World Trade - March 2009 - (Page 36) STRATEGY The Future of the Physical Supply Chain and Collaboration ‘External’ concerns like less CO2 emission and energy consumption will impact future bottom lines—and require new models to achieve. A new report, “Succeeding in a Volatile Market: The Future Value Chain,” published by the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), Capgemini, HP and SAP AG, brings together insights and analysis of 130 of the industry’s leading figures from Europe, North America, and Asia including China, India and Japan. The report examines the changing dynamics that will impact the Consumer industry in the coming decade. Serving consumers in a sustainable way Current supply chain designs are primarily aimed at improving on-shelf availability, reducing cost and supporting sound financial figures (like ROI or return on brand equity). In the future, the industry must design for additional parameters like CO2 emissions reduction, reduced energy consumption, better traceability and reduced traffic congestion. The impact of these new parameters on the current bottom line may not yet be substantial but will grow in the coming years and efficiency improvements will almost certainly be realized. Supply chain strategy needs to look ahead and give priority to these parameters. All stakeholders in the supply chain will need to play their part to accomplish this change. Consumer awareness and demand for new products and services will also accelerate the adoption of new practices. How should the industry build the future supply chain and what are the components? 36 WORLD TRADE MARCH 2009 Integrating improvement solutions together with collaboration concepts into a cohesive model will provide the future supply chain architecture that will help bring new efficiency and cost reduction for the industry. A big impact on the parameters can be made when the following concepts are merged and implemented: • Information sharing – driving the collaborative supply chain • Collaborative warehousing • Collaborative city distribution (including home delivery and pick-up) • Collaborative non-urban distribution (including home delivery and pick-up) While individual examples of these concepts already exist, the key to their broader implementation across industries will be improved collaboration. Improving such collaboration demands new ways of working together in the physical supply chain. The total impact of this supply chain redesign (even
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