Camel Tanks thirsty for more project wins

With so many major project on the go in Queensland - how do you maximise the amount of local involvement in these projects? By doing so, more jobs remain local, expertise is also developed local and project owners can benefit from a local supply chain.

Camel Tanks - primarily manufactures water tanks, producing 12 models ranging from 1,591 litre to 24,424 litre capacities - and by helping the company align itself with the capabilities required by major project Camel Tanks was able to tender for $5 million in contracts and in one case winning a contract worth $800,000.

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When companies shouldn't outsource manufacturing

An excerpt from an article in Industry Week, by Jeff Wallingford, vice president, Supply Chain Strategy, Riverwood Solutions.

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The trend to outsource manufacturing has been going strong for two decades. Recently, it has been popular to speculate on whether this trend has gone too far... There are still many cases where a company may benefit by choosing in-house manufacturing over outsourcing - but only when these cases truly apply:

• a company's manufacturing process is the source of its competitive advantage
• a firm does something in a unique way and does not want competitors to know how to do it
• a competitive market for the specific manufacturing service does not exist
• there is no opportunity for the service provider to leverage their fixed capital, common overhead, specific purchasing power, or expertise
• to capture a limited and critical resource or channel
• it is too costly to outsource the manufacturing process because of the additional costs driven by outsourcing

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Santa's Supply Chain: Best in the World?

Forbes comments on Gartner's list of the Top25 Supply Chain list, bemoaning the fact that Santa's supply chain was left off the list. They argue it is the greatst supply chain of all time, who could argue against:

• a laser focus on the target market – Children of all ages
• 100% perfect order rating, on-time delivery and fill rates
• a global distribution channel that spans the world in 24 hours
• direct Door to Chimney Delivery Model
• a committed workforce with zero turnover
• the very first known supply chain to run “in the cloud”

The article describes why Santa has the best:

• manufacturing and distribution
• customer service
• order processing
• supply chain networks
• supply chain planning
• transportation and logistics
• inventory management
• tracking and tracing

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