The SCLAA in Western Australia is a vibrant and active association of professionals and practitioners within the supply chain and logistics industries. We welcome visitors at all events. Contact the WA Office below to find out more about the benefits of membership and upcoming events. 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.

Kei Sukmadjaja and Kath Sugars from CanTeen

CanTeen Fundraising Breakfast Report – 21^st May 2010

May’s SCLAA (WA) Breakfast Meeting was in aid of an extremely worthy cause. The proceeds from this well attended event were donated to CanTeen to assist them in their fundraising for young Australians with cancer.  

The great and good of the WA Supply Chain and Logistics world turned out in force at the State Tennis Centre, to eat, network and most importantly listen to the thought provoking contributions of the two key note speakers, Myriam Leonardy of Vital Conversations, and Barry Urquart from Marketing Focus. A special guest at the event was David Dougherty, former National President of the SCLAA. 

Nick Munyard introduced the event and thanked the main sponsors, Oracle, Toll IPEC, Supply Chain Services Australia and AWH. He then handed over the podium to Kath from CanTeen who provided an overview of the charity’s activities.

Kath was joined by Kei (19), a CanTeen volunteer, who recounted eloquently her experience of being diagnosed with Lymphoma at the age of 17, and the priceless support that CanTeen then gave her. She expressed her gratitude for this support, and related her involvement with CanTeen’s Camps for Children and the formation of the CanTeen Girls’ Group.

Myriam Enthusing!

Myriam was then introduced as the first of the morning’s key note speakers. She spoke quietly but powerfully of her experiences of organisational ‘Change Management’ and the importance of interpersonal communication and emotional recognition in making change successful and sustainable. She described how conversation is the key to breaking down interpersonal barriers in project teams by allowing individuals to establish common ground, and how praise and commendation from management can be more effective in achieving worker satisfaction than money alone. 

The Inimitable Barry!

Barry then launched in inimitable fashion into his address. He covered vast amounts of ground, linking to the Supply Chain industry (and, entertainingly to some individual members of the audience) his diverse thoughts regarding organisational and personal behaviour, and on the current local and global political and financial climate. There isn’t space here to recount all of Barry’s observations, but two of the standouts were his noting of the closeness (10 days) of the onset of the Global Financial Crisis to the closing ceremony of the Bejing Olympic Games, and how an organisation can be successful if it can remove its customers’ stress. He encouraged all present to personally introduce themselves to CanTeen and to make themselves more familiar with its activities. 

David Dougherty - a Special Guest

David Dougherty thanked the speakers and offered further words of wisdom in a brief but entertaining address, before a thoroughly enjoyable early morning concluded with Tanya Carter’s presentation on behalf of the SCLAA (WA) to Kath from CanTeen of a cheque for $4000.

The SCLAA (WA) would like to offer thanks to all who made the event possible, with particular reference to the speakers, sponsors and to CanTeen.

SCLAA (WA) Professional Development Survey

Kingsley Waterhouse and Captain Nihar Rai recently undertook a recent survey focused on understanding member’s professional development (PD) path to date and aspirations for the future.

Key findings from the survey include:

Our profile is skewed to older males working in the warehousing sector – we are starting to see an increase in younger/female members which is encouraging

Site visits, followed by seminars/breakfasts have formed the core of respondent’s PD and there is a desire for this to continue

Supply chain management and current issues and trends are the areas of greatest interest regarding PD for ourselves and our staff

There is strong interest in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) path and a desire to understand more about what opportunities exist

There are a healthy proportion of members who would be willing to get involved in mentoring younger people. A mentoring program, through the SCLAA, is planned for initiation later this calendar year

Thanks to all those you took part in the survey. The results will shape the future program of events/initiatives and our linkage with other bodies you provide training and development services.

Follow this link to see all results in charts: Kingsley Survey Results 

SCLAA Hosts Focus Group Dinner on Attracting Best and Brightest to Supply Chain and Logistics - 28th April 2010

Standardisation of terminology, utilisation of national competency standards and leadership were three primary themes at a focus group held in Perth on 28 April attended by three SCLAA Directors including the Chairman David Rogers.   The SCLAA WA Division President Nick Munyard of Coventry Group Ltd assembled senior executives from Woodside Energy Ltd, Coles Ltd, Oracle, Dexion Balcatta, Schlumberger, Schenker, Agility, Sunpower, and Supply Chain Services Australia for dinner at Julio’s Restaurant in West Perth to exchange views on attracting the best and brightest into the profession.

Daniel Renfrey spoke of Schlumberger’s global graduate programs and the standardization of position descriptions and other terminology as a necessary framework for career planning sought by Generation x and Y candidates.  Alan Lewis from Coles discussed the need for leaders in his business and a level of frustration that young high achievers were not seeking him out to pursue a career in supply chain.  Jeff Davie discussed Woodside’s use of local consultancy Supply Chain Services Australia to map competencies for positions in Materials Management in Woodside in accordance with national standards in order to access people with recognized knowledge, skills and attitudes and Registered Training organisations for provision of competency assessment and training.

Thoughtful contributions from Jennifer Vermeuleun of Agility, Bruce Dewar from Dexion, Malcolm Duff from Oracle, Frank Vogel from Schenker and Andrew Turner from Sunpower were appreciated by the interested attendees.

Facilitator Steve MacPherson thanked all attendees for their enthusiastic contributions and explained some of the programs the SCLAA run on these issues including Award Programs for Young Professionals and VET in Schools, education and networking events, mentoring and advocacy.  He encouraged all interested company representatives to consider the benefits of the use of the non-competitive and constructive activities of the SCLAA as an additional mechanism for addressing their personnel attainment, retention and development needs. 

Cope Sensitive Freight – SCLAA Site Visit - 25th March 2010

Cope Trucks lined up in front ot the DC

March’s visit to Cope Transport was very well attended and proved to be a most interesting insight into a niche area of the transport industry. Cope is part of the Federal Group which also has extensive interests in the hospitality and gaming industry. Phil McKeown, WA State Manager, described how Cope focuses on its core competency; the transportation of sensitive freight, and for this reason has a very selective and focused marketing strategy. Cope owns and maintains its own fleet. All vehicles are less than four years old and have specialised handling features (air ride suspension; load locking etc.).

Cope is affiliated with the Technical Services Group (TSG), which supplies IT infrastructure and software support. TSG also offers project management and installation services in addition to transportation. An example is the installation of ATMs. Cope uses TSG to support its operation (e.g. in the provision of a 24 hour booking and consignment tracking service).

MGE/APC are market leaders in the uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) systems for commercial industry. Tony Rutter spoke about his relationship with COPE and the importance of using a professional sensitive freight carrier to safely deliver their product to customer’s premises. 

Many thanks to Tanya Carter and Phil McKeown for hosting this interesting site visit.

Supply Chain & Logistics Association of Australia Ltd. Contact Details:

Website: http://www.sclaa.com.au/