Field Report: Interlog Winter 2004 Conference
Held twice each year, Interlog is generally recognized as the premier event for Aftermarket Product Support and Service Parts Logistics. This year's Winter meeting in Miami, which was preceded with a one-day Global Inventory Management Summit, lived up to its reputation. Attendees had a great opportunity to hear presentations on a wide range of best practices and new technologies, to view solutions in a demo pavilion, and to participate in lively discussions with peers.
The conference agenda reflected the many challenges and opportunities facing professionals who have responsibility for service & parts management. Key topics included optimizing inventory investments against service commitments, the role of RFID and visibility in service and parts management, strategies for more effective service logistics outsourcing, managing change in service organizations, and overcoming service & parts management challenges in emerging markets such as Latin America.
Inventory optimization is a key issue for all service and parts professionals and a wide range of solutions were presented and discussed. Dr. Morris Cohen, a professor from Wharton and CEO, MCA Solutions, described how their products uniquely address the inherent risk management challenges; Razat Guarav and Dr. Omer Bakkalbasi, i2 Technologies, discussed the benefits of a "closed-loop" strategy; and Roy Steele, Patton Consulting, discussed practical approaches and guidelines used to gain control down to individual trunk stocks. Conceptual presentations were also balanced with actual experiences of practitioners such as: Peter Manni, Siemens Business Services; Lalit Panda, Harmon Consumer Group; and Tim Ballew, Alcatel.
RFID was discussed by Accenture and Dr. Sanjay Sarma of MIT. Their presentations focused on educating participants about RFID and suggesting possible application to service parts management. Attendee comments seemed to reflect ARC's own opinion that RFID may have a future in this field, but the jury is still out. Many service parts have physical characteristics that are challenging for current RFID technologies. Inventory management and flow in service parts is significantly different from CPG, so many popular RFID benefits are not readily apparent. However, field locating of assets and tracking of rotable spares in critical, regulated industries was an area that many saw potential for RFID.
Effective use of logistics outsourcing was central to many presentations. UPS and DHL, who are both active players in this arena, were well represented in the discussions and the demo area. Not only was this seen as a key strategy for reducing inventory costs, but many also utilized outsourced logistics services as a key element in their reverse repair channels. Third-Party Repair Providers, like DEX and The Brady Group, have established strong partnerships with 3PLs and have located their repair sites at major 3PL hubs. In addition to the planning companies mentioned above, Baxter Planning, Xelus, and Servigistics have also created partnerships with 3PLs that enable them to offer inventory planning consulting and outsourced inventory management solutions.
A key benefit of Interlog 2004, is its ability to draw interest from across all of the major segments for service & parts management. This event had attendees and presenters representing: high-tech & telecom (HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems, KLA Tencor, AT&T, palmOne, Motorola); commercial and consumer products (Eastman Kodak, Harmon Consumer, Whirlpool, Radiant Systems); aerospace (Southwest, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman); automotive (Arvin Meritor); medical systems (Siemens, GE); and government (DoD, Military).
ARC believes that Interlog can be an interesting event for members of two of our advisory services: Logistics Executive Council (LEC) and Collaborative Asset Lifecycle Management (CALM) Executive Council (CEC).
Source: ARC Advisory Group – www.ARCweb.com