How times have changed. Ten years ago this month I launched Logistics Europe into a brave new world, a Europe without borders. They were exciting times, not only for the new publishing venture I was involved in, but also for the promise of structural change that lay ahead for corporate Europe.
Supply chain management had the potential to rise to the fore on the boardroom agenda as businesses looked at ways of restructuring their manufacturing and warehousing on a pan-European basis – as it happened the process was somewhat more protracted than anticipated. But perhaps more interestingly, a far more profound and far-reaching change was about to occur.
About the time as the magazine was sold to Haymarket Business Publishing in 1996, supply chain management was starting to emerge as a management discipline which could harness the new information technology advances that were taking place. Planning applications and ERP systems were beginning to show their powerful influence and the internet was just starting to stir the imagination of those in industry. Thinking differently about the supply chain offered business the opportunity to change a cost centre into a highly competitive weapon. We wanted to look more closely at just what was happening.
As sister publication to Management Today at Haymarket, Logistics Europe launched the now renowned European Supply Chain Excellence Awards in partnership with KPMG Consulting, using MT’s Best Factory Awards as a model. The rigorous judging process, involving a benchmarking exercise followed by on site visits, set the pace for the supply chain’s most highly regarded Awards scheme. In 1999 the magazine moved to UK Transport Press where it is today. Here the Awards, which we run in partnership with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young – and now into their seventh year – have been transformed through an annual Gala Awards Dinner.
Now ten years on Logistics Europe is literally centre stage in supply chain publishing and the future looks just as exciting.
Nick Allen, Editor
