Ex Whitbread supply chain head pushes for joined up IT

‘Supply chain value’ should be high on today’s corporate agenda, says James Spittle, former group supply chain director for Whitbread, about to become chairman of the UK’s independent supply chain management and electronic business standards e.centre association. Spittle says he’ll be pushing the commercial imperatives of adopting supply chain standards among UK business leaders, especially today as pressure on margins and competitiveness continue to mount. e.centre is a non-profit, user-driven association with more than 16,000 member companies, aimed at improving business efficiency. It’s directly involved with developing and supporting the EAN.UCC supply chain system of standards and is a member of EAN International. Spittle knows what he’s talking about. At Whitbread, he headed-up all logistics and supply chain activities and was responsible for defining the company-wide strategy. Prior to that, he was supply chain director for retail group Kingfisher, where he led the development of a £3 billion group supply chain integration programme, and a divisional director for Tesco Stores, where he was responsible for distribution and logistics operations. He says that while understanding of supply chain concepts – and the requirements from procurement to related IT and distribution and logistics – is improving, there’s a very long way to go. “Few organisations have joined-up thinking and actions in terms of supply chain management,” he says. “Many are only just beginning to understand the importance of an aligned and truly integrated supply chain and the value that it can bring to lowering costs, increasing efficiency and reducing risk, which is critical. “Whilst supply chain optimisation features on the boardroom agenda far more than ever before, there is still some way to go to convince the top brass that there is real value to be extracted. Competition is getting tougher and businesses need to understand that a well managed and truly transparent supply chain can make the difference between profit and loss.” And putting detail on that, he says: “Integration is what’s so important now. We need aligned processes to improve profitability. It will be a long haul: most companies systems aren’t organised as integrated supply chain yet. Information and accountability are dispersed. Manufacturers mostly have three or four different systems. But for today’s emerging business world, those need to be transparent so management can see, for example, the cost of sale.” Factory gate pricing, most affecting the retail sector, but also pharmaceuticals and others, will be a strong driver for change, he says. And he believes that this will, in the coming months and years, force organisations to get cleverer in this respect and join the existing “50—10%” that are already connected. Spittle says he will also use his tenure at e.centre to increase the number of industry sectors benefiting from the use of cross-sector, global supply chain standards. “The grocery and retail chains have been revolutionised by the use of the EAN.UCC System… “The key is for industries not to believe they operate in silos. Whether commercial or public sector, every organisation has suppliers that operate in multiple industries and it is unrealistic to expect them to create new processes for each trading partner.” As for help and advice, Spittle urges users to take advantage of the 16,000-strong e.centre community, with its self-help and support groups, direct learning and publications support.