23 teams have made it to the finals of Fresh Connection Live Final, the supply chain strategy competition. The event takes place on 8th July at Wroxall Abbey, Warwick.
The finalists are:
BAE Systems Global Combat Systems Limited – Team 1
BAE Systems Global Combat Systems Limited – Team 2
Bernard Matthews Limited
Boxwood
Cadbury UK – First Choice Logistics
Cadbury UK – Fruit & Nut Cases
Cadbury UK – Purple Passion
Chain Gang
Constellation Wines Australia and Europe – Team 1
Constellation Wines Australia and Europe – Team2
E2open – Team 1
E2open – Tooty Fruity
Gerber Juniors
Heinz – NDC
Kimberly-Clark – Live
Kraft Foods – Director & Forward Thinkers
Kraft Foods – Team 1
Kraft Foods – The Kenconions
Miller Brands UK
Seven Collaborative Solutions
Swisslog UK Limited
University of Huddersfield
Wincanton
More than 180 supply chain professionals have participated in seven weekly decision making rounds, developing logistics strategy for a virtual business, and the top performing teams will now battle through three live final rounds with the goal of generating greatest return on investment and be named UK supply chain champions 2010.
John Perry, managing director for SCALA, the supply chain consultants responsible for introducing the game to the UK, said: “The Fresh Connection provides a unique virtual environment to test best practice, so that these enhanced processes can then be employed in the teams’ own supply chain systems.”
* The issue of whether supply chain collaboration can improve on shelf availability will be discussed at SCALA’s Annual Logistics Debate which also takes place on 8th July at Wroxall Abbey.
SCALA has commissioned a study showing that low on-shelf availability regularly puts 46 per cent of sales at stake, according to a survey into grocery and FMCG consumer buying habits.
But some 15 per cent of the major multi-national brands said they had no idea of what levels of on shelf availability they achieve, while the remaining 85 per cent admitted to holding only vague estimates.
The study questioned more than 1,000 consumers and a cross section of major brands and suppliers across the grocery and FMCG sector.
It found that 26 per cent of brands did not view on shelf availability as a key success factor for their company, and 33 per cent didn’t have on shelf availability as a KPI.
Although over 90 per cent of surveyed brands collaborated to varying degrees with their major retail customers, only 19 per cent viewed their collaboration levels as extensive. This looks set to increase however, with a 78 per cent majority of brands predicting the number of businesses and levels of collaboration across the supply chain will rise.
