Leadership Corner: 

There sure is a lot of love for logistics in the marketplace these days, isn't there? But is that really where we should be concentrating our passion? Webster's Dictionary defines logistics as: "the handling of the details of an operation." And that's all well and good, but it certainly doesn't speak to how those details are handled. Under that definition, in our world logistics is essentially the process of getting things from one place to another. But did they arrive at the expected time? How much did it cost to get them there? How could we do it better, faster and cheaper next time?

That's the sweet spot - continuous improvement, with a focus on value; getting the most out of every link in the supply chain. Logistics may be what we do, but Supply Chain Optimization is where we make the difference.

Let's look at what Mr. Webster has to say about optimization.

op·ti·mi·za·tion noun \,äp-tə-mə-`zā-shən\ : an act, process, or methodology of making something (as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible

Are inventory levels fully, perfectly optimized?

How are vendor relationships functioning?

Is the supplier network as effective as possible?

These are questions we ask ourselves about our customers' businesses and our own operations every day. To us logistics is a given. It's in our name; it's in our blood. But Fidelitone hasn't endured for more than 80 years because we do what we know; rather because we are constantly evolving, always keeping customer satisfaction at the heart of the matter.

The last few years have been times of significant change for Fidelitone, with technology innovations, acquisitions, changing customer relationships and a focus on engineering the right strategic direction for the next 80 years. We ended 2010 on a high note and are off to a great start in 2011, with our priorities in place and a clear vision of who we are and where we are headed.

That vision, as always, is built around our customer relationships, because we know we're not getting paid simply to pack boxes and load trucks. Anyone can do that. We are here to make our partners' distribution operations as fully perfect, functional and effective as possible, to optimize our business relationships while we add value at every link in the supply chain.