Services

Future perfect

30-Jun-2008 By Michelle Knott

When it comes to making a profit in the food and drink industry, mastering supply and demand is essential. Michelle Knott reports

How long is a supply chain?

30-Jun-2008 By Hugh Williams

I bought a new calculator recently. I thought my old one was faulty: the numbers didn't add up! Let me explain. Over the past 10 years businesses...

High diesel duty is crippling the UK's freight industry

30-Jun-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Road hauliers in the UK, which pay twice the diesel duty of competitors in other EU Member States, are pressurising the government to ease the...

Hijacking sales and operations planning

28-May-2008 By Hugh Williams

It happened to lean and also to advanced planning and scheduling before that. Now it has happened to sales and operations planning (S&OP). Some...

Collaboration is key, but the customer should be the focus

28-May-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Collaboration along the supply chain is re-emerging as a buzz phrase as suppliers and their retail clients try to squeeze further costs out. At...

More companies seek IT advantage

29-Apr-2008

More and more companies are taking advantage of IT systems to match supply to demand - some with better results than others.Chilled ready meal...

Supply chain and promo failures are in the dock

29-Apr-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Promotional sales are some of the biggest sources of conflict between retailers and their suppliers in the UK today. But it is an area where better...

Stop playing the blame game

29-Apr-2008 By Hugh Williams

Software gone bad? I'm talking about implementations that don't deliver the expected benefits, or have gone astray over time. The result is an...

Economic quantities - or a pallet's tale

26-Mar-2008 By Hugh Williams

This is the story of an old but wise pallet. Over the years, it has seen supply chain thinking evolve and lived through many changes.Many years ago...

The corrugated board pallet evolves

26-Mar-2008

The Evolution corrugated board pallet is not the first to use the material, nor even the first from David S Smith Packaging (DSSP), but the company...

Road pricing gets a local twist as nationwide plan is dumped

26-Mar-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Road pricing nationwide might be off the agenda following statements made by transport secretary Ruth Kelly last month, but those in the transport...

New currency to replace euro

26-Feb-2008 By Hugh Williams

Pounds are becoming kilos. You are probably thinking that I am about to re-launch the debate of imperial versus metric. I'm not. I'm talking about...

Greening of distribution warehouses is set to take off

26-Feb-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Warehouse and logistics provider Gazeley, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart, has committed as part of its sustainability strategy to make more...

Asda tries out green liquid nitrogen fridge in trailer

25-Jan-2008 By Rick Pendrous

Asda is planning to replace the traditional diesel-fuelled fridges in its transport fleet with an emission-free, silent running alternative, which,...

Lean makes mathematical sense

25-Jan-2008 By Hugh Williams

Here's a riddle for you: Your raw material costs are going up rapidly. Your customers are by nature very price sensitive. Increasing your prices with...

Sometimes duplication is necessary

02-Jan-2008 By Hugh Williams

I find it fascinating to watch a business open up to supply chain thinking. One day it operates in isolation, mistrusting the competition, suppliers...

Premier's Wisbech site used as benchmark

02-Jan-2008

Premier Foods has extended its largest distribution facility in Wisbech, expanding pallet capacity by almost 50%, and refurbished the existing...

Culina and Baylis merge their supply chain operations

02-Jan-2008 By Rick Pendrous

This month sees the creation of a new supply chain business which brings together Culina Logistics and Baylis Logistics under the Culina title,...

Don't let non-bottlenecks steal from you!

26-Nov-2007 By Hugh Williams

Is your business a victim of internal self-inflicted supply chain crime?Like a burglar sneaking round the back, are you being robbed by some of your...

Unilever uses warehouses to prototype

26-Nov-2007

Unilever is making use of spare space within its warehouses to prototype new developments before they are fully integrated into manufacturing...

Supplier help needed to drive 'delivered wholesale'

26-Nov-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Food wholesaler Booker is seeking greater supplier involvement as it forges ahead with plans to expand its "delivered wholesale" services, following...

How to be green and lean

29-Oct-2007 By Hugh Williams

And I thought that after many years of slow but locally efficient supply chains, lean had taken over: you signed up to the fact that sending a...

Morrison drives benefits with regional transport operation

29-Oct-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Supermarket chain Morrison claims to have already achieved significant business and environmental benefits since starting to bring together two very...

Nestlé embarks on rail freight project into Scotland

02-Oct-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Nestlé UK's supply chain director has called for greater investment in Britain's rail freight infrastructure, as the food giant embarks upon its...

Grabbing the supply chain by the crust ...

02-Oct-2007 By Hugh Williams

You know it will happen, every time: you grab that slice of pizza by the crust; you give it a nudge with the knife in the hope of a clean cut; then,...

Let's just get past the trendy title, shall we?

28-Aug-2007 By Hugh Williams

Am I being unreasonable in thinking that the title of supply chain manager or director implies that the person in this position looks after the whole...

Chilled trials planned this year for the 'talking tag'

28-Aug-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Voice-directed work specialist Vocollect expects to start trials which combine radio frequency identification (RFID) and voice direction systems -...

Best practice or industrial tourism?

30-Jul-2007 By Hugh Williams

In principle nothing is wrong with most businesses' obsession with supply chain best practice. People want to know what other companies are doing...

Scala's study shows empty running needs urgent focus

30-Jul-2007 By Rod Addy

Preliminary findings from its forthcoming Key Performance Indicators for the Food Supply Chain report have been revealed by Scala, the supply chain...

Bigger lorries could ride to the rescue of environment

25-Jun-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Cuts of 20% in the £1.9bn social and environmental costs of domestic food transport by 2012 - between suppliers and supermarket shelves - are...

Take stock of business costs

25-Jun-2007

I have a fundamental problem with some of the traditional measures and key performance indicators in place in companies, because they do not always...

Wall panels walk the Warrington fire test

29-May-2007

Fire resistant wall panels from Eurobond's fire resistant Firemaster Extra and Rockspan Extra ranges have been tested by Warrington Fire Research and...

Stick or bigger stick?

29-May-2007

The European Commission is challenging the UK for not being tough enough on factory accidents. John Dunn reports

Focusing on cost can be so costly

29-May-2007

I guess at least a few people share my prejudice that the US breeds supply chain people who are highly skilled at talking and 'theorising', but not...

Miles of smiles at capital's drinks plant

29-May-2007

The unveiling of Coca-Cola Enterprises' (CCE's) £30M factory in Edmonton, north London, will mean 37,700 fewer lorry journeys a year - a reduction...

Nestlé raises the temperature with 10-year Innovate deal

29-May-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Nestlé has signed a 10-year contract with Innovate Logistics that will see the temperature-controlled storage and distribution provider taking over...

Distribution initiative study finds way to cut vehicle miles

08-May-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Collaborative "speed dating" distribution sessions between retailers, their suppliers and logistics providers, set up as part of an industry-wide...

Put brakes on transport costs

08-May-2007

The food industry bemoans being forced by powerful buyers to operate on low profit margins for most lines. Not only are margins low and under...

Abattoir floors stand up to steam

27-Mar-2007

Two recently completed abattoir construction projects have both installed Sikafloor Purcem flooring systems.One installation was at the new...

Evaporative relief for Cherry Valley staff and ducklings

27-Mar-2007

When temperatures in a hatchery at duck producer Cherry Valley peaked at 35°C last summer, the company looked for a cost effective and ecologically...

Something old, something new ...

27-Mar-2007

Extensions must meet current building and environmental regulations. Mike Spear examines how this affects factories built to less rigorous standards

Adding miles to packaging waste

27-Mar-2007

Before anyone begins to think it, let me say that I have no'green' bees in my bonnet, despite several articles on green issues. I cover the subject...

Tesco to focus on reducing its suppliers' input costs

27-Mar-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Tesco could soon start looking at ways of taking the cost out of manufacturers' inbound supply chains, following its success in raising efficiencies...

Analyse before tendering

27-Feb-2007

Several very large manufacturers operate dedicated vehicles for customer delivery, claiming that they have 'critical mass' and can cut out the...

Avian flu knocks consumer confidence in supply chain

27-Feb-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Consumer confidence in the food supply chain has taken another battering following the discovery of avian flu in turkeys at Bernard Matthews' Holton...

Stock cuts lead to supply chaos

29-Jan-2007

The latest efforts by retailers to cut lead-times, inventory and infrastructure investment are headed towards perdition rather than supply chain...

Green revolution drives the food supply chain forward

29-Jan-2007 By Rick Pendrous

Marks & Spencer's (M&S's) £200M bid to become carbon neutral by 2012 and Tesco's £500M move to label the carbon footprint of its products...

Sweet move for supply chain

27-Dec-2006 By Rick Pendrous

Cadbury subsidiary Monkhill Confectionery this month goes live with a mid-range preconfigured food and beverage enterprise resource planning (ERP)...

Food miles tax is the answer

27-Dec-2006

The world's supply chain managers should brace themselves for government intervention as high oil prices and shortages become permanent, with no...

Optimistic day job syndrome

27-Nov-2006

I should by now have finished a job that required a client manager to work with me to install a cost-to-serve process that produces true customer and...