Quick Reclipse Update – What is so difficult about communicating whats happening in Reclipse when you are deeply focused and working on the client challenges is that we cannot really talk about those activities. Confidentially is a critical key to successfully helping our clients go to new next levels and those plans and changes are what we are working on that become the “Whats Next”. We thrive on working to help move business entities to a new and needed next levels.
Strong current themes are: true collaboration and partnering; outsourcing next’s; innovating; speed; value; communication; ROI’s and breakthroughs.
Rewarding but challenging change management work and very people, subject matter expertise and relationship based consulting/resulting to deliver measurable soft and hard metrics objectives.
A proactive focus and onward into 2011 and building on and around progress made in 2010.

Susan Rosin, our President, came across an interesting article in Supply Chain Digest (http://tinyurl.com/Own-assets-article), which poses the question: “Who will own the Supply Chain?”

The article never totally answers the question, but puts forward a few theories, which conclude that some “poor SOB will”, in the end, own the assets and have to “sweat them out” if they are to succeed.

The “raison d’etre” of outsourcing was/is cost reduction. And while manufacturers claimed they were focusing on their core competencies and outsourcing what they were not able to do well, the fact was that they choose a relatively easy way out to unload assets, reduce costs, and increase profits. Why is it that American companies cannot figure out a way to be cost competitive and manufacture products locally?

Historically, outsourcing, in the logistics area, became very strong in Europe due to a lack of space to build multiple distribution centers and because of complex government trade compliance laws within what is now the EU, in particular. To a certain extent in Europe, outsourcing was not done as a matter of choice, but as a matter of necessity. In the US, logistics outsourcing became more popular as distribution models began to change and the emergence of the Internet forced the brick and mortar players to eliminate assets to be “more competitive.”

The outsourcing of manufacturing and “localization” capabilities was done because manufacturers thought they could become much more competitive if they “off-shored” their manufacturing. When the labor component was a larger portion of the overall cost, this was certainly true. When the contract manufacturers in Asia, whether electronic contractor manufacturers or the textile manufacturers, pay their workers 10% or less than American or European workers make, clearly outsourcing made sense.

But outsourcing led to two very significant developments in the supply chain – globalization and integration. The supply chain quickly became a series of supplier and customer networks integrated together through technology – more or less –  developed. And herein lies the answer to the question: who will own the assets? While these assets may appear only on one company’s balance sheet, without the support of and from this companies’ suppliers and customers, the question becomes irrelevant because this manufacturer or logistics provider will go out of business. The global integration of supply chains today has made it more difficult to distinguish who owns what and for whom. This has become even more apparent since the “Great Recession” of 2008-9 when governments interceded on behalf of major industry players.

So the guy holding the bag and sweating out the assets will never be successful with that approach. The future of the Business Chain is in the more tightly integrated supply/demand networks with perhaps, intermediaries (such as logistics providers, 4PLs) orchestrating the flow of orders to manufacturers who have capacity; the transport of goods either into distribution centers who have capacity or by-passing them to deliver to the final customer; and managing the returns process to manufacturers or other logistics providers who can fix and inventory or return product back to the customer. The technology exists to implement this – the real question today is who is willing to combine and collaborate to make it a reality.

Deby Veneziale
Reclipse Group
Managing Director EMEA

OK the Holidays and 2009 and decade reflections are done.
The Reclipse compass and talent is pointed in the help business while helping people make the complex simple directions and so far so good.
Reclipse will build on the foundations that we have secured in 2009 and help evangelize and support companies in building and transforming their businesses in the most profound and value oriented manner possible.
The social networking and community marketing focus is a blur of connection and real efficient navigation is needed so the “Fad Focus” moves to a more focused real value/ROI benefit instead of creating blurry “Blink” dots that are short lived and no-one can connect. I am not a twitter fan at this stage of its evolution as you might gather from my comments.
All being well it will be a year to continue the healing from the Economic Flu of the past few years. It will be a year and time of entities figuring out how to truly collaborate/partner to succeed and our umbrella lite methodology of Business Chain Management and Improvement will become a high value add for our clients and partners. We practice the Customer Driven – BC Sell, Recruit, Do methods and this year we will unveil more on these capabilities. Onward – Nigel

For the past couple of months I have been volunteering with the Cleantech Open (CTO – www.cleantechopen.com) here in Northern California. The CTO is a business plan competition held in 3 regions in the Western U.S. The groups are provided with opportunities to learn about business planning, get feedback, practice their presentations, and be mentored to what they hope will be a winning business plan – for both the competition and to get funding from a VC…

Most of my time has been spent helping with the CTO’s first Operations Industry Clinic which was held last Thursday evening at the offices of a very interesting company, D2M (Design to Manufacturing – www.d2m-inc.com), in Mountain View – but more about them later.

There were 2 presenters who gave both valuable information and examples which the CTO contestants could use in developing their specific prototypes and operations / mfg / supply chain processes and business plans. The evening was a very good primer on all aspects of manufacturing and operations with particular info on how to decide whether to contract out or start your own. The biggest take-away for me was that either way a company needs to maintain visibility and control over their suppliers, service providers, and quality processes. It also underscored how operations decisions have the potential to make or break a new or existing company.

Paul Tasner from Method Products (www.methodhome.com) was the second presenter and he walked the group through the issues and challenges he had encountered when he joined Method to run their supply chain operations. He talked about the distribution changes he had implemented, the challenge of being a small fish in a large pond but still working out sustainable solutions with his service providers, and to never underestimate what you can accomplish.

Two people from D2M’s management team also participated in the interactive presentations by giving the group the benefit of their experience, particularly around prototypes and contract manufacturing (they have worked with many existing companies and start-ups). After the official clinic discussions were over we broke into 2 groups and got a quick tour around the D2M facility.

Tim Billing, COO, led the group that I was in. D2M is moving toward more project based work groups and open cube seating. They are finding that it makes for more innovative and collaborative results. Tim described a number of the projects they are involved in – some cleantech related (eg a better toilet) and some humanitarian related (easier ways to transport water for women in Africa).

The entire evening was very successful, good food (provided by D2M), good information, and some real-world examples of people helping people and the planet. Very much aligned with the reason people get involved with cleantech in the first place!

Susan Rosin
President, Reclipse Group