Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Interim Management is an approach used by companies to “make things happen” within a clear budget and without the headaches of recruiting an full time employee (FTE). The benefits are numerous but initially…… Immediate access to expert supply chain…

Small table, two blokes, close up camera shot. Mal: RTM. Jeff: What’s that then, Malaysian TV station? Mal: No. Jeff: Oh, it’s the IATA code for The Hague airport where they send all the war criminals. Mal: Er, no. It’s the business. Jeff: What…

The “Famous Last words” of people can be intriguing, rude and frequently very, very funny just as much as they can be complete nonsense. In the context of Supply Chain, “Famous Last Words” are usually uttered just before something disastrous or…

The EU has not welcomed any new member states since Bulgaria and Romania joined the club in 2007 but there is quite a queue knocking on the door and expecting the ok over the next few years. The hopefuls include a number of Southern European Balkan…

Some FMCG, Brewing, Pharmaceutical organisations are comfortable with the idea of using consultants while others avoid them like the plague. Having been on both sides of the fence with respect to supply chain consultancy services I can appreciate…

In a recent post I took a brief look at the use of Balanced Scorecards in FMCG, Brewing and Pharmaceutical businesses but in fact they are entirely appropriate for any business. Whatever your business size or offering you will benefit from knowing…

Sacred blue, mon petite pois, bonjour as Del Boy would say. Against all odds, a very young and experimental England rugby team defeated France in the 2012 6 Nations. Add in the fact that this match was in France and the home team had not lost there…

Just a short blog today for a little bit of fun but with a serious message. If you have not studied your Route To Market (RTM) deployment recently then now would be a good time. What was appropriate even a few short years ago can be wholly out of…

The merry-go-round continues in English football. Few will have been shocked by the sacking of Les Parry by Tranmere Rovers but the appointment of Ronnie Moore as his immediate replacement is a surprise. Having been sacked by Tranmere a few years…

How do you keep track of Supply Chain performance within your FMCG, Brewing or Pharmaceutical business? You do, don’t you? If you are not measuring KPIs then perhaps you should stop here, read this KPI piece and then pop back and carry. You can…

If you are a CEO or MD of an FMCG, Brewing, Pharmaceutical company with a perceived good reputation for service and you operate a Call Centre or Customer Service Desk then you should personally try calling it from time to time. I don’t know about…

If you are running an FMCG factory the least welcome pack sizes will be something like 50g sachets of washing powder or 50ml tubes of toothpaste, i.e. relatively slow filling and low capacity. In multinationals these small pack skus are likely to…