A broader look at energy use in South Africa’s manufacturing sector and related supply chains – which saps a quarter of global energy annually – could lift businesses away from fiscal watershed. 

Even though new levies and rising tariffs peck at what little fat remains of business resources, cost-cutting options related to energy use are far from exhausted. Producing energy efficient buildings and operations, and replicating the supply chain structures, holds enormous potential.

Ralton Moses, Divisional Director of Operations at UTi Pharma and speaker at the upcoming SAPICS Conference for supply chain professionals, explains that while warehousing has remained largely static with operations being somewhat consistent in South Africa over the last two decades, the associated costs are a different story altogether now.

“For most major corporates, the socially responsible aspect of going green can no longer stand in isolation or be ignored and/or avoided; it needs to be aligned with the profitability strategy of the organisation in order to provide the required benefits to all stakeholders,” warns Moses. 

“Organisations should address the impact of carbon on their supply chain, as a significant percentage of a product’s value is derived from it. When a consumer purchases a product they are also buying the supply chain that delivers that particular service,” says Moses.
 
“Increased labour costs also add inflationary pressure to operations and continually forces companies operating warehouses to reduce their carbon footprint in order to not only take care of our planet, but also to cut costs,” says Moses. “Organisations can significantly reduce their running costs through technology that measures and mitigates carbon dioxide.”

In building their new state of the art green facility in Meadowview Gauteng, UTi Pharma managed to consolidate eight of its nine operations into one. The healthcare distribution r giant delivers around half of South Africa’s temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products in the private market and had to incur significant expenditure on energy to monitor, control and regulate the temperatures of its storage and distribution facilities.

The new facility’s has an annual energy demand   of 60% of that of the preceding facility. 

Turning the lights off during weekends is no longer enough; an energy conscious strategy should incorporate everything from motion sensors and zoning systems for lighting, to grey water harvesting techniques and thermal storage systems.

A key point identified by Moses as a less cost intensive solution is that businesses should select the most accessible, well-connected facility possible, one that’s optimally located in terms of the organisation’s demand and supply base. Transportation contributes more to a company’s energy footprint than warehousing, which means the choice of venue has a significant impact. 

Ralton Moses will describe in more detail the UTi Pharma hub’s green credentials and process followed at the 38th Annual SAPICS Conference and Exhibition for supply chain professionals, to be held at Sun City, 12-14 June 2016. For more information, or to register, visit conference.sapics.org 

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Cathlen Fourie, 012 644 2833, [email protected], www.atthatpoint.co.za

For more information on SAPICS please visit:
Website: www.sapics.org.za
Twitter: @SAPICS01
LinkedIn: SAPICS group
Facebook: OperationsManagement

Private sector service providers looking to enter the public sphere should be willing to move beyond simply meeting the basic requirements of a project as defined by the public sector Terms of Reference (TOR).

This is according to Gill Jones, Director of Client Solutions at UTi.  Jones, in her presentation during the recent 37th SAPICS conference, validated how effective public-private partnership engagements can be in improving the lives and futures of ordinary South Africans. 

Jones advises that private sector be willing to learn lessons at risk and at cost to the business for a period of time, but should work on building a trust relationship while learning those lessons. “The risks taken and profit sacrificed might not make traditional business sense, but it has a bigger goal – the heart of the supply chain – that of providing services of a high quality to South Africans.”

South Africa’s future, its success, rests upon the upliftment and education of her youngsters. While more than 20% of state expenditure is allotted for the purpose, the timely delivery of resources to around 11 million learners, more than half of whom are in rural schools, is testing.    

A partnership that does more than ‘just’ work
Private courier and logistics firm UTi and the Lebone Litho Paarl Media Joint Venture (JV) were tasked by the public Department of Basic Education (DBE) with the distribution for the WorkBook Project. The state-funded initiative delivers nearly 60-million of the books throughout South Africa.

Unlike textbooks, workbooks are provided for learners to practice their language and numeracy skills – those already taught in the classroom. The UTi-JV-DBE partnership saw workbook deliveries to learners improve from below 95% in 2011 to a staggering 99.9% in 2014. Learners not only had their workbooks on time, but six months prior the start of classes.

A lack of accurate data prompted UTi to recommend that a database cleansing process be followed, allowing the company to streamline distribution.

“Although database cleansing and maintenance was not in the TOR of this project, it delivered immense value in terms of meeting and exceeding project deliverables, and in the end achieving the truly important objective of getting the right textbooks to the right schools at the right time,” Jones explains.

How to make Public-Private Partnerships work
“Working in the public sector, you are bound to very strict Terms of Reference. As a private sector provider, working on that size of project with public sector for the first time, you have to remember that you are dealing with public funds that need to be regulated according to the upfront-agreed TORs”,” says Jones. “Once you’ve won the project, and you start setting up Service Level Agreements (SLAs), you are bound to the rigid TORs, with no room for negotiation on either time or price.”

Jones doesn’t want these facts to put off private sector providers from engaging with public sector and ultimately achieving the best possible service delivery for South African citizens. “Just keep in mind that with limited information you have to cost a responsible risk factor to it,” she explains. “From there on it is up to you to stay focused on the end goal, and let your experience guide you in building trust relationships that will allow innovation to be to the benefit of the greater good.”

ENDS
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MEDIA CONTACT: Cathlen Fourie, 012 644 2833, [email protected], www.atthatpoint.co.za

For more information on SAPICS please visit:
Website: www.sapics.org.za
Twitter: @SAPICS01
LinkedIn: SAPICS group
Facebook: OperationsManagement

ABOUT SAPICS – your supply chain network
SAPICS is a professional knowledge-based association that enables individuals and organisations to improve business performance. SAPICS builds operations management excellence in individuals and enterprises through superior education and training, internationally recognised certifications, comprehensive resources and a countrywide network of accomplished industry professionals. This network is ever expanding and now includes associates in other African countries.