As the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Contract Packaging Association drew to a close, I detected a renewed sense of urgency in the conversations between contract packagers, industry suppliers, CPGs and other industry stakeholders. That urgency overwhelmingly revolved around information. In order to get manufactured goods through the supply chain effectively, the lines of communication must remain open and clear throughout the process.
Several presentations at the Annual Meeting focused squarely on this principle. Karl Kretschmer, former senior supply chain manager for Mars Canada, mentioned “pain share/gain share” during the popular CPG Panel discussion, referring to the concept of shared winning and losing among all stakeholders of a project in the marketplace. The Nulogy team, led by Jason Tham, CEO and Jessica Liu, product manager for emerging products, introduced the group to QCloud, an information platform that serves as a hosting center for shared supply chain data. Keynote Speaker, Steve Baker, vice president of The Great Game of Business, shared a lively exchange promoting open-book communication within your organization, utilized to promote a true “team” atmosphere within any company.
