Manufacturer, transporter and warehouse company join forces ONE OF the new concepts in distribution logistics has been put into practice in SA in a three-company, operational joint-venture.
The pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, Procter & Gamble, has allied with transport specialists International Delivery Company (IDC) and national warehousing and local distribution players Supply Chain Services (SCS), in an importation/storage/distribution network across SA.
This is a relatively new sort of international and national distribution concept in global logistics, said newly-appointed m.d. of IDC, Clifford Blackburn. In this scenario, the manufacturer/supplier focuses on his core business, and tiesup a third-party stock movement system with specialist, logistics service providers. It is effectively a tie-up of two hub-and-spoke systems. IDC operates the line haul movement of the consignments. It transports P&G's import containers from the Port of Durban, via its licensed depot - then on to the R50-million, P&G/SCS, centralised warehouse at Jet Park, Johannesburg, against delivery instructions. The company then hauls the individual consignment packages from the central hub to SCS's mini-hub warehouses at all the major centres. SCS, in turn, distributes out of its mini-hubs on short-haul distribution spokes to each P&G-nominated destination.
A primary benefit in this type of system is that the client company is effectively forming an in-house team from the three companies, said Blackburn, and close control of the distribution is retained. This is unlike simple sub-contracting of the various phases of storage and movement, where many of the players along the chain are anonymous, and not under effective, central control. Another control is due to be added to the IDC link in the chain early next year, when all the company's vehicles will be fitted with GPS (global positioning systems) - A live tracking system which will give us state-of-the-art security on the roads, said Blackburn.
This new logistics link-up was born on July 2. It has started to set a standard which filters through to the end user, Blackburn added. The extra speed and efficiency saves money, and this will ultimately be passed on to the consumer. The executive team in charge of the system IDC's Peter Burkhalter and Clifford Blackburn; P&G's David Levin; and SCS's Tomas Havvas.
