Information sharing key to cutting costs

Measuring performance is a critical element of reducing supply chain costs – but it’s an area that South African companies appear to be neglecting. “During research for my doctorate I found that more than 80% of companies contacted could not provide me with a performance measure,” said Dr Leila Goedhals-Gerber, head of the maritime studies division in the department of logistics at the University of Stellenbosch. “It really is a select few in the country that are aware of the importance of measuring your performance – but what is more worrying is that most of the companies were not aware they could even measure their supply chain performance.” Also concerning, she said, was the very real fear of many South African businesses about sharing information along the supply chain. “This is a major problem that we need to address if we want to look at the cost of our supply chains and the state of logistics in the country.” According to Dr Goedhals-Gerber, a culture of not sharing information had resulted in many businesses not sharing costs along the supply chain or even just sharing lessons learnt. “We will only begin to address the high cost factors when we are in a position to share best practice and knowledge freely and at the same time are measuring our performance,” she said. CAPTION Dr Leila Goedhals-Gerber … ‘Performance measurement a critical element.