You need new technologies – and management determination

Too few organisations are taking advantage of what supply chain technologies have to offer. That’s according to Stuart Facey, senior vice president and general manager of asset management company TrenStar, who has experience of supply chain technologies on both sides of the fence. With TrenStar he’s a user, in particular of RFID technologies for the company’s keg logistics management business, but also of associated ERP and supply chain systems. Prior to TrenStar he was with supply chain IT developer Viewlocity and Dutch systems integrator Covast, where he focused on Microsoft BizTalk server for supply chain integration. He also says that unless the business will is there to collaborate with the supply chain, there’s little point in pursuing the idea. “Supply chain event management and alerting systems, for example – the early warning systems – aren’t used enough. But they do require a huge amount of co-operation to set-up and get working properly,” he warns. Likewise, he says: “Supplier portals can work very well, partly because they’re one to ‘n’, rather than ‘n’ to ‘n’, but I haven’t seen many good systems in operation. They’re not as simple to get working as the software vendors make them out to be.” And he has a similarly sceptical view of integration technologies. “I don’t think integration is any easier than it was. It would be fine if we had the time and the investment to turn everything useful we have into components. But we haven’t. I’ve got a 15 year old AS/400 with no ability whatsoever to communicate with the outside world. But we need that system, and the cost of getting it integrated is prohibitive. “Also, use of XML hasn’t materialised as it should; we may not have exactly the same problems as before, but with all the legacy stuff – sometimes it’s too difficult or too time consuming, or there are other priorities. You can’t solve those issues with new technology. I can see IT people struggling with those for the next 50 years.” You can hear Stuart Facey at the MCS Lean Supply Chain Forum on 13 April at Gaydon in Warwickshire (www.mcsforum.co.uk).