1. What is the difference between logistics and supply chain management?

The Council of Logistics Management (CLM) defines logistics as “the efficient planning, improving and control of the goods, services and related information’s flow and storage from its origin to its final destination or selling point, complying with customer’s requirements. In other words, it means “the operative part of filling the gaps found in the chain links.”

The Supply Chain Council (SCC) defines the Supply Chain Management as “the effort to produce and deliver final products or services from the supplier’s suppliers to the customes’s customers. SCM includes: managing operations between supply and demand, planning the sourcing of raw materials and parts, capacity, on time manufacturing and assembling, tactical restructure and storage and inventory processes, order entry, distribution through all the channels and delivery to the customer. In other words, is means “the strategic part of filling the gaps found in the chain links.”

In short, SMC also includes planning of the logistics, sourcing and manufacturing processes.

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2. What advantages does outsourcing have?

The Outsourcing World Summit gives the following reasons to outsource:

a.	Focus on the ‘core business’ (36%)
b.	Costs reductions (36%)
c.	Quality improvements (13%)
d.	Increased speed to get into the market (10%)
e.	Innovation improvement (4%)
f.	Working capital reduction (1%)

By outsourcing the companies get the results they need not using internal investment on employees and capital assets but through investing in a flexible relation with a third party supplier.

The three components of successful outsourcing are:

	Strategy: outsourcing should not be seen as the final goal, but as a way to reach business goals. Successful companies outsource to create specific advantages in their businesses.
	Selection: there has to be a selection of the best outsourcing areas and choose the proper organization to work with.
	System: a management system is needed to assure that the relation keeps on generating the advantages sought and to keep receiving the permanent and necessary investment on time.

Once created, the outsourcing relation turns out to be a strategic asset, so valuable and critical for the organization as any other asset.

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3. Why to outsource the supply chain?

To have an efficient and world class SCM, a company must do well not only one, but many things. For example, it has to achieve process synchronization in: planning, sourcing, manufacturing, inventory, warehouse and distribution management. It also needs to develop multifunctional processes and high integrated technological solutions between suppliers and customers to be able to get visibility throughout the chain.

To create this and to manage all these capabilities could take several years for a company. But, where do the brands and products that generate sales remain? That is why it is so important to define a company’s core business and to try to outsource what is left in the hands of expert companies.

For that reason the strategy is to define where to invest the money that the company generates:

	In designing, manufacturing, warehousing and delivering products? or
	Looking for different ways to make sales increase with less infrastructure?

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4. Which services does Yobel offer?

YOBEL Supply Chain Management offers different services focused on its customers’ requirements. We help companies in the following areas:

	Inventory management: we minimize the inventory value throughout the chain, synchronizing it with the demand and lowering the expenses linked to its maintenance, differences, shortages, obsolescence and financing.
	Sourcing management: Source. We do the purchase planning and follow up, strategic relationships with suppliers and quality auditing. Manufacturing. We specialize in factory planning, engineering, construction and management guaranteeing high flexibility at low operative costs.
	Transportation and distribution management: guaranteeing the maximum efficiency in the use of vehicles, routes and employees to improve customers’ service. We also manage returns, exchanges and refurbishing.
	Warehouse management, guaranteeing the maximum use of the assigned spaces, redesigning or reorganizing them at the most convenient operative costs.
	Information management, analysis and evaluation of the technological and information requirements so that the supply chain will be efficient as well as to get the best ratios to measure it.

These services are given in the following levels:

	Consulting: When the customer does not need to outsource his operations but needs help managing them.
	Insourcing: When the customer needs to outsource but still uses his assets.
	Outsourcing: When the customer needs to outsource using our assets.

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5. Which benefits do I get with Yobel?

YOBEL Supply Chain Management is a strategic ally for your business. We share the risks and the successes guaranteeing integrated solutions with proven benefits.

Our extensive experience in Supply Chain Management, combined with our permanent industrial and logistics training, allows us to help companies, identify operative improvements, and take actions that lead us to fast results.

Some of the benefits we can achieve:

	Inventory reduction and high turn over.
	On time supply.
	Product costs reduction.
	Production cycle reduction.
	Transactional costs reduction.

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6. How do I know if my supply chain is not synchronized?

These are some of the characteristics:

	Excessive stocks.
	Cost increases.
	Poor customer services.
	Low asset return.

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7. How much can I save if I outsource my supply chain?

The best benefits come from the costs’ point of view. A recent study has shown that the total costs in the supply chain are as high as 75% of the operative expenses budget.

A recently study published by MIT has shown that the companies that have successfully improved these programs get, among others, the following benefits:

	Inventory reduction as high as 50%.
	40% increase in on time deliveries.
	27% reduction of the product’s cycle.
	Double inventory turn over.
	Shortage reduction in nine times.
	17% sales increase.

	20% operative costs reduction.
	Improvement in assets productivity.
	More efficiency to respond to the ever-changing market demands.

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8. What is a core business?

Core business means simply what an organization is the best in the world. All the rest is someone else’s core and it is better to get it done by a strategic alliance with a specialized company.

A core competence is the company’s essential ability, an activity or the integration of a set of activities (not a product) that allows an access to different markets. This can mean either the domain of a production process or a very good interaction with the customers, which allows us to define the product in terms of their requirements, a unique distributing channels format, etc.

This ability is valued or required by consumers and consequently are willing to pay for it. This ability is difficult for your competitors to imitate because it either involves a ‘know-how’ that is not available or because the experience or domain of this ability is achieved only through time. The investment done on research means also time and is not available to your competitors.

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9. Which industries does Yobel work with and to what sale channels?

Some of the product categories we work in:

	Color cosmetics.
	Personal care.
	Home care.
	Consumption products.
	E-commerce.
	Telecommunications.
	Home products
	Automotive.
	Banks.

The sale channels we work with are:

	Direct and door-to-door sales.
	Retail sales (supermarkets, distributors, wholesalers and retailers).
	Internet.
	Exports.

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10. Which are the criteria to have in mind in order to improve the supply chain strategy?

The criteria to evaluate a supply chain from a strategic point of view are:

	Costs. Costs analysis in terms of the activities or “ABC” is a good tool. Costs can also be assigned by channel or customer. Since this is a horizontal management process where the function is “handed” to other chain links, it is very important to have a detailed knowledge of costs at the time of transfer.
	Inventory. This is another measurement criteria, since it represents an important value in terms of current assets.
	Velocity. The time passed between an order generation and the delivery of the product to the customer.
	Financial measurement. The metrics have to reflect the general process efficiency. For example: a measurement that is being used more frequently is the “cash-to-cash” or cash against cash. Using this method the supplier will only charge for the delivered merchandise once the trader receives his customer’s payment.

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11. In which countries does Yobel operate?

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Perú, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana, USA,Florida and Venezuela.

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12. How many sales points does Yobel cover in Peru?

With over 36 years of experience, we cover more than 200,000 destinations. We process more than 10,000 daily orders in less than 24 hours.We dispatch in packages or units depending on our customer’ requirements, from one unit to pallets.

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13. How can I follow up my operations?

You can follow up your whole logistics operation through our website, where we give you a user’s name and password. You can also give access to your customers so that they can get their order’s relevant information.

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14. How could Yobel add value to my company?

When working with the customers, Yobel focuses in the creation of value for the company, in other words, for the shareholders. In Yobel, the most efficient way to measure the created value is by EVA (Economic Value Added). This ratio measures in an added way how efficient is the company generating more profits than the cost of the money invested in capital with which such profits are generated. In this way, in each section of the supply chain, costs and assets are evaluated to make sure they have the highest productivity and efficiency.

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15. Why should I think in supply chain management?

Products have no value until they are handed to the consumer in the required time and place. Each day it is more difficult to differentiate our products in the sales point, each day the competitors launch products in the market in an easer way and at lower costs than the originals. That is why the only way to remain competitive is to have a well-designed supply chain that will allow us to get to the consumer first and at a lower cost. The costs of the supply chain reach as high as 55% of the sales value.

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16. How does technology help managing the supply chain?

Technology is not an additional support function of the supply chain, it is more of a vehicle, the means by which many links are integrated in a single chain.

Technology should help in the following categories:

	To sustain operative activities, short term decision-making, daily transactions, orders processing, shipments, storage movements, etc.
	To sustain the planning and medium term decision-making, such as demand planning, master programming production, and, in general, the optimal assignment of resources.
	To sustain the strategic analysis by providing modulations and other tools that synthesize data for planning of scenarios, help the managing area to evaluate the distribution centers, suppliers, outsourcing services, etc.