Transcript:
Hello. We would like to welcome you to this short podcast series introducing you to the new functionality for LSPs at the Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium.
Valerie Bonebrake, Senior Vice President at Tompkins Associates, guides the discussion with Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director of the Supply Chain Consortium.
Let’s listen in.
Valerie: Hi Bruce, in our last podcast you gave us a great overview of the Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium and the new services for Logistics Service Providers, and the benefits they could expect to receive by becoming a member.
Today I thought we could drill down more and understand the structure and the details of how the consortium works. Can you take us through the database so we can understand the components of that?
Bruce: Sure Val; thanks for that question. The database structure is really set up very similar to the way you would expect it to be based on trying to cover all gamuts of a supply chain. We have individual profiles for the LSPs and also a profile for the shipping community. So we have individual profiles that each one of one of those organization types completes.
The database itself covers 12 topics. They range from supply chain planning to sourcing to making to international/domestic transportation, DC operations, and sales & customer service. Those seven make up the primary topics that we cover.
Then there are also some topics that span across the supply chain. Those are: supply chain core benchmarks and key financial benchmarks; and these of course go across the supply chain, so they cover a lot of ground.
Especially the core benchmarks. What we have done to create that topic is taken all the main benchmarks and metrics from the system and put them in one place. It is easy to understand and easy to get a handle on.
The last topics that we have are ones of technology, security, and environmental and sustainability. We really cover a wide bandwidth of topics.
This database now represents about 4000 questions worth of information, and that is about 1200 questions that are metrics and the remainder are questions related to practices and processes that people use. It’s all inclusive and covers a lot of ground.
Valerie: It sure does. So with so much information at the fingertips of the users, essentially, can you walk us through the tools that are available to make that data really usable and turn it into information that will help companies improve their operations?
Bruce: Yes, we decided a long time ago that we needed to make this data available to people in a way that they can get the most out of it. We have several tools that consortium members can use and that we use ourselves to help consortium members to get access to the data. These are tools that are going to be used by the LSP consortium as well as the shipper community.
We have a search capability that allows them to search the database itself for specific questions and given topics. There is also a search capability that works for the entire website. That allows people to find reports and other presentations that we have done, speeches that we have done and so forth on given topics. It has a very robust search capability.
The other important part of the database is the ability to filter. A filter is a way that you can slice and dice the information in a way that makes sense for your organization. So you can do that ‘like me’ kind of analysis. It will slice on company size, it will slice on industry, segment within an industry, sales channels, supply chain network (i.e. how many distribution centers you have, number of manufacturing plants, etc.). There is almost an infinite number of ways that the data can be filtered and sliced so that you can compare the data to those companies that are like you.
You can even setup a filter that is a specific group of companies, by name. You will get an aggregated report back to tell you how those particular groupings of company’s data works, compared to yours. So really a very interesting and well conceived process for filtering the information and allowing yourself to really compare yourself against companies you would like to compare against.
Another tool that we have is called a query. A query is nothing more than a search on an individual question. you can do a query simply by clicking on the question itself. It provides data for all respondents; everyone who has done that question, the filtered response (in other words based on the filter you decided to run it against), and then your own response. It provides a variety of data depending on what the question type is for that particular query on that particular question. All of this is downloadable to Excel so you can use the data in whatever way you wish, you can graph it, do whatever you want to with it once you get it into Excel.
One of the key tools that we have is a scorecard. A scorecard is just what you would envision. It is a way of comparing the core benchmark section of the question set against each other and you can also run the filters on this so you can select who you want to analyze your data against and the scorecard really provides a neat graphical interface so that you can see really where your data puts you in comparison to other members in the consortium. So the scorecard is a very handy tool for metrics.
The dashboard is an application that primarily operates off of the practice questions. It in effect scores your practice questions and gives you a score for each response that you provide, and it compares that score against others. So it is a great way of comparing the practices that you are using in comparison to the practices that others are using.
It is a drillable tool in that you can drill down from an enterprise summary level which is like 30,000 foot level; you can drill that down to the individual topic level, which is more like 10,000 foot. Then if you want to you can drill it down to the individual question and get it to ground level. It is at the question level that you can really see how you stand versus others on very specific responses and individual questions.
The tool was designed for identifying gaps in practices and helping people understand where there are opportunities for improvement. It scores these opportunities as either high value, medium value, or low value, and also puts in a difficulty factor for making an improvement. It really gives you a cost/benefit analysis as well, for making an improvement in an area. It provides a lot of information and is probably the most effective, most used tool that we have for consortium members.
Valerie: Thanks for that overview Bruce. I certainly see all the time is that one of the big challenges that LSPs face is: What should I work on first? And it sounds like this tool can really help us understand how to focus on the opportunities that are going to deliver the greatest value. So great understanding of how to really use that information and for relevant plans going forward. Now you also talk about some of the reports that are available through the database, can you give us an idea of what some of the topics are and how are those derived?
Bruce: Reports come from a couple of different places. The first place is from the database itself. Each year we set about creating a calendar of events, if you will, that has the schedule we are going to use for reports for that given year. We try to do one report from the database each month and there are topics like international transportation, supplier management, manufacturing, domestic transportation and the like. And we make each of those reports available to our members on an internet site, and we go back to 2007 with those reports. You can go back and look at reports from several years ago if you really want to on a particular topic.
We also have hot topic reports, and these hot topic reports are based on the surveys we do. And we do anywhere from one to two surveys each and every month. These are on topics that go beyond our database, that are suggested to us, by our consortium members, and we generate a report on the detail that we have learned from doing that particular survey. It gets very specific and very much data intensive because we are really trying to make sure we use the data that we collect in a way that makes sense. Some of the topics there are on sustainability, Peak Season, Strategies for Improving Retail, Inventory Management, Sales Inventory and Operations Planning, and so on. All kinds of different topics are available in report form for both regular database topics and hot topic reports.
Valerie: Excellent. I know there are many member companies who could really get a lot of value out of being able to develop relationships and to network with. What are some of the networking opportunities that the members have?
Bruce: Probably the most significant networking opportunity that we have is our annual Supply Chain Leadership Forum, which is our conference that we hold each year. This year for the LSPs we are going to have a conference that begins on August 30th and runs through the 31st. The format of that is going to be a kick-off event with the shippers, and we will have them meet together. We will do a tour of the Magic Kingdom, going underneath the Magic Kingdom in what is called the Utilidor to see how they move material and people around Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom so that is going to be an interesting event.
Then we will have dinner at Epcot and get to network there. And then those of you that are familiar with Walt Disney World will know that Illuminations is at Epcot and we will be giving out tickets to watch the fireworks display. So that is kind of a kick-off event on that Tuesday night. On Wednesday then we will have shared sessions with the shippers and LSPs and we will do a live survey at that point and time using an audience response system to get some feedback from people on different kinds of things throughout the supply chain. Then in the afternoon on Wednesday we will have an LSP-only session where the shippers will go home and the LSPs will stay and we will have sessions that talk about a variety of topics that are unique to the LSPs. So that is the way that event is planned, so some time to network with shippers and fellow LSPs members.
We also do special networking events where companies will ask us if we can bring certain companies together to talk about an individual topic and we will do our best to set up a meeting and allow the people to communicate and talk on a particular topic. We have quite a bit of success with people from the consortium interested in this kind of thing and they are open to doing it.
Valerie: Okay, that is super, and with all these networking opportunities, and in particular the Leadership Forum, I know these are Member Only opportunities. How can LSPs become members and what is the investment required?
Bruce: Investment required is really related to the size of the organization, so the larger the organization, therefore the more information that they will have, and more of the database that they will use, the larger the cost is to participate. We set this up on a monthly basis, with a monthly fee, of course you can pay any way you wish to, but we set it up on a monthly basis so you can see what your investment is doing.
The lowest level in terms of the smallest organizations are those that are less than 10 million in revenue, and then for the very largest organizations the cost goes up and therefore the amount of data access, and all the things that are a part of the consortium are much larger, so there's a range there for the size of the company and how much it costs to participate in the consortium.
All of these costs, even at the highest level, are much less than you would find typically working with a consulting company or others to do benchmarking or others to have your profile available online and to do the things that we do.
The other thing is that there is a charge for the Leadership Forum and that again depends on the size of the company and the number of people that are going. You can reach out to us and we can provide some information about that separately. It is also on our website where it talks about the cost to participate in the Leadership Forum. Again in terms of what most conferences cost, it is a pretty low cost operation, but you do need to be a member in order to participate in the Leadership Forum.
There is also an investment in time, which we don’t want to minimize, but we don’t want to make a big deal out of that either because the consortium members are able to answer whichever questions they feel they want to answer. There is no pressure to answer questions that you do not understand or are on topics that are not of interest to you.
You can really stay focused and answer those questions that are of most interest to your organization. And, as questions that are most important to your organization, you will get the most benefit from it. So we really find that the resource requirement is not nearly as bad as most people would envision it would be.
Valerie: That’s great Bruce, it really sounds like an investment that LSPs who want to continually grow and achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, and network with industry leaders, and would really want to invest in. It is great talking with you, and we will see you in Orlando!
Thanks Bruce and Valerie for providing this introduction. Visit www.tompkinsinc.com/lsp for more information. Thanks for listening.
Visit Jim's blog, GoGoGo!, at http://gogogosupplychain.tompkinsinc.com/
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