LOGISTICS SECTOR

For Bax Global: INTERNAL CONSULTANT TO BAX GLOBAL’S ASIA DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOROLA CELLPHONES

Our consultant was the in-house Internal Consultant for Bax Global. Assisted its General Manager to manage their Motorola key account as an Asia Distribution Centre in training, pre-ISO audit, customer servicing (mobile phone retail distributors and wholesalers), order fulfilment and shipping throughout Asia, complaint resolution and quality control to conform to to Six Sigma/Motorola 7 Disciplines standards.

Tasks: Designed and implemented systems in customer servicing, quality, pre-ISO audit, 550 employee training, and program adherence to Motorola Six-Sigma standards.

(a) Implemented a complaint resolution system to handle customer complaints from Motorola and its Asian distributing customers through an Action Register Database and Corrective Action Reports (CAR). Seconded to support line function directly. Developed procedures to improve service quality by identifying key issues, review with functional departmental heads’ the analysis of root causes and corrective actions, monitoring action effectiveness and implement solutions.

(b) Implemented Training Needs Analysis, Training Schedule and Training Manual. Developed training procedures and work instructions for program.

(c) Performed quality compliance check in accordance with Motorola’s Quality System Review (QSR) and Standards of Internal Control (SIC).

(d) Conducted an Independent Review of Pre-ISO 9000 Audit (certificate renewal) across entire Motorola program.

(e) Facilitated a Process Mapping Workshop for all functional departmental heads as part of our Process Improvement consulting work. Performed business analysis. Analyzed key performance metrics of all departments (freight tonnage, shipping volume, factory quality, order management, field customer issues) and wrote the Performance Metrics section of the 3rd Quarter Business Review (QBR) for GM – Operations.

Result? Significantly creativity was practiced in the daily permanent resolution of product and service defects within a 24-hour period to satisfy Motorola’s stringent service standards. Daily average of 30 service defects was reduced to 10 within 5 months.

Client Benefits? Client kept Motorola satisfied, long enough to improve its hard assets and machinery performance.

For General Electric (GE), Industrial Automation: SOUTH KOREA INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION MARKET ANALYSIS 

Client commissioned us to gather industry market data and revenue market share on their competitors. Problem was the lack of current market data, and their Asia corporate planning depended heavily on this required information for their strategic planning.

Tasks:

1. Market Size and Competitors’ Market Share By Sector: Factory automation, Defense, Test Measurement, Medical, Semiconductor, Telecom, Automotive, Aerospace By Product: VME – Virtual Machine Environment, CPCI -Compact PCI, ATCA – Advanced TCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture), AMC – Advanced Mezzanine Cards, PMC – PCI Mezzanine Card. By Competitor

2. Competitive Strategy

Result? Client was able to better understand their competitors’ sales performance and product emphasis as well as to update their market data.

Client Benefits? From this study, we developed strategic recommendations to enable our client to better compete against its competitor and capture bigger market share.

For Kewill, a UK Logistics Software/System Integrator, Singapore: JAPAN MARKET FEASIBILITY & MARKET EXPANSION STRATEGY

Situation: Client is a logistics software system integrator producing its own proprietary software. Its HQ is based in UK. Client’s appointed Tokyo distributor for the past 4 years had failed to produce the desired sales result. Client engaged us to study the Japan market in detail and whether it is indeed a difficult market to operate in, causes of the difficulties and how profitable it is.

Tasks: market analysis, demand-side analysis (market segmentation, customer intelligence, B2B customer lead generation), supply-side analysis (supply, competitor intelligence), distribution analysis (including system integrator distributor partner search), market feasibility and developing a market expansion strategy.

Results: Our study verified our client’s impression that Japan was a difficult and expensive market to operate in due to strong preference for foreign Western customised software entrenched since 1947 and high operating costs. Also, the lack of client branding in Japan posed a significant difficulty and needs time to overcome.

Client Benefits: Our recommended expansion strategy enabled client to know the medium strategy to implement, identify which potential shortlisted distributors to appoint and replace the non-performing existing one and to know the optimum marketing strategy needed to market their software in Japan. Company meetings in Tokyo arranged with both potential distributors and B2B customer leads.

For Okura, Industrial Automation/Conveyor Systems Manufacturer: CHINA MARKET FEASIBILITY & MARKET EXPANSION STRATEGY

Situation: Client, a manufacturer of palletizing, conveyor, sorting and storage systems, seeks to identify expansion opportunities for new sales and maintenance service contract renewal sales in addition to gathering market intelligence on market analysis, competitor and customer intelligence, industry trends, pricing, brand perception and other sub KITs (Key Intelligence Topics).

Geographical Scope : China’s top 17 provinces (North, Mid East, South and South Western provinces) Objectives: The project’s strategic objective is to support the client’s regional Asia strategic planning and growth strategy, starting with China first.

Project objectives:

Part 1: Market Size (USD$ million by product segments , market growth)

Part 2: Industry Analysis (supply capacity, major players/institutions, Porter 5 Forces Analysis, production chain / technology changes, trends analysis, opportunities, challenges)

Part 3: Demand-side Analysis: Customer Intelligence (demographics, psychographics, buying behaviour), Branding (customer’s feedback on comparing client with competitor brands, brand perception and their willingness to switch to client brand), New Customer Lead Generation & Company Profile, Arrange Company Meetings

Part 4: Supply-side Analysis: Competitor Intelligence (CI) (Company Profile of top direct competitors, market share capture, SWOT analysis)

Part 5: Distribution Analysis (how client service is distributed across China e.g. competitors’ own offices, distributors, dealers, agents, margins, collaborations, etc)

Part 6: China Market Expansion Strategy

• How to sustain a competitive advantage
• Positioning the business against rivals
• Anticipating changes in the business environment and adjusting the strategy to accommodate them
• Influencing the nature of competition through strategic actions
• Marketing Strategy (addressing Existing Customer Retention & Attraction of New Customers;
• Marketing Plan

Result? Implemented our recommended expansion strategy in tier 2 cities.

Client Benefits? Client obtained our gathered market information as well as our advice on how best to expand its China business.

For DHL, US Courier Company: AIR EXPRESS MARKET ANALYSIS

1. Market measurement project was commissioned to estimate volume market size

Product Segments: – Express market (Documents + Dutiable items) at total level, segment level (regular, Advantage, ad hoc) and by destination region (Asia, EU, North America, rest of Europe, rest of world) – Other modes (Fast Freight including Deferred Express, Parcel Post and Freight)

2. Estimates were calculated by calibrating results to client’s internal shipment data. Total market estimate was then apportioned according to regional spread found in survey data. Penetration data was also derived for all modes at total and segment level.

3. Brand Dynamics of Client Vs Competitors Sole users, main courier used, used at all Conversion Rate Repertoire Usage

4. Brand Positioning What aspects of Image drive Preference? How is client perceived vs. competition? (Speed of delivery, Offering a range of services, Making it easy to get information, Easy to use services) What are client strengths and weaknesses? How can client optimize brand preference?

Result: Target Market Specification and Brand Positioning information collected and estimated

Client Benefits: Client was able to identify specific markets with the greatest coverage of International shippers by minimizing industry exclusions and by covering the widest economical sample base in terms of company size