If South Africa wants to remain competitive in the current economic times, companies are going to have to learn to work together at a sustainable level, said Abrie de Swardt, marketing director of Imperial Logistics. Speaking at the launch of the CSIR and Imperial Logistics fifth State of Logistics Survey in South Africa, De Swardt said collaboration and cooperation were extremely important and instead of companies heading to the trenches in difficult times they should be implementing these practices. “Now more than ever is the time to improve your on-shelf availability by consolidating, cooperating and collaborating. We must work together.” He said the holy grails of the supply chain – high-speed and low-cost – would also not be the only factors in coming years. “These are two very significant and important factors, but companies who want to be sustainable and remain at the top of the game will realise that speed and cost are not enough any more.” With business confidence at an all-time decade low, cooperation between companies to ensure they are meeting customer demands will be key, said De Swardt. “In the US between 1980 and 2000 the supply chains became faster and cheaper, but consumer satisfaction still plummeted making it clear the supply chain needed more.” He said agility, adaptability and alignment were now just as important as speed and cost. “The ability to respond quickly to changes in the supply chain, to be able to recover promptly from shock and evolve over time is just as important. Along with that is the ability to work across the supply chain – times have changed and we need to change with them.” De Swardt said culturally South Africans were brought up to compete, but in the current economic times, with the cost of logistics at 15.9% of the GDP, it was time for a change. “We must be able to compete internationally and work at a sustainable level. To have the competitive advantage we will have to learn to work together. Supply chains will have to become more resilient to accommodate changes quickly and effectively.”
