Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

The average job description will run to a few pages of A4. Even after you have read your own it may not be completely clear what you should be doing. Here I have tried to encapsulate a selection of supply chain roles and processes in just a few…

Picture the scene in many a boardroom; a note has come from HQ telling the boss to reduce costs as globally the annual set of results is not going to look pretty. Why do all the board directors then look at their Supply Chain colleague? Of course…

Whether you call it co-packing or re-packing this involves the further manipulation of a finished and complete sku. Look around the shelves and the evidence of extra expense and work is displayed by special stickers, multi-packs and banded…

Once upon a time there was an FMCG company that I will refer to as “Foresight”. “Foresight” had spent many years and many dollars creating an acknowledged slick inbound Supply Chain. Top class global buying Flexible factory network State of the art…

As the snow ploughs, sledges and gloves are packed away for another year in the northern hemisphere we enter a key period in the FMCG industry. Beverage consumers are about to get thirsty or at least large numbers of drinks companies hope this is…

Do FMCG, Drinks & Pharma Companies delude themselves on Customer Service? I think some may well be doing this and may or may not know it! Whatever service related KPI you measure the aim is designed to see how you are performing both internally and…

After two incidents (three really) of poor Customer Service on the same day I felt compelled to put fingers to keys and share the experience! All of you working in FMCG, Drinks or Pharma - amongst others – should look closely at how your Customer…

So, we have reached April and Q1 is already done and dusted; how were your results? Be honest, did you push, push, push to make last year’s final number and shoot yourself in the foot for Q1? From what I understand very few companies will have had a…

Everyone involved in selling any type of beverage looks forward to those hot, hot days of summer when the sun is shining and drinks are moving quickly off shelves and out of coolers. This is a time when sales people can relax a little and let the…

The majority of Supply Chain Director-level openings paint a picture of dynamic, forward thinking companies already operating at top performance and requiring you just to “keep the ball moving”. This is not always the case so I wonder how an advert…

We have seen some terrible natural disasters recently. The large earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan have ruined lives and caused unbelievable devastation. When you add in the political unrest in several countries and the recent UN mandate on Libya…

For years producers have sent their products to individual retails stores and endured the seemingly endless waits for an unloading slot plus the inevitable claim “for missing goods”. Why do International Key Account (IKA) retailers have so much…

The reasons and benefits for carrying out a professional review of your Distribution network are well documented. Most of the senior people I meet understand the value of such a programme but there is a sizeable minority holding opposing views.…

With Traditional Trade enjoying something of a revival due to the extended recession some savvy companies are sorting out their RTM distribution networks. This will provide an immediate advantage over competitors and once the recession cloud blows…

Initiatives such as 6-Sigma and TPM have helped producers towards optimised output from their manufacturing networks. Line changeovers are carried out with Grand Prix slickness. Packaging components have been harmonised and rationalised. Output…