CHEP Joins CAITEC to Present Report on China’s Future FMCG Supply Chain

The news of the report titled “China FMCG Industry Supply Chain Logistics Research Report,” was made public on 17 December at a ceremony attended by more than 70 industry representatives of corporate enterprises.

The joint CHEP / CAITEC report is the result of a six month project under the leadership of CAITEC and which analyses the role that standardization and pooling of supply chain equipment such as ULD’s and aircraft pallets plays as a way of achieving more operational efficiency and at the same time lowering the cost in the logistics chain.

The main aims of the analysis were:

• to study the status, challenges and trends within China’s FMCG supply chain
• provide a cost analysis of a number of logistics scenarios
• which aims are necessary to accelerate supply chain standardization and asset pooling in China
• give recommendations on actions for safer, more efficient and sustainable supply chains.

It seems that the aims were met and a comprehensive and informative report is now ready for publication.

CHEP Asia, Pacific President, Phillip Austin commented that “CHEP applauds China’s Ministry of Commerce for its vision and leadership behind these first steps towards standardization and the adoption of dynamic flowing supply chains.”
Austin was supported in his view with a comment from CAITEC’s President, Gu Xue Ming who remarked that “we sincerely hope that the analysis provides practical suggestions for better ways of working and more efficient supply chain management.”

What is recommended?
The recommendations listed in the report are too many and varied to be listed here.
However, some of the most challenging and practical issues are:

• the government should utilize the potential to help accelerate the development of standards for pallets, transportation vehicles, facilities and other related equipment through firm policies and financial incentives.
• the promotion of good practices and education of future stakeholders.
• industry associations should play an important role in areas of regulations, training, promotion and coordination.
• the report also urges companies to take a wider view of the supply chain and come up with means of cooperating with other companies in order to streamline it.
• practical issues such as  upgrading equipment and facilities to a national standard or adapting standard processes, are also listed as priorities.

The Chinese transport market offers huge opportunities for the pooling, steering and management of equipment within the supply chain.
One just has to take note of the number of airlines alone which are now operating under a Chinese license to see what potential is there just for the aviation sector.

It seems that CHEP China is committing itself to what CHEP Asia President, John Wan describes as making full use of the global supply chain solutions expertise of their mother company, the Brambles Group to be a major player in this new role.

John Mc Donagh