Editor's Viewpoint
Innovation
Each year at LQ™ we look forward to enriching our readership further by adding to our impressive mix of editorial contributors. Now in the beginning of our seventh year of LQ™, we’re building on our tradition of having professionals writing for professionals in logistics and I am pleased to draw your attention to two professionals who will be writing regularly this year, one of whom makes his second appearance in LQ™ this issue. Rob Hamilton of DaimlerChrysler (featured June/July 1999) has written about an initiative that’s truly an eye opener. Think of it as competitive intelligence for logisticians.
Rob’s article introduces us to a DaimlerChrysler and Expressway initiative that has been launched virtually without a hitch. The strategy shows logistics savvy of the highest calibre and has clearly been built on the type of partnerships that the presidents of the CLM panel, featured in LQ™’s cover story, define as best way to bank on sound investments made in logistics strategies. After enjoying the hospitality of Expressway and DaimlerChrysler, aboard a railcar once provided for Winston Churchill, I can attest to value of information sharing between these two business partners. They have clearly looked at all the facets of meeting the many requirements of one of North America’s finest manufacturing plants of great automobiles.
Lisa MacGillivray, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Association (CITA), will also be contributing a column to future issues of LQ™. I have known Lisa for many years. In fact, early in her career we worked together when Lisa was then employed as a talented journalist. Today, I am pleased to announced Lisa’s editorial contributions will afford insights about the users’ perspective in transportation issues federally, provincially and internationally. There’s no cannier observer of the logistics and transportation scene in Canada than Lisa.
Given the focus of this issue on transportation, we’re fortunate to have Yellow President Dan Goodwill back. Dan has been a regular contributor to LQ™ over the years and in this issue he shows how Yellow is enhancing its logistics practices, the science of getting things where they need to go with new efficiencies afforded by people and technology.
Logistics, which can account, on average, for between 12-14 percent of the cost of a typical manufacturer’s cost of goods sold, represents an opportunity to improve profits, even if many senior managers in Canada have yet to recognize this. It has been reported that between 8 and 15 percent of the trucks in North America on the road are shipping only air, a vexing problem that technology can probably help. This issue, CLM’s prestigious panel certainly shows opportunities abound that deserve the attention of the highest ranks of Canadian corporations.