COMPETITIVENESS usually refers to the cost of labour, energy, tax, inflation and interest rates.  However, supply chain costs are also a crucial element – the costs involved in sourcing and transporting raw materials for manufacture, as well as packaging and distributing those products.

Ireland’s peripheral location increases our transport costs, and companies based here have to be a lot better at managing the rest of the supply chain in order to compete.

The National Institute of Transport & Logistics (NITL) gives a useful working definition of supply chain management (SCM) as “the management of all the activities in any of the companies involved in a supply chain to achieve two things: to provide the highest possible
level of customer service, at minimum cost”.

Read the full report here.

Irish Times Supply Chain Management Report Page 1

Irish Times Supply Chain Management Report Page 2