Winning recipes
Written by changthai11 on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Winning recipes
When we think about the various approaches and methodologies that really get to the core of Supply Chain Management, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is one of the first and most prominent that comes to our mind.
Thus, it is good to report that ECR Asia Pacific and ECR Thailand are hosting the 11th ECR Asia Pacific Conference 2008 with its theme “The Winning Recipes for the Second Decade of ECR” from Oct 15-17 at the Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre of CentralWorld in Bangkok.
ECR Asia Pacific is a non-profit organisation established to help mainly FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and retail/wholesale industries focus on collaboration among stakeholders. ECR Thailand has been organising seminars, conferences and workshops for members with the main objective to share, collaborate and improve the industry for better and stronger potential.
The ECR Asia Pacific Conference is an annual event that has been alternatively hosted among ECR Asia Pacific member countries and it has been well received by participants all around the world. The delegates will have the great opportunity to hear about best practices and “winning recipes” shared by representatives from various reputable multinational and local companies.
Delegates also have a chance to visit interesting exhibition booths to explore the new launch products and practical appliances that could certainly benefit their business operations.
“This annual event has served the industry well as a platform for best practices exchange and high-level networking. Business executives and thought leaders throughout the Asia Pacific region will gather again this year to set the industry agenda and learn from each another,” said Barron Witherspoon, vice-president of Procter & Gamble Asia, and co-chairman of the ECR Asia Pacific Executive Council.
So what is ECR all about? Even our colleague in this column quipped that it stands for “Ever Changing Requirements”. That is somewhat glib but, on the other hand, isn’t that really what supply chain management is really about?
The ECR concept has been widely accepted in consumer product and wholesale and retail industries, mainly for cost reduction throughout the whole supply chain management process, for the benefit of end customers or consumers. ECR encourages collaboration among trading partners, not only for cost reduction, but at the same time to also increase service levels.
The ECR movement began in the US in 1992 in the dry grocery sector. Two key players were Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble working together for more efficient replenishment. The key driver was more sophisticated consumer demand following a recession in the early 1990s. ECR then moved to Europe, Australia, and then to Asia in 1997.
There are 14 concepts of supply chain management improvement, as presented in the diagram above. Next week, we will begin to talk through these concepts and share some examples with you.(For more information on ECR Asia Pacific, visit http://www.ecrasia2008.org or contact Secretariat@ecrthailand.com)
Weekly Link is co-ordinated by Barry Elliott and Chris Catto-Smith CMC of the Institute of Management Consultants Thailand. It is intended to be an interactive forum for industry professionals; we welcome all input, questions, feedback and news at:
bjelliott@abf1consulting.com
cattoc@cmcthailand.org
