SCLAA (WA) conducts around 20 events per year. Breakfast meetings, site visits, conferences, awards presentations, golf days and technical forums all play a part in the pursuit of providing education and networking opportunities for members.
Events are conducted on the first Tuesday and third Thursday of each month. SCLAA activities are a great way to get and keep your brand uppermost in decision makers’ minds. Please contact the office or President for more details.
Events in WA
The SCLAA (WA) Events Calendar is the most exciting in the association's history.
Added to the regular cocktail of site visits, breakfast seminars and the annual Golf Day and Awards Ceremony is a series of speakers' forums, each addressing a subject of significance to Supply Chain professionals.
There's never been a better time to be a member of the SCLAA.
The schedule of events for the remainder of 2008 is as folllows:
18th September—SCLAA (WA) Golf Day
2nd October—Site Visit: AWH
23rd October—SCLAA (WA) Regional General Meeting and Seminar: ’Sustainability’
29th November—WA State Transport and Logistics Awards
Joining instructions for each event will be provided here, by e-mail and together with the SCLAA (WA) electronic newsletter.
If you don't currently receive e-mails or the newsletter, and would like to do so in future, please foward your contact details to
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Next Event
SCLAA (WA) Golf Day, 18th September 2008
The Gold Day is one of the most popular events in the calendar.
The SCLAA happy to report that this year is proving to be bigger and better than ever before thanks to our generous sponsors.
Thursday September 18th is the day to lock away in your calendars (if you haven't already done so) . Once again it is at the fabulous Vines resort - venue for the Johnny walker classic, and once again it promises to be a fabulous day - Sun, fresh air, good company, the perfect venue, and of course - Golf! , who could ask for more?
This is an unmissable event - all you have to do is fill in the registration form below and fax it back to the SCLAA with your payment and you are in!
To Download the flyer and/or registration form click here
Green Corner
Feature Article - Transportation and Sustainability
Climate change is no longer a theory, CO2 emissions from human activity are significantly impacting on the planet.
Scientists estimate that if the current rates of emission continue, global warming could result in the loss of 33% or more of the planet’s species by 2050.
As we live in a society driven by the economics of consumption, we have to make this consumption more economically sustainable.
The main manifestations of this consumption that impact on the climate are ENERGY, WATER, WASTE and TRANSPORT.
Question: How in the logistics and transportation industry do we become more sustainable?
Answer: By the use of environmental best practices and continuous improvement; i.e. by not only utilising more efficient technologies but also by adopting behaviour change.
We have to act now.
Influential players in the supply chain industry are leading the way in driving this change.
How?
On a regular basis this site will feature articles from these players, and the companies that support them, so that you can understand in more detail what options are available to your organisation.
(Information supplied courtesy of EcoSmart, a WA based organisation that provides both domestic and commercial information on sustainability). http://www.ecosmart.com.au/
Article - Problem Solving for a Growing Business in the Field Service Industry
A Field Service Business has a central location from which it dispatches a mobile workforce for deliveries, installations, repairs, maintenance work, construction, building etc or any combination of this. When a small and midsize business starts to grow, this means sales and job orders start to increase, internal staff struggle to reschedule appointments, to update orders or just to keep track of what customers want. Just getting the mobile workforce to the right place at the right time with the right tools to do the job is a challenge. You as a business owner know that it is time to start doing things differently. This mind-bogglingly complex set of task is typical of a growing company.
How to regain structure and control and remove the chaos?
The best way to progress towards these goals is to have well defined and clear business processes in place. However, often once the business gets to the point of rapid growth, there is chaos. This is the time when manual processes need to be replaced with a business system that provides leverage i.e. the ability to do more with less. Preferably a business system should be a single integrated solution that integrates the team, best practises and processes and Information Technology systems.
The benefits of an information business system
The easiest way to explain this is to think with the end in mind, thinking of your business a few years in the future or during your exit planning stage, solving today’s problems and those still to come. A business system should be able to:
a. Organise all your customer information in one place, including job history, location data and payment data. Having user friendly and easy access to everything related to your customer.
b. List all the products and services you provide. It should allow you to track prices, products and services (those you were planning to use as well as those used in the past) and associate that information with a particular job for a particular customer.
c. Allow the scheduling of jobs for the field workforce, by letting you control which jobs are allocated to which technicians using scheduling and routing rules that you define.
d. Provide visibility on a single dispatch board of all jobs on a given day as well as the technicians assigned to those jobs.
e. Help you to structure the payment of employees based on hourly rates, flat fees per job, commissions on product/services or any combination
f. Create automated or manually invoices for your customers that can be printed or emailed directly to them.
g. Easily and quickly generate summary reports
To summarise, it should combine all your operations into a single point of access.
If it offers additional features such as estimates, quotations, inventory control, service contracts, customer relationship management, project management, marketing tracking, employee management, GPS vehicle tracking and mapping; then it is a great business system.
Selection of the correct business system
This is a specialised field and the consultant used should be knowledgeable in business management, Information Technology, business systems, business processes, and should also have a solid understanding of business operations across all functional areas and understand how to manage change in peoples’ behaviour.
The solution must be available off-the-shelf, be industry proven and have been in use for more than 5 years. Further it should have multiple installations internationally (not only locally as it ensures world’s best practises have been incorporated into the solution) and the developer must be committed to continuous improvements.
Most important, the solution must be easy to use, must be logical in lay-out, easy to explain to others and available at an affordable price. It must be possible to customise the solution to your specific business needs and industry of operations. Depending on your business growth strategy, if you want multiple offices at multiple locations all managed from a head office with distributed responsibilities; the system must be a total integrated solution across all these offices. This will be similar for when you plan to franchise your business in the future.
The best time to implement a business system If you are experiencing the type of issues that were highlighted at the start of this article, or if your business has already outgrown your current system, then the best time is now.
Article provided by Gerhardt Otto of GOTto Business Coaching
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Event Reports
July Breakfast Seminar - How to Build, Retain & Motivate Talented Teams in your Workplace
July’s SCLAA (WA) breakfast meeting saw a double header over bacon and egg muffins, fruit and coffee kindly hosted by AMCAP at its Welshpool DC. A healthy turnout of both long term and new members, and possible members-to-listened to presentations from Graham Reid of Organise First (an ex-Olympian in hockey and now professional and sporting coach) and Roger Jakeway of Leadership Management Australia (LMA) (a key advisor to many West Australian businesses). The overall title of the event: “How to Build, Retain & Motivate Talented Teams in your Workplace’’.
Graham Reid - Cognitive Freedom
Roger Jakeway - Create Exceptional Results through People
Many thanks are due to Roger and Graham for once again giving SCLAA (WA) attendees something thought provoking to take back to their workplace.
Ron Gibson Networking Workshop
7th May saw Ron Gibson host an afternoon Networking Workshop at Bentley Technology Park Function Centre. The function was well attended, with participants from a wide cross section of WA businesses. Judging by the post meeting feedback most if not all appreciated Ron’s relaxed and positive style, and his emphasis on the participants practicing during the afternoon, the principles that he preached.
Ron opened the workshop by outlining the two key concepts that he wanted participants to remember; firstly when engaging in any networking, to have the mindset of wanting to help the other person; and secondly to always bear in mind when networking that you are not selling.
He described four types of person to get to know when networking; potential customers/clients; people who can introduce you to potential customers/clients; people who can help the people that you know and (if appropriate to your situation!) potential partners.
Ron spoke fluently using real life examples and relating real life incidents to illustrate his points. He neatly dovetailed his speaking with individual and group exercises for the participants, and rounded his lecture off with the recommendation of a simple but extremely effective way to start the networking bandwagon rolling. He advised everyone present to create a list of individuals with whom they felt it important to keep in contact, and then to subdivide the list into three sections, with, say, the top thirty to be contacted monthly, the next seventy once a year etc.
The afternoon culminated in a final opportunity for all to more finely tune the new skills that they had learned over drinks and a buffet. If the proof of an events success is ‘in the pudding’, the evidence of the networking workshop’s impact was in the fact that the finger food was largely ignored for the first half hour after the event, as all involved eagerly sought to exercise their newly found networking skills!
The following list is a selection of networking tips supplied by Ron:
Mission Critical.doc (under construction)
Have the Right Mindset for Business Networking Success.doc
Networking Know How.pdf
How to reach out and build more powerful stakeholder relationships.pdf
My Networking Action Plan.doc
To make your clients disposed to providing referrals for your bus.doc
Its all about who you know.doc
Networking Know - How for Targeting Niche Markets.doc
How to turn contacts into solid business connections.doc
Network Internally - Build your visibility, credibility and reputation.doc
Network Strategically - To Create and Develop More Business.doc
Rules Of Thumb For Transforming Your Contacts.doc
Concluding a Conversation How to Disengage From People.doc
Classic Networking Questions.doc
To Get Business You’ve Got To Network.doc
Act With Posture - Youll Win More Clients that Way.doc
The Essential Rules of Successful Networking.doc
The Business Case for Networking.doc
Ending a Conversation - 84 Ways to wrap it up.doc
How to Work a Room.doc
Starting Conversations With New Contacts.doc
How to Turn Business Networking Events Into Real Business-Building Opp.doc
Many thanks are due to Ron and indeed to all involved in the event for making it such a success.
Supply Chain & Logistics Association of Australia Ltd. Contact Details:
Website: http://www.sclaa.com.au/
SCLAA WESTERN AUSTRALIA
PO Box 193
Surrey Hills VIC 3127
P: 1300 364 160
F: 1300 364 145 / 03 9898 0249
Western Australia 
