What Does the Future of Supply Chain Management Hold?: Interview with: Carter McNabb, Partner, GRA, a consulting firm attending the marcus evans Chief Logistics Officer Summit 2013, discusses the trends in supply chain management today.

1. What Does the Future of
Supply Chain Management Hold?
prominence in certain areas. We used to help companies achieve a minimum of
see many consolidation centres in 5 - 15 per cent savings in their supply
China, but that structure is also now chain costs. In addition, these tools can
shifting to geographies with broader help them design a better supply chain,
regional coverage, such as Singapore. identify concealed risks, forecast
demand, and optimise inventories.
My third point is on technology Optimising inventories creates free cash
sophistication. This is now a flow and improves stock availability, so
requirement for competitiveness and there’s a compounding benefit that has
survival, otherwise companies slip a multiplier effect on financial ratios
behind. There are some very powerful such as Return on Capital Employed.
tools for optimisation, planning and
execution, and automation tools, which This is more than an isolated cost
Interview with: Carter McNabb, are creating the need for a different reduction; it is about optimising
Partner, GRA type of skill set. structures and flows to increase cost
efficiency, customer responsiveness,
It is important to deploy the latest capacity and working capital across the
Chief Logistics Officers (CLOs) need technologies, to extract every dollar end to end supply chain.
to be agile and adapt their supply chains possible out of every transaction.
to the latest trends, advised Carter Any final thoughts?
McNabb, Partner, GRA. To respond to The assumption of energy as a low-cost
business opportunities and changing input is also changing. Energy costs and Organisations need to look at their
conditions, their supply chain strategy exchange rate increases have impacted whole supply chain, the complete
and structure have to continuously the economic dynamic. Australia has picture in terms of people, processes,
evolve, he went on to say. also introduced a carbon tax. As a systems and data, and figure out what
result, I expect to see more localisation the future supply chain will look like.
GRA is a supply chain consulting firm and centres of excellence developing in They must continue to evolve in order
that will be attending the upcoming different regions. So the way that to remain relevant.
marcus evans Chief Logistics Officer supply chains are structured in the
Summit 2013, in the Gold Coast, global market will change too.
Queensland, Australia, 17 - 19
February. Ahead of the Summit, The final area is disaster recovery.
McNabb highlights the latest trends Whether it is extreme weather
They must
impacting supply chain management. conditions or an airline going out of
action, most businesses seem to be
What developments in the supply caught off guard. They need to build in
chain landscape should CLOs focus
more on?
some redundancy into the supply chain
network to avoid operational disruptions continue to
evolve in
that can damage the business’
There are several challenges and marketplace position.
uncertainties that the industry has not
responded well to yet. For example, the
rise of online retailing, which is opening
CLOs must pick up on the latest trends
and be agile enough to respond to order to
remain
up new markets and routes, but also them.
increasing logistics costs and
complexity. Supply chains must be What cost saving and profitability
optimised for these. boosting opportunities could you
recommend? relevant
China used to be the factory of the
world, but now Vietnam, Thailand, India Analysing the supply chain using
and the Philippines are increasing in sophisticated modelling techniques can

2. About the Chief Logistics Officer Summit 2013
marcus evans Summits deliver
peer-to-peer information on
This unique forum will take place at the RACV Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast,
strategic matters, professional
Queensland, Australia, 17 - 19 February 2013. Offering much more than any
trends and breakthrough
conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together
innovations.
esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and
interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on enabling
dynamic growth in the value chain, fostering innovation in logistics processes, and
strategic planning and forecasting for industrial competitiveness.
www.cloanzsummit.com
Please note that the Summit is a
closed business event and the Contact
number of participants strictly
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits
limited.
Division
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About GRA
GRA is Australia’s premier consulting firm specialising in supply chain strategy, planning & execution. Over our 15 year history, we
have worked with more than 100 organisations in distribution, manufacturing, retail and service industries across the Asia Pacific
region. We provide our clients with a competitive advantage by delivering sustainable improvements in working capital, cost and
service level performance.
www.gra.net.au
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss
strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to
individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-to-one business meetings.
For more information, please visit: www.marcusevans.com
To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.cloanzsummit.com/CarterMcNabb