turns this service into
a formal business unit led by Dave Mabon, who
previously was the company’s chief operating
officer and chief customer officer.
As a part of the new service, Mabon says,
Genco is handling both the tactical and strategic
side of packaging. It will make sure that its customers’ packaging fulfills their marketing, manufacturing, and supply chain goals and will perform ongoing analysis to ensure the packaging is
as cost effective as possible. The service provider
will also handle the actual packaging of its customers’ products, including club store packaging, shrink-wrapping, and pallet displays.
“Contract packaging is a growing business segment and an excellent opportunity for us to deliver initial and ongoing value to our customers’
bottom line,” Mabon said in a statement. ;
Genco launches contract
packaging unit An annual survey of health-care logistics executives found
that regulatory compliance issues remain the main concern
confronting the global health-care supply chain. However,
for the first time in the survey’s six-year history, product security surpassed cost issues as the second most frequently cited
worry by health-care logistics professionals.
The 2013 study, commissioned by Atlanta-based UPS Inc.
and conducted by TNS Global, a London-based researcher,
canvassed 441 executives in North America, Western Europe,
and Asia employed by biotechnology, medical device, and
pharmaceutical companies of varying sizes. The survey found
that 63 percent of respondents listed “regulatory compliance” as an issue of very great or great concern. In last year’s
survey, 65 percent cited regulatory compliance as a chief concern, more than any other issue.
Product security issues such as theft and counterfeiting
were cited by 57 percent of the executives as a major concern, according to the survey. That was up from 51 percent in
2012. The ability to manage supply chain costs was cited by
51 percent of respondents as a major concern, down from 60
percent in 2012. Worries over product damage or spoilage
were cited by 43 percent of respondents as a major concern.
That was down from 47 percent in 2012.
Product security concerns were most profound among
Asia-Pacific health-care executives. According to the survey,
76 percent cited security breaches as a grave threat to their
business, the most of any category.
Robin Hooker, director of global health-care logistics strategy for UPS, said the Asia-Pacific market is home to a large
and agile “gray market of counterfeiters” adept at eluding
law enforcement. Relatively lax enforcement measures in the
region’s developing countries also make it easier for thieves
to ply their trade than in the more mature North American
and Western European regions, Hooker added.
About 66 percent and 57 percent of respondents in North
America and Europe, respectively, cited regulatory compliance
as a major worry. In North America, 60 percent polled cited cost
issues as a chief concern, while 45 percent cited product securi-
ty, according to the survey. It was the reverse among Western
European executives, with 47 percent citing product security
and 35 percent citing cost management as a major worry.
Cost worries are receding as health-care firms trim their
expense structures, increase their reliance on technology and
industry best practices, and partner with third-party logistics
firms that can balance innovative economic solutions with
the overriding need to support patient care, Hooker said.
Because treatment needs must take priority and can be
costly, there is a floor below which expenses are unlikely to
fall, Hooker said. However, costs will continue to moderate as
global market and regulatory forces exert pressure on health-
care providers to operate more efficiently, he predicted. ;
Survey: Regulatory compliance biggest
pain in global health-care supply chain
