White Papers

Interview with Professor Richard Wilding

Unipart Expert Practices’ Martin Green talks with one of the UK’s leading supply chain academics on the challenges that lie ahead.

Richard Wilding is Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Cranfield University.  He has an impressive CV and was winner of the “Individual Contribution Award” at the 2010 European Supply Chain Excellence Awards.  In this insightful interview, we discuss the challenges and how to approach them.  

White Paper: 'A Better Return for Retailers?'

Often it seems retailers only have a forward gear when it comes to their supply chains.
All the investment and attention is lavished on distributing goods onwards from warehouses with a lot less thought for products that swim against the tide.  Reverse logistics has traditionally been an under-resourced, minority sport played in odd corners of the distribution network.

However, that is set to change.  Trends such as the rise of on line shopping and home deliveries, growing pressure to make efficient use of transport, and regulations requiring items such as electrical products and cardboard waste to be recycled are already pushing reverse logistics higher up the corporate agenda.

White Paper: 'Can social media technology be used in the Supply Chain?'

Media like Twitter and Facebook have been rapidly taken up in business-to-consumer marketplaces.  The numbers are staggering. According to RJ Metrics in 2009 Twitter was growing at a rate of 6.5 million new users per month and in the UK alone 22 million of us, that’s one in every two internet users, has a Facebook account.

It is hard to deny the incredible impact social media has on our day to day lives.  So far, business applications of social media have concentrated on business to consumer marketing.  The question for supply chain professionals is whether, if at all, social media can be used in our domain.

As featured in Living Logistics

White Paper: 'Emotional Intelligence'

In our recent interview with Professor Richard Wilding of Cranfield School of Management he predicted that high levels of Emotional Intelligence will be essential for those managing the supply chains of the future. But what makes Emotional Intelligence so critical for creating high performance supply chains?

In this white paper, Danielle Butler-Miles explores the rise of ‘soft skills’ in the supply chain and its expected impacts on the business.  She asks two key questions: 

• How does Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) impact on businesses and business performance? 
• How do we develop EQ in our businesses?

As featured in Living Logistics

White Paper: 'Ensuring Payback On Automation'

How to ensure payback on automation
Warehouse automation frequently fails to live up to expectations.  However, Andrew Robinson of UEP argues this should never arise if the correct approach is taken and a strict methodology applied – one that takes an ‘end-to-end’ view of the supply chain. 

Implementing an automated warehouse is a complex, expensive and sometimes, risky venture. According to a recent survey conducted by Cranfield University into 27 warehouse automation projects, “there are real concerns about disruption to the ongoing operation in the short-term and the degree of future flexibility in the longer-term”. 

As featured in Living Logistics

White Paper: 'Exceeding Customer Expectations'

There are many fulfilment issues faced by retailers today.  The biggest challenge – which encompasses a wide spectrum of related issues – is the provision of a service that is above all convenient to the consumer.

Only a few years ago it was acceptable to place an order, wait almost a week for it to be delivered and then have to collect it from the local courier depot only to find some items missing.  Consumers now expect a delivery to be on time, at a time that is right for them, in full and in pristine condition.

White Paper: 'Excellence in Asset Maintenance'

Managing and maintaining assets, often in dispersed locations, is an area of supply chain management that has yet to embrace best practice supply chain management techniques. Derek Thomason looks at what is often found on the ground and identifies ‘what good looks like’. The cost of servicing and repairing assets is both expensive and time consuming, with the potential to cause significant customer service failures. 

Like many other areas where supply chain management has yet to gain maturity the asset care sectors tend to look to technology and ‘functional solutions’ rather than taking an end-to-end cost and service perspective.  Considerable attention is often focused on the training and productivity of engineers, the supply chains that support them in their day to day roles are frequently poorly designed and managed. Read more about leading practices and benefits for excellence in asset maintenance in supply chains by downloading UEP's white paper.

White Paper: 'Freeing Up Cash in the Supply Chain'

A corporate focus on cash is placing the supply chain centre stage. Martin Arrand, Managing Consultant for Unipart Expert Practices, highlights the key, fast-track ways to freeing up cash in the supply chain.  With the UK economy remaining in troubled waters and business loans still hard to come by, improving cash-flow continues to be a top priority for most companies. 

With the exception of Finance, no other part of the organisation has such a large opportunity to influence cash-flow as the supply chain.  Many measures that improve productivity and profit are cash-negative in the short term, because they require investment.  The key to generating cash is to look at what accountants call the ‘cash conversion cycle’.

As featured in Living Logistics

White Paper: 'Getting Ahead Through Six Practices'

Practice One: The Six Practices that bring competitive advantage

According to McKinsey & Co and Georgia Tech College of Management, there are six ‘leading practices’ that drive supply chain performance. In this, the first in a series of six articles in which each of these practices is examined, Derek Thomason, Martin Green and Martin Haynes of Unipart Expert Practices describe how companies can practically apply these practices for competitive advantage.

It has long been established that supply chains can be used for competitive advantage. What is helpful is that the implementation of just six leading practices, as identified by McKinsey & Co with Georgia Tech College of Management, can be correlated with improved business performance – companies who excel in these six areas are dominant in terms of service, cost and inventory.

As featured in Living Logistics

White Paper: 'Getting Ahead Through Six Practices'

Practice Two: The Six Practices that bring competitive advantage

According to McKinsey & Co and Georgia Tech College of Management, there are six ‘leading practices’ that drive supply chain performance. In this, the second in a series of six articles in which each of these practices is examined, Derek Thomason, Martin Green and Martin Haynes of Unipart Expert Practices describe how companies can practically apply these practices for competitive advantage.

Many companies are facing increasing complexity in their supply chains.  As the customer base becomes more international, this raises the need to meet local requirements, while within these markets, individual customers will have their own specific requirements.  The challenge is how to construct ‘tailored value-delivery systems’ whilst still getting economies of scale and synergies from combined operations. 

As featured in Living Logistics