[Video] DHL introduces First Choice program in AP

India - Frank Sterpin, DHL vice president for strategic planning in Asia Pacific tells ProcurementAsia how the company's First Choice programme will improve the logistics situation in India.

The First Choice programme aims to establish a mode of continuous improvement throughout the group's operations. The programme's focus is on analysing work procedures, identifying problems in processes and systematically developing solutions. It encourages employee initiatives for improvement and incorporates it into the work process.

Watch on to find out more

Thank God for ERP!

On my first ever visit to India, blessed with good fortune; I was able to take a day trip to visit the Taj Mahal – one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Taj Mahal is located in Agra and since I was putting up in New Delhi, that meant a gruelling eight hour journey to-and-fro with ample time to observe the traffic conditions of roads in India, which would very much affects the logistics and supply chain of companies operating in India.

It must have been the third or fourth time I had to stop, queue and pay toll fees on the 203 km journey when I started comparing the Indian Toll-fees system to Singapore’s ERP (Electronic Road Pricing). This must be the first time I must say, with a little bit of embarrassment that I actually welcomed the “beep” of passing through an ERP gantry and be off on my journey, without the need to stop, queue and pay. The ERP for me represented a new dimension of efficiency.

As I engaged in more time consuming stopovers to pay toll, the situation turned dire. Instead of being confronted by yet another toll booth, at some stopovers, paying toll was done at a 1.5m x 1m desk in the middle of nowhere and my driver had to literary get down from the car and walk towards these desks.

In this time consuming and rather comical toll paying practice, I cannot help but notice the huge number of trucks and goods vehicles which were queuing up back to back at these “toll-desks” I came across and like my drivers, the drivers of these vehicles had to unbuckle their seat belts, leave their vehicles and crowd around to pay toll at these desks.

In fact, this ritual was proving such a deal, that street performers find it lucrative enough to bring along their monkeys to earn an extra buck (see picture on the left).

Although stopping at toll booths were time consuming, having your driver get out of the car and pay toll at a desk was all very unprofessional and a complete waste of time.

This would no doubt affect the efficiency of companies dealing with end to end supplying and I thought was a problem that could be eradicated with a bit of planning and restructuring.

I am not suggesting that roads in India go high tech and start erecting gantries, as I am sure drivers in India would soon be heard cursing and swearing every time they hear the “beep” like drivers on “the little red dot”. But surely, they could build more toll booths and employ very efficient toll collectors like the one in the (picture on the right) to speed up the whole process.

I do wish that some higher-ups in New Delhi or Agra reads this little comment I’ve made and for all you know, transporting of goods and end to end supply could be much less time consuming and all these truck drivers could spend more time resting on their beds rather than queuing and waiting into the wee hours of the night (see picture below) just to get their shipment to their destination.

Manufacturers' guide to surviving the economic slump

With the manufacturing sector already notoriously named the "sunset" industry, the recent slew of reports on job cuts and mass retrenchment may be leaving folk in the sector shaking in their shoes.

I speak with Randy Sng, industry manager for manufacturing and general business at IBM Singapore on whats in store for manufacturers in Asia, and what they can do to help ride out the economic storm.

Watch on to find out more.

Pilots forced to fly uncomfortably low on fuel

The fuel price crisis seems to have hit a new level with this TIME exclusive on how pilots have been forced to fly with minimum fuel.

Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/6r4etu

New Post: The only time we don't want flour to rise

After a quick poll of family, friends and colleagues, I have come to realise that a lot of people, or at least the people I interact with, tend to rank “lose weight” as one of the top New Year’s resolutions made each year.

Me included.

Well, it seems the bid to lead a healthier lifestyle may be easier to stick to this year, especially during the (marathon-eating) Lunar New Year season.

Prices of Chinese New Year goodies imported from Malaysia have increased, owing largely to a whopping 45% increase in the price of flour from Malaysia.

In turn, supermarket chain Sheng Siong upped the prices of its Malaysia-imported New Year goodies by 10-20%, and is offering promotional prices to offset half of the price increase.

NTUC too, have said they intend to raise the prices of their Malaysia-imported goodies by about 20%. New Year goodies from Malaysia make up about 60% of all Lunar New Year products in their stores, NTUC said.

Prices of Indonesian-imported goodies, on the other hand, are not affected by the price increase.

Not just the Lunar New Year, but prices of flour-based products will be on the rise in the coming months should the price of flour from Malaysia stay on its upward trajectory. Coupled with rising oil prices, procurement managers in liaison with flour suppliers across the causeway may begin flexing their negotiating muscles to strike a better deal and keep their margins in check… or looking elsewhere.

Leftover turkey for Lunar New Year, anyone? It’s healthy, you know.

The rise of the non-traditional competition

Over lunch with senior manager for performance improvement in PricewaterhouseCoopers Andreas Wettstein was when I first caught a glimpse of what transportation in China looked like 10 years ago.

Imagine this: you’re a supply chain manager and on a rainy weekend, you receive a call saying your shipment of sugar has arrived – in an open container.

Horrified? I sure was.

But that was 10 years ago. China has since transformed their logistics sector to one that now causes their European competition to shake in their shoes.

“The average Chinese competitor of 10 years ago and one of today is very different,” says Wettstein. “Non-traditional companies are now big competition to European companies.”

Clearly, the competitive landscape is changing. Armed with cheap labour and raw materials, local Chinese competition is slowly but surely matching their might to the big boys.

How to gain a competitive edge? Get your supply chain right, Wettstein said.

International MNCs can now ill afford to view local Chinese competition as anything but significant, he said. Asia as a collective is now both a source and a market, so “the importance of getting your supply chain right cannot be compromised.”

And not just in terms of getting the goods to the end consumer on time, but also the method in which goods and raw materials are transported will be increasingly important in the years to come, especially when end consumers are beginning to pledge their loyalty (and money) to companies with greener, more ethical supply chains.

Which means no child labour, no slavery and no raw materials subjected to the elements during transportation.

Personally I think the Chinese government is more than ready to set those wheels in motion. Once they do, local Chinese businesses, or what was previously termed non-traditional competition, will move out of the non-traditional realm and evolve into formidable players in the global business platform.

The iPhone supply chain loophole

It was recently widely reported that Apple is limiting iPhone sales to only 2 per customer, for fear of “illegal trafficking” and to “preserve stock” for the Christmas crush – reports I read with slight amusement.

Is it just me, or are Apple’s efforts to keep its supply chain hack-free a noble yet not exactly useful act? Because I personally know of a few friends on our sunny island who are already using the iPhone, which they bought from a famous IT building somewhere in the Little India region.

According to one such consumer (who has asked for anonymity), the AT&T function has been disabled and a new software has been put in place so that it works with local telco operators.

In the midst of the software upgrade, users in Singapore will also apparently only be allowed to use iTunes 7 and no other updates.

While consumers admit the phone is still rather “buggy”, waiting for a second generation, or worse, waiting for the iPhone to be launched officially in Asia next year is hardly an option.

“Consumers (in Singapore) change their mobile phones almost every year or year and a half,” said another iPhone user. “By the time the iPhone launches here, the hype is over and we’re on to the next new gadget.”

At first glance, it seems the Singaporean consumers’ “kiasuism” (first to everything) will affect sales of the iPhone here once it is officially launched in Asia next year. But I was proven wrong.

A quick telephone call to a good friend (and MacHead, we call him behind his back) later, I learned there are other consumers out there who would skip the unlocked phones and wait for the iPhone to be officially launched in Singapore before getting one.

According to him, this had nothing to do with staying true to the brand, neither has it to do with the iPhone’s superior functions (which are arguably lacking when compared to other smartphones). Rather, he advises consumers not to buy unlocked products, which will make them incompatible to official software upgrades. In addition, Microsoft functions may not be added or may not work as well with the unlocked phones, and they are most likely not covered by warranty.

So will consumers still take a bite out of the Apple iPhone when it comes here? Or will Apple lose out to resellers who’ve already claimed a piece of the iPhone pie with their unlocked versions? I suppose we’ll find out.