|
The Conference
Built Around Your Needs
We create The Logistics and Supply Chain Forum Conference Program based on extensive research and feedback from our delegates, senior logistics and supply chain executives who, like you, are dealing with critical issues on a daily basis. As a confirmed delegate, you will have the opportunity to help us shape the conference program to reflect your current key issues.
First class speakers
Conference sessions are given by industry experts and leaders in thought who have a clear understanding of the business obstacles inherent in the logistics and supply chain sector.
Intimate sessions
Through small workshops and roundtables, you are able to share best practices, successful case studies, and receive opinions and suggestions from your peers.The entire conference is built around helping you become a more effective executive and opening doors to new perspectives and points of view.
Highlights from past Conference Programs
|
Setting Yourself Apart through Service Innovation
|
| Keynote |
| John Cameron, Executive Vice President, Operations - DHL Express USA |
In an industry, where the principal services are essentially commoditized, the approach to the customer and an ability to address and respond to higher customer needs becomes the true differentiator.
Mr. Cameron will share valuable insights and lessons learned about how and why DHL and other companies must differentiate themselves in a hyper-competitive marketplace through service innovation. He will articulate the important operational and cultural elements that companies must embrace and institutionalize in order for service innovation to become an authentic part of how companies position themselves for future growth. There are tangible ways that service innovation can be defined, measured, analyzed, improved and controlled. Without all of these elements working in tandem, companies may severely hinder growth prospects for the future.
Mr. Cameron’s 20-plus years of experience in leadership positions across the shipping and logistics industry enables him to educate you about the international aspects of service innovation and the challenges and opportunities of crossing borders successfully with this critical business differentiator. |
|
|
|
A Business Ethics Lesson for Today's Business Leaders
|
| Opening Keynote Address |
| Mark Whitacre |
Mark Whitacre is the subject of the upcoming Warner Brothers and Steven Soderbergh-directed feature film, "The Informant" starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, and the Discovery Channel TV-documentary, "Undercover" (Discovery Channel documentary to air March, 2009 and Matt Damon movie to be released September 18, 2009).
Mark Whitacre is an Ivy League Ph.D. and was the highest-level executive of a Fortune 500 company to become a whistleblower in US history. After blowing the whistle in 1992, Mark then worked undercover with the FBI for 3 years wearing a wire everyday in one of the largest price-fixing cases in history. Working undercover for such a long period of time took a tremendous psychological toll on Mark in the mid-1990s.
After his undercover tenure was completed, Mark went to federal prison for eight and a half years for a white-collar crime that occurred during his undercover tenure. What was remarkable, he was able to keep his marriage to his high school sweetheart and family completely intact. Furthermore, the FBI agents involved with Whitacre's case more recently (starting in 2008) touted Whitacre publicly as a "national hero" for his substantial assistance with one of the most important white-collar cases in history. And three FBI agents - along with a former federal prosecutor - involved with Mark's case have been lobbying for a Presidential Pardon for Mark.
His story is an important personal and business ethics lesson about "doing the right thing". But it is also a story of hope, family commitment, how to overcome extreme adversity, and a story of how redemption and second chances really do exist in America. After Mark's decade-long prison sentence was completed, he rejoined his loving family and was quickly hired as an executive back to his roots in the biotechnology industry. In less than two years, he was promoted to COO and President.
|
|
|
|
Finding the Lowest Cost Transportation Solution in Real Time
|
| Workshop |
| Mr. Tony D'Onofrio, COO, Easton-Bell Sports, Inc. |
Leveraging state of the art financial tools and superior IT capabilities into the supply chain enterprise enabled Easton Bell Sports to get the best market rates in real time. This technology outperformed their best contract rates over 50% of the time which delivered unparalleled cost cutting while providing superior service. Additionally, it provided the company the ability to outsource their command and control centers and deliver a flawless execution mantra, thus creating an extraordinary value.
Learn how to seize marketplace opportunities, optimize loads and carriers, and cut costs by 80%
|
|
|
|
It’s Your Ship
|
| Keynote |
| D. Michael Abrashoff, Former Navy Commander - USS Benfold |
The story of how the USS Benfold was transformed into the best ship in the Navy rekindles audiences with enthusiasm to make a difference at work.
More than that, people take away real tools they can put to use right away. Since the readiness of a ship is a matter of life and death in conflict situations, every crewmember’s contribution matters.
Mike Abrashoff’s It’s Your Ship philosophy empowered his crew to take charge and use ingenuity and initiative to improve every aspect of the way things were done – all in the interest of improving efficiency and readiness.
As Mike Abrashoff talks about creating successful change within the confines of a military operation – people begin to see the possibilities for transforming their own organizations. |
|
|
|
Effective Methodologies for Leadership Development for Logistics and Supply Chain Executives
|
| Workshop |
| David Parsley, President & CEO of Centralized Supply Chain Services |
| David Parsley is President and CEO of the newly formed purchasing cooperative, Centralized Supply Chain Services, the exclusive buying agent for the Applebee's and IHOP systems. He will discuss his insights and experience on leadership development by presenting the 'Renaissance Manager' approach to developing strong supply chain teams and how to 'E's your way to Excellence' in leadership development. This approach is based on a philosophy of embracing continuous improvement where change is constant and is a 'good thing'. In this environment, people are paramount and it is important for a leader to provide not only the education, resources and 'space' they need to evolve and gain experience, but to encourage ingenuity and create a 'safe environment' to make errors and learn. Accountability, responsibility and authority are key aspects of the environment and are developed and enforced on the basis of strong ethics and empathy. |
|
|
|
Reducing Your Greenhouse Gases
|
| Workshop |
| Mark Servidio, VP Logisitics and Environmental Supply Chain, Sharp Electronics |
| With the constant threat of environmental regulations possibly imposed upon the trucking industry, most Logistics executives are left fearing about the severity of the impact on costs and manpower for all supply chain parties involved. This case study will focus on the challenges and lessons learned at Sharp Electronics during the past 5 years as active participants in the Smartway Program established by the EPA and where we have found the most cost-effective methods to achieve benefits without compromising our business strategy. |
|
|
|
Supply Chain Talent Acquisition, Development and Retention
|
| Workshop |
| Tom Mulherin, IBM Global Business Services - Industrial Sector, Supply Chain Mgt. |
Transforming procurement into a competitive advantage depends on winning the battle for talent and staff development. With the marketplace's shallow talent pool and internal financial constraints, it can not depend on hiring to fill all the gaps; you need to develop expertise among existing staff.
And, with today's economic and competitive pressure, organizations do not have time for traditional staff development approaches. The reoutfitting of procurement personnel needs to happen in months, not years.
- Think about how it boils down to people, process & technology with people still being our most important resource
- Be able to articulate the people development issues and why procurement people development is now crucial to enable procurement to add value
- Recognize the challenges in delivering people/capability development
|
|
|
|
Purchasing At All Costs? Understanding Your Supplier’s Cost Structure
|
| Workshop |
| Patrick S. Woods, CPSM, C.P.M., CPIM, Founder - Supply Chain Education |
This presentation will explain the importance of understanding your supplier’s cost structure. It will also detail the elements that make up a supplier’s costs and provide practical examples of how understanding/improving costs benefited a Fortune 100 company and can also benefit and strengthen your company’s future in the competitive marketplace.
Simply eliciting three or more supplier proposals may allow you to pick the lowest of the quoted prices and give you an artificial feeling of security; “I am paying the lowest price since the other two or more sources were more expensive.” However, what if the lowest quote was $5.00 per unit but you should have paid no more than $2.50!
How would you know this? The answer lies in analyzing a supplier’s actual or anticipated cost structure. In this session:
- Appreciate the importance of going beyond price analysis and understanding your supplier’s cost structure
- Analyze and apply various cost elements in reviewing supplier pricing
- Utilize and apply practical tools such as Learning Curve Analysis
|
|
|
|
A Value Added Approach to Leveraging RFID and GPS Technologies
|
| Workshop |
| Mr. Craig Casto, Global Leader - RFID, GPS and Auto ID, Dow Chemical Company |
| The Dow Chemical Company uses a comprehensive approach to deploying RFID and GPS technologies. Learn how the company created their overall strategy, and how they are leveraging these technologies to track various container types worldwide -- enhancing security and customer satisfaction while seamlessly reducing costs. This session will reveal both the benefits of Dow's technology and how the technology is changing work processes globally. |
|
|
|
Social Networking for Improving Collaboration in the Supply Chain
|
| Workshop |
| Mr Paul Seaback, VP, Global Supply Chain, Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation |
| Social networking (e.g., wikis, micro-blogging, etc.) has been called 'simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself.' (Business Week, 2009) These new concepts and technologies are being leveraged in B2C & B2B Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes to connect businesses more closely with their customers (e.g., monitoring customer complaints, generating sales leads, fielding information requests, sending shipping notifications, etc.). But the potential remains largely unrealized in facilitating Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) processes. With the increased prevalence of outsourced operations and strategic purchasing across the globe, the need to communicate and collaborate with supply chain partners is more critical to driving decision-making and successful outcomes |
|
|
|
Going Green in Today’s Leading Supply Chains
|
| Workshop |
| Phil Berry – President - Sustainable Product Works, LLC - Former Director of Footwear Sustainability at Nike, Inc. |
Many companies are implementing changes in their businesses to be “greener” or “more sustainable.” Doing this work makes economic sense. An increasing number of businesses are finding that programs to reduce environmental impact can also reduce operating costs.
Leading business are even going further: using the concepts of sustainability to create better products, develop new markets and gain new customers.
For more than twenty-five years, Phil Berry has been helping businesses define environmental opportunities and create programs to turn those opportunities into competitive advantage. In this session, Phil will cover:
- Environmental and “sustainability” trends in business, supply chains and logistics
- Changing expectations of customers and society and what they mean for the future of business and supply chains
- What your business absolutely needs to be doing, how to know you are doing the right things and some of the potential pitfalls
- Models and opportunities for creating more sustainable sourcing and more effective supply chains – working with in your suppliers and customers – as well as your own operations
- Assessing your specific opportunities, choosing metrics for tracking progress and some examples of how companies are implement programs
- Specific case studies, and key learnings on reducing costs while also creating environmental benefit: energy, greenhouse gas emissions, waste and linking to LEAN Enterprise programs
- Game changing opportunities and examples of how leading companies are using sustainability concepts to gain competitive advantage and change markets
|
|
|
|
Managing the Supply Chain Organization's Changes
|
| Workshop |
| F. Micheal Babineaux CPM, APP, President & CEO - Babineaux Educational Services and Training |
Managing stress is the secret to success in a changing world. Research indicates an increase in stress-related diseases as a result of work places saturated with excessive change and chronic tension. If you're feeling burnout, you may be a victim of stress. This condition adversely affects Logistics and Supply Management Leaders personally as well as professionally, but it need not be your undoing, if you manage the stress created by our changing world.
Everyone is, to a greater or lesser extent, likely to suffer the unwanted effects of too much pressure at work. But everyone has a personal best level of stress at which they can work and live most productively and enjoyably. Logistics and Supply Management Leaders without some stress are unlikely to be particularly effective. While a degree of stress is
generally good for all individuals, the problem is when stress levels are not recognized or are allowed to get out of control.
Stress can be simply defined as a response made by people to demands placed on them. Everyone needs a certain amount of stress to remain healthy, alert and be productive - so not all stress is bad. It is when demands and pressures are prolonged or excessive that individuals find their ability to cope challenged. This creates a vulnerability that can manifest itself in a range of ill-health effects for the individual and can have negative consequences on the effectiveness of Logistics and Supply Management departments.
As in many organizations, Logistics and Supply Management Leaders face factors such as change, insecurity, increasingly demanding targets and resource constraints which can be stressful for individuals. The challenge for all of us is to ensure that individual and organizational responses to these factors recognize and attempt to alleviate their potentially
harmful effects. |
|
|
|
Empowering Payables in the Logistic Industry to strengthen your Supply Chain
|
| Workshop |
| Joerg Obermueller, VP, Financial Supply Chain, Deutsche Bank AG |
Global commerce and finance are in a tumultuous period. Consumers are cutting back on purchases, creating a ripple effect that is impacting logistics companies. The domino effect of the slowdown is impacting supply chains both upstream and downstream. Large buying organizations are challenged to improve working capital to drive liquidity and returns, while many suppliers are fighting just to stay in business. Supplier financing can help stabilize the supply chain by allowing buyers to improve working capital and suppliers to gain quick access to funds.
|
|
|
|
Highway, Roads, Infrastructure & Fuel Conservation
|
| Workshop |
| Gregory B. Bostick - Vice President of Transportation - Pinnacle Foods Corporation |
With the US economy entering a recession, companies look for ways to reduce costs -- transportation is a prime opportunity. Transportation accounts for more 50 percent of an average company's logistics costs and these costs are rising for many companies. As we come out of a season with the shipper’s advantage, it appears the carriers foot hold could be strengthen due to low capacities and higher rates. This session will address some of your pressing questions and provide insight on how one company prepared and plan to whether the impending crisis.
- How to implement the right processes and technologies to achieve ongoing operational and financial success in transportation management
- Define Key Performance Indicators Upfront, Establish Baseline
- Determine aggregated spend across our network, current rates and volumes per lane, number of carriers used, and how much overlap (carriers and lanes) exist across your supply chain
- Provide Detailed Information and Expectations to Carriers
- Leverage External Benchmarking Data and Developing Honest Internal Metrics
- Streamline & Automate Freight Settlement Process
- Use of Business Intelligence and Analytics Tools at all function levels
- Costs on the transportation horizon…2009 and beyond
|
|
|
|
Inventory Optimization
|
| Workshop |
| Mr. Ravi Vancheeswaran, Director, Global Planning , ON Semiconductor Corporation |
| ON Semiconductor will address how it reduced inventory and maintained excellent service levels despite shrinking average customer order lead times. In this session learn about the How ON Semiconductor gained greater awareness of customer ordering behavior, its inventory mix, and part classifications that drive other processes, How the semiconductor manufacturer can now differentiate service levels and supply chain strategy based on chosen segmentation, How ON Semiconductor can react to changing business conditions by segmenting and re-segmenting its customer and product portfolios in a matter of hours, How order lead times affect inventory targets. |
|
|
|
Team Building: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing
|
| Workshop |
| Mr. Ted Raiman, Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Reynolds Consumer Products |
While the activities of team management are not new, many of the tools used by team managers are. The more Organizational Development-oriented practitioners often use interview-based analysis and provide reportage and insights that team leaders and their management may use to adapt team practices for higher performance. Teams can also be developed through team building activities - which can also be used simply to build relationships where team members lack cohesion due to organizational structure or physical distance. Project managers may approach team management with a focus on structure, communications and standardized practices.
With the growing need to integrate the efforts of teams composed of members from different companies and geographies, organizations are increasingly turning to a new class of Internet software for team management. These tools combine planning and collaboration with features that provide a structure for team relationships and behaviors. In addition, there are tools that facilitate the forming of highly productive teams through analysis of personality and skills profiles. In this session learn about some of the best practices used to create a build a successful team.
|
|
|
|
Power of Warehouse Analytics: Leverage your WMS Data to Improve Service, Lower Costs, and Make Better Strategic Decisions
|
| Workshop |
| Steve Banker Director of Supply Chain Management ARC Advisory Group |
Some companies have built their very businesses on their ability to collect, analyze, and act on data to make a range of core strategic decisions. What can we learn from those companies? How can Business Intelligence be used to make better tactical decisions in the warehouse?
How can that tactical data, in turn, be leveraged by the firm to make better strategic decisions? What capabilities do our people need in order to better leverage the increasing amounts of analytic data that now resides in Warehouse Management Systems and other related logistics applications? |
|
|
|
Trends and Best Practices in Transportation Procurement
|
| Workshop |
| Mr. Adrian Gonzalez, Director, Logistics Executive Council, ARC Advisory Group |
| If you haven't conducted a transportation procurement engagement in the past year or two, you're probably missing out on cost savings. The downturn in the economy has led to excess trucking capacity in the market, which is benefiting shippers. Recent case studies show companies saving 25 percent or more off their annual transportation spend. This workshop will highlight best practices in conducting a transportation procurement engagement; the role of technology, consultants, and logistics service providers; and common mistakes to avoid to ensure your results are executable and sustainable. |
|
|
|
Maximizing the Value of 3PL-Customer Relationships
|
| Discussion Group |
| Mr. Adrian Gonzalez, Director, Logistics Executive Council, ARC Advisory Group |
| In this discussion group participants will have the opportunity to explore ideas for how 3PLs and customers can break out of the rut they are in and achieve a higher level of sustained value. The moderator will lead a discussion revolving around performance-based outsourcing and gain-sharing as potential solutions. |
|
|
|
|