Quick News : Monday 24 Oct 2005
October 24, 2005 by SwizStick
Filed under 3PL, QuickNews, Supply Chain Management
DHL Danzas has consolidated their Los Angeles operations under 1 roof:
The new 200,000 square foot facility is located in Redondo Beach, near the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles International Airport, and brings under one roof three facilities — Los Angeles gateway operations; air, ocean and U.S. domestic services; customs brokerage, warehousing and Customer Program Management activities.
That’s a lot of square footage…..good luck.
Big surprise here: A report on 3PLs shows that price has overtaken service as the most important factor in choosing a 3PL, yet customers still demand more “strategic offerings”:
For the first time in the 10 year history of the survey price has overtaken value-added services to become the most important attribute in selecting a 3PL provider, reflecting the emphasis on the pressure of logistics cost reduction in the supply chain. At the same time that 3PL users closely examine cost, they also are demanding more strategic offerings.
The report stresses the importance of the use of technology in the 3PL supply chain process to balance cost concerns and strategic needs. While 90% of respondents agreed that IT capability is a necessary element of overall 3PL provider expertise, only 38% are satisfied with their providers’ capabilities. This suggests that as more firms progress further into outsourced logistics relationships, the complexity of these relationships necessitates the use of effective IT services for a broad spectrum of supply chain processes.
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The survey responses confirmed that the proficiency of a 3PL provider’s core services was considered more important than the provider’s ability to deliver value-added services during the selection of a provider. This shift from frills to core services is a major change, likely driven by recent global consolidation that may have given the perception of weakened core services. Therefore 3PL providers need to get the basics right, yet have the capability to support users on more strategic initiatives if they are to retain contracts in the long term.
AOL Branding“3PL providers cannot be all things to all people; they need to clearly define their customer satisfaction strategy,” says C. John Langley Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Supply Chain Management and 3PL study leader at Georgia Institute of Technology. “It is essential for 3PL providers to focus on offering a global set of core services at the right price, and then to build a close relationship with the user to offer more strategic services in line with the client’s evolving business needs, by transforming their offerings portfolio to include strategic management services.”
Read the whole article, it is a MUST read if you are a 3PL.
And the woes in Australia continue : First, forwarders and brokers have forced Australian Customs to back down and allow them an indefinite extension to continue using the old system:
Brokers, who had been given a 12-day extension to use the old Compile system, will now be able to stay with the legacy system indefinitely.
“The contingency arrangements for Compile will continue until a date to be determined,” Customs NSW regional director David Collins announced late yesterday afternoon.
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Mr Collins said Customs, which is considering compensating importers for excess storage costs, had expected the system to work better than it did.“Things we tested, which worked well, in reality didn’t work well,” he said.
“We are well aware that this is causing a lot of pain and heartache.”
Second, the crippling backlog that has been created due to the distastrous results of working with the new Customs system is taxing the ports, where they are operating close to 100% capacity with no relief in sight :
SYDNEY’S major port will hit 100 per cent capacity tomorrow as chaos continues to envelop the nation’s air and sea terminals after the botched introduction of a new $250 million Customs computer system.
Qantas Freight yesterday called on forwarders to collect their inbound goods as quickly as possible to clear space for incoming cargo at terminals in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.NSW Ports Minister Eric Roozendaal described the introduction of the Integrated Cargo System as “gross bungling” and said the arrival of six more cargo-laden ships today and tomorrow would further strain the system.
“This is a major threat to the state’s businesses,” he said.
“The federal Government is just not being realistic about the damage it is doing to the NSW economy.”
Mr Roozendaal said he feared stock would not be on shop shelves in the lead-up to Christmas as small businesses struggled to cope with delays.
This is a logistics nightmare of epic proportions. You can read more about it here.
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