Welcome to the Transportation Summit 2011: Best Practices in Global Logistics

On Wednesday March 2nd in Vancouver, Canada, The Global Institute of Logistics (GIL) hosted the Transportation Summit 2011: Best Practices in Global Logistics. Organized in conjunction with the Westac, this conference capitalized on four years of recently completed travel and research by GIL.

We targeted best practices in supply chains around the world, whether in North America, Europe, Asia or Australia. These practices range from bulk materials handling and container logistics to infrastructure planning, environmental management, port community information systems, workforce training and technology integration, and key performance indicators.


Outcomes:

The Summit was a unique occasion to bring international expertise to Vancouver. As delegates heard, there are significant opportunities for Canada’s supply chains to make changes that will align and integrate business objectives and outcomes and drive growth and prosperity:

1. Port clusters – embrace the orchestra. Successful supply chains are collaborative where all components work together as a unified whole. The demonstration of Valenciaport’s Port Community System highlighted what is possible with greater collaboration.

2. Measurement as foundation of improvement. The way to create meaningful change is to measure, set standards and improve. The Summit provided excellent examples of two measurement and monitoring tools: Container Terminal Quality Indicator and Marca de Garantia (Service Guarantee).

3. China – a door opens. China’s new 5-year Plan’s focus on greater imports of consumer goods creates opportunities for Canadian exporters. 4. Learn and adapt, not adopt. Best practices from around the world help speed the learning to improve Canada’s logistics systems; at the same time, every success story must be adapted to Canadian conditions.


Summit themes included:

• Best Practices in Port Cluster Development
• Supply Chain Integration – the Inland Dimension
• Measuring to Manage – Balanced Scorecard, KPI’s
• Port Community Systems
• The Tyranny of Distance – Lessons from Australia
• The Workforce Dimension
• Lessons from China
• Service Guarantee – The Marca De Guarantia
• Container Terminal Quality Indicator