Asia Logistics Wrap

Changes in Japan Highlighted in Economist

Many of the issues I touched on in my three-part series on changes occurring in Japanese business almost a year and a half ago are discussed again in the Economist as part of larger series on Japan. It was brought to my attention through a post over at Tom Barnett's site. Many of my comments were first echoed in the International Herald Tribune. The fact that they are now covered in the Economist is a nice, additional validation that the trends I have seen while on the ground here in Japan are not isolated to my own experience.

Reading my posts and the articles and writing at the links above will give you a very good understanding of the transition Japan is currently going through.

Happy (Chinese) New Year

I have descended from the mountain to rejoin the blogging civilization and want to wish everyone visiting my blog a Happy Chinese New Year. The longer I am in Asia, the more impacted I feel by the Chinese New Year versus the Western calendar new year, but it is also a good excuse to delay coming back here to kick off 2008.

In 2007 I pretty much went off the blogging map, in stark contrast to all the very focused posts I put together in 2006 on supply chain topics and peripheral subjects such as 'resilience'. Last year ended up with me focused on my career development and creating closer ties with family--these were definitely the two most important themes in my life last year.

Switching jobs from a traditional Japanese company to Manhattan Associates was such a drastic change, it was like hopping from a slowly prodding burrow onto an untamed stallion, feeling it bolting forth and not quite knowing which direction it might take you next. But, once broken, you can take in the scenery more clearly and also move forth swiftly and with resolution.

In my first year with Manhattan, I was fortunate to be part of two successful IT implementations--one in Japan and one in South Africa. Today I am in the beginning of my third implementation while still providing support to our client and partners in South Africa. Where in Japan I balanced my knowledge of the culture and language with my growing understanding of supply chain technology, in South Africa I was completely reliant on my knowledge of Manhattan technology, people skills and crisis management skills. These two distinct experiences have laid the foundation for my current project--a client's roll-out of supply chain technology to their logistics centers across the world, including Japan.

Nailing the delivery of a customer's supply chain technology solution is difficult in and of itself--nailing it across several countries within a two- to three-year time frame is several times more challenging. In this scenario, skills in both managing global projects  and also managing the balance between a global supply chain design versus local delineations are critical.

These are some of the major themes I hope to focus on in 2008 while reflecting back upon the many experiences I had in 2007 as I became familiar with the dynamics of the supply chain technology industry.

Three Weeks into South Africa

I had to visit my own site to see when the last time I posted. I was 25 days from my first Manhattan WMOS go-live, and perhaps those visiting here afterwards thought I may not have survived it! Well, I did, but spent many long hours in the days before and after the event.

As the new operations began to settle in, and as my role transitioned from post-go-live support to general optimization support, I found out that I might have the chance to join a project for two months in South Africa implementing the 2006 version of the Manhattan WMOS, combined with Vocollect's voice-picking technology.

With a chance to come to Africa for the first time, and also work on a Manhattan project outside of APAC, I decided it would be a great challenge and nice change of environment where I could continue to build on my knowledge of WMOS and it's application with a different customer. Three days before I was meant to leave, I received confirmation I would indeed be on the project...

So here I am in South Africa. Currently, I am staying in Port Elizabeth, working here for two weeks after one week in Johannesburg (Joburg). We are two weeks from go-live, and in many cases, I am reliving the experiences of my last project. At the same time, it is a new country, there are new team members, and a new customer with a completely different set of business requirements. This all tests one's ability to adapt and learn rapidly in a high-pressure environment.

However, with no local Manhattan office, the challenge of being far from a support center can be frustrating. For most of my three weeks, I have been the only MA resource on-site, taking the place of another resource who left shortly after I arrived in-country. But we have a quality partner here that I have enjoyed working with, and despite the numerous challenges, I have learned a great deal in a very short period of time.

I am hoping with time that I can begin to absorb the reality of actually being in South Africa. Work has taken up a disproportionate amount of my time, but the country here can be quite beautiful and I have been fortunate in that I am staying at a beautiful guest house near the ocean, with fantastic hosts.

If I do remain here for the full two months, I hope to learn enough to share South Africa with others and provide some insight into the supply chain challenges here, and where the industry is heading.

25 Days to Go-Live

Once returning from India, there was no time for breathers. I pretty much hit the ground running after arriving in Tokyo and have spent all my working hours holed up in the my client's warehouse with the rest of the system implentation team.

It makes for a crappy commute--over one hour each way--from the heart of Tokyo to the warehouse on the edge of Chiba. It's even worse knowing my current apartment is just minutes from the main office...

Despite this, I feel I have grown quite quickly in terms of my systems knowledge and implementation management knowledge, and I can see quite clearly where this experience complements my past experience. It really will create a stronger and more well-rounded foundation for my supply chain career.

I hope to share some more daily thoughts as I head toward the Go-Live date of our system at the client site...

Back from Bangalore

As I write this, I am on my way into Tokyo via the Narita Express, having just arrived from Bangalore through Singapore.

Although most of my trip was spent in a meeting room managing system testing for my current project based in Japan, the long rides to work through Bangalore traffic and backroads and the few chances outside of work exploring Bangalore and Trivandrum provided an exciting first glimpse of India's linkage with globalization and related growing pains.

While a number of advanced technology parks and campuses in Bangalore plot an aggressive growth strategy for the future, gathering a number of resources to keep pace, the surrounding public and private infrastructural development is woefully behind and often scarily disorganized. With more and more people rushing to opportunities created by investment in Bangalore tech operations, city planners will have to not just keep pace, but also think far in advance of how infrastructure will be able to accommodate these trends. It is already far enough behind that an innovative transformation on par with the city's tech transformation is needed, in my opinion.

I look forward to keeping tabs on these developments through the relationships I have further built with my Indian colleagues these past two weeks.

Work Demands my Attention

Unfortunately, my work schedule doesn't accommodate blogging these days. Usually when I do have time I prefer to use it visiting friends or watching a recent movie, or engaging in my other favorite activity--sleeping. :-)

Busy, however, doesn't mean my project is going bad--fortunately things are running along well despite the regular issues that pop up and extend my days. In particular, the time difference between India, Japan, and the US always ensures earlier or longer days, or a combination to ensure all project members are on the same page.

In fact, it appears I will be on my way to India the last two weeks of June to be closer to one of our upcoming critical activities. This will be my first trip there, so it is sure to be exciting!

Traveling to Korea

I am currently at Narita Airport waiting for my flight to Seoul. I will be there until Wednesday morning, and so posting will either be light or non-existent until I return.

Korea Logistics Report 1

When it comes to supply chain management, there are many days when I feel like Koreans are more innovative, or at least more ambitious in driving supply chain innovation, compared to Japanese in the logistics industry. Mostly, however, I feel Korea suffers from many of the same problems as Japan--primarily in that the logistics industries in both countries have traditionally been isolated from global competition and thus innovation has happened at each their own pace, or in ways very unique to the market--in other words, typically slower than in the West and not applicable outside the country.

Of course this is changing rapidly in both countries with deregulation, gradual consolidation, the introduction of new technologies and via the impact of increasing links with China's rapidly growing economy. When I travel to Korea for 4 days from this Saturday, I plan to inquire on some of the "on-the-ground" trends taking place on the peninsula and look forward to sharing some insights here next week.

In the meantime, I will also be translating a couple articles from the online logistics press in Korea related to logistics investment and also the creation of an investment fund targeting the logistics industry.

Until then, I want to point out an absolutely incredible and excellent collection of links on the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement over at Ben Muse. This FTA, if approved by both countries' congresses, will have a definite impact on the supply chain industry on the Korean peninsula, which I expect to ripple across all industries--even the ones that remain protected.

China Logistics Report 1

Even though I am in Japan, since I now work for a global company I am more frequently coming across news on China logistics via one form or another. Whether it is through a friend in the industry or via reading China-focused blogs, it is easy to find articles and posts to point out to readers.

Over at the logistics blog at China Economic Review, they mention a new air hub being established by UPS in Shanghai. That is right on the heals of news regarding DHL's new contract logistics hub in the area.

Over at All Roads, Rich has posted a nice write-up on infrastructure investments in warehousing on the Mainland, along with an update on the Three Gorges Dam. I don't currently have time to analyze the warehousing post, but I want to come back to it in a later report.

Lastly, be sure to follow all the links on China at 3plWire--there are a few on recent ports data. Tomorrow, the Logistics Report travels to Korea!

Japan Logistics Report 1

It seems appropriate that I post my first "Japan Logistics Report" this evening as today's Logistics Japan newspaper provides a summary of the trucking logistics market across the country for the month of January. This is a regular thing for the newspaper, and so I plan to bring the survey results to this blog for public consumption. The newspaper is in Japanese, so this English translation should be an added bonus.

Overall, the tons transported by 32 regularly surveyed special package hauling firms was down 98.8% of 2006 and breaks a streak of year-on-year monthly gains since May 2006. As for standard haul trucking, it was up from last year at 101.9%. More specifically, the Tokyo and Nagoya areas were down at around 98.0% while Okinawa and the Osaka regions were both over 115%.

Focusing on Tokyo, because that is where I am, the decrease was driven by reduced hauling of metal products, machines, foods, and daily goods. Next month and beyond is expected to see flat movement.

On the air cargo side, domestic (3.3%) and international lanes (2.6%) were both up over 2006 for January.  Overall, the value of exports by air was up 16.5% and imports up 10.6% over January 2006. For sea freight, the value of exports was up 20.1% and imports 10.2% over 2006. Domestic rail freight was down across car and container types.

In the future, I will be pulling from a range of articles published in Logistics Japan for this report, which I intend to do on a weekly basis except for holidays. Each day will cover a different region of Asia, except for Friday when I focus on the topics of resilience and globalization.