Mariam Al Afridi, Operations and Marketing Senior Manager, Dubai Trade, presents Geoff Wheatley with the Lifetime Achievement Award

Geoff Wheatley, Managing Director, SSI Schaefer, took home the Lifetime Achievement Award at the LOG.LEO Awards Sunday night at the Westin hotel in Dubai. “This year is a double anniversary for me,” he exclaimed. “I’ve been in the industry for forty years and I’ve been with my wife for forty years.” Mariam Al Afridi, Operations and Marketing Senior Manager, Dubai Trade presented him with the award. Cyril Bleasedale, Director General, CILT, also stood up to hand Wheatley a Fellowship from his organisation.

Mohammed Al Muellam, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, DP World UAE Region presents the LOG.LEO Social Conscience of the Year Award to Fathi Hilal Buhazza, CEO/President Maximus Air Cargo

The LOG.LEO Social Conscience of the Year went to Fathi Hilal Buhazza, President & CEO Maximus Air Cargo, who has signed a deal with the UAE Red Crescent to offer its services at cost. Mohammed Al Muellam, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, DP World UAE Region handed over the trophy.

Robert Ziegler, Vice President, A.T. Kearney, presents Khaled Fawzy, Trimar Forwarding, with the LOG.LEO Young Achiever Award

Khaled Fawzy made his flight from Egypt worth while, when he picked up the LOG.LEO Young Achiever Award. Robert Ziegler, Vice President, A.T. Kearney, presented the 28 year-old the trophy and offered him an internship at the prestigious consultancy. Fawzy started his business, Trimar Forwarding, when he was only 23.

Wade Thompson with CEVA was the winner of the LOG.LEO Innovator of the Year Award, which was awarded by Angela Schaschen, Managing Director, Deutsche Messe Dubai, which will be organising CeMAT Dubai in 2009.

Hisham El-Sawy, Supply Chain Director, IATCO, took the LOG.LEO Supply Chain Manager of the Year Award back to Saudi Arabia, where he manages the distribution for Proctor & Gamble. Jay Jayatilaka, Marketing Manager, University of Wollongong in Dubai, presented him with the LEO, and also offered a scholarship to the university’s MsC in Logistics programme.

Finally, Mahmood Al Bastaki, Director, Dubai Trade, presented Mashaweer Transport with the Dubai Trade E-Services Award, for the transport company’s use of Dubai Trade’s E-token.

The event was introduced by Tewe Pannier, Publisher, DVV Media, and Jacob Joseph, Executive Editor, DVV Media, explained the awards procedure. Kathryn Semcow, Editor, LOG.Middle East, hosted the awards.

Tewe Pannier, Publisher, and Jacob Joseph, Executive Editor, both with DVV Media Middle East entertain a guest

Ram Menen, Emirates Skycargo, and wife; Nigel Tomkins, Business Development Manager, DVV Media; Prakash Nair, Emirates Skycargo; and Dr. Dieter Flechsenberger, CEO, DVV Media enjoy the ceremony

The winners

Readers have nominated the best of the best to be the LOG.LEO Young Achiever, Innovator and Supply Chain Manager of the Year. Who will you choose?

YOUNG ACHIEVER

Bilal Arif,
Deputy General Manager,
Mitsubishi Corporation Trade
Middle East

At the age of 32, Bilal Arif is managing one of Dubai’s hottest 4PLs, Mitsubishi Corporation Trade Middle East (MCTME). The Deputy General Manager answers only to Mitsubishi’s CEO in Dubai. “It is a big role,” he admits, describing how his staff of three takes care of more than 20 major multinational clients. “It’s a small team, but effective. We are managing everything from their warehouses to transport, or even just customs clearance, depending on their requirements.”

Bilal started working with United Arab Shipping Company in Dubai while he was earning his Bachelors of Technology in Computer Information Systems at the University of British Columbia’s branch in Sharjah. Upon graduation, he joined Caterpillar Logistics, where he eventually earned his 6Sigma greenbelt. As Inventory Management Executive he was responsible for Daimler Chrysler’s spare parts in the region. “We increased the right parts availability to the customers and tremendously increased the company’s service level,” says Arif. “A team of three people were looking after a stock of 45 to 50 million Euros in that warehouse.”

During his three-year tenure with Al Futtaim Exel, Arif transformed the more than 50,000 sq metre Al Futtaim Parts Distribution Centre in Jebel Ali into a “one bin one article” warehouse. For this, he used the Kaizen Methodology, a technique employed by Toyota in their parts warehouse in Japan. “Basically, I designed the warehouse from scratch, which included the warehouse layout, racking systems for different types of parts, picking and binning strategies in SAP and marking of the warehouse as per the Kaizen methodology,” he says. “This resulted in easy and accurate picking, reduction in damaged parts and space optimisation.”

Why does he deserve to win? “I already have 12 years of hardcore supply chain experience,” he says. “I have moved between all areas. I started out in shipping; then went to Caterpillar where I worked on inventory systems, warehouse improvements and racking; then I went on to Al Futtaim where I worked on projects worth millions of dollars and moved into operations, and then into transport.”

But he knows he still has a long way to go. “What’s amazing about this industry is that it is extremely vast and any number of years will not be enough to learn everything there is to learn. I’ve still got a lot to learn and new heights to get to.”

Arif says he would like to eventually set up his own business, which he would want to expand globally. And his ultimate career goal? “I would like to retire at around the age of 40 or 45,” he says smiling.

Atif Rehman,
Logistics Consultant,
Xvise Innovative Logistics

At the age of 23, Atif Rehman was the youngest operations manager in the history of multinational Caterpillar Logistics. “At that time I wasn’t married, so my focus was entirely on work,” he says as he recalls working 14 to 15 hour shifts, simply out of pure passion. “I loved it!”

Fresh out of university with a Bachelors of Science – Business Administration from Eastern Connecticut State University, Rehman had moved his way up in Caterpillar from IT to warehouse supervisor within two months, then to project supervisor within a year and operations manager within another year. He participated in major facility start-up operations for the company in Dubai, Singapore and Poland, and also earned his 6Sigma black belt from Caterpillar University. “To get certified by Caterpillar, you need to save the company US$300,000,” he explains. “I did that in the first year. Over three years, I saved about US$1 million.”

He insists his black belt keeps him above the competition. “The way I think has completely changed. I’m much more analytical now. I always want to see the facts and figures.”

He says he owes a lot to Patrick Van Heurck from Caterpillar Logistics. “I learned a lot for him while reporting to him during my tenure with Caterpillar,” says Rehman. “He was so passionate about work as well. Working in a start-up, we would be in the warehouse at two o’clock at night, totally lost, looking for inventory.”

Today, at the age of 31, Rehman serves as Logistics Consultant for Xvise Innovative Logistics, an Austrian-based consultancy which recently opened an office in Dubai.

But he is looking ahead to his future. “In five years I wish to be a part of a strategic initiative overlooking supply chain and logistics operations across the Middle East,” he says. “Within 10 years, I wish to broaden my geographical reach across Asia and Europe; and within 20 years time would like to build my knowledge base in such a manner that I draw my experience from different parts of the globe and effectively manage supply chain and logistics operations.”

And why should we choose him? “I have created a lot of value for different organisations by analysing their supply chain and logistics operations,” he explains. “Through the work I have done I feel that I have uncovered the real value that can often lay dormant in these departments. That gives me great pleasure since promoting supply chain and logistics through value creation allows organisations to respect the work that is done as a first step and secondly elevates its importance within the business cycle.”

Khalid Fawzy,
Founder/Executive Manager,
Trimar Forwarding

This is the project of my life,” says Khaled Fawzy about Trimar Forwarding, a company he set up in Egypt five years ago, when he was only 23. “I had no business background, no business family to build upon and with a relatively small capital of US$30,000,” he recalls. “I self taught myself all aspects of the freight forwarding industry, and managed to achieve relatively good results.”

Fawzy beams with pride as he describes his success. “Today, the company has over 50 employees, nine departments, two local branches, a warehouse and the first regional branch in Jeddah is about to open by January 2009 with much more expansion plans ahead,” he says. “The growth figures are very impressive, and are climbing in double digits from one year to the next. Our services have been developing, earning us several acquisition offers, and also giving us the chance to compete with multinational companies and take multinational accounts, such as ABB, El Swedy, Cloride, Fine, Bavaria, Hebi, Alcoa and CSI. We currently have over 50 regular customers.”

Fawzy also managed to sign a representation agreement with APL Logistics after competing with several well-established companies in Egypt. For APL, he has developed a 1,530 sq metre warehouse in Port Said to receive textile cargo from local producers for consolidation and export.

In 2005, he also developed a business plan for a company looking to set up a trucking network in Egypt. He was offered the position of Managing Director for the company which would have started out with 50 trucks and trailers, but he turned it down. “I did not join the company because it would have required me to leave my own business and take on the position on a full-time business, which I was unable to do at the time.

Fawzy has also taken over the responsibility of writing the transportation section of the Egyptian Junior Business Men’s Association. “It was my duty to address all the current problems facing the sector and to come up with ideas, solutions and suggestions to fix these problems,” he says.

In 2007, Fawzy was named the FIATA Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year for Africa and the Middle East. He has also earned a Train the Trainer FIATA Diploma in Freight Forwarding this year, which makes him a certified FIATA Instructor.

So, after all these achievements, does Fawzy still have goals? Of course, he says. “My dream is for Trimar Forwarding to become a global and multinational company.”

And he certainly has the confidence to pull it off. “I hope this does not seem arrogant, but I truly feel that I am my own and biggest role model,” he says. “The belief I have in myself and in my abilities to achieve great things are endless and has fuelled my drive to succeed.”

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR

Geoff Wheatley,
Managing Director,
SS I Schaefer International DWC

Geoff Wheatley, Managing Director, SSI Schaefer Dubai, says his hobby Chinese brush painting is just like logistics. “It is 80 per cent formula,” he explains. “There is only one way to paint Chinese style. It has been developed over 5,000 years. The other 20 per cent is creativity.”

“There is always that scope within a logistics environment for a person like me or you to use some creative thinking while looking at a logistics solution or problem,” he continues. “That’s why all warehouses are different, all solutions are different. Every project we do is innovative.”

Wheatley’s innovation dates back decades, having started his career with a major international storage and racking provider in Australia, and developing the industry in Southeast Asia before coming to Dubai. “I coined the word ‘logistics’ in 1983,” he declares. “I used it in my company name then in Singapore. It was MHE Materials Handling and MHE Logistics. Everyone looked at me like I was stupid. I said, ‘This word is going to be much more common and used over the next few years, and within five years there were a million companies called ‘Something, something logistics’.”

He also pioneered the first wireless technology warehouse in Southeast Asia. In the 1980s, I put in the first radio data collection system, with handheld terminals and vehicle-mounted terminals,” he says.

Wheatley says he holds regular think-tanks to determine how his Schaefer team can use existing technology to satisfy demands of the marketplace. “We’ve introduced newer products into the marketplace, like the Schaefer Satellite System, which has been a resounding success,” he says. This system uses a robot to retrieve pallets from racks.

He is also proud of his driverless VNA trucks. “We’ve now combined the driverless trucks with mobile racking for cold storage environments, using the latest laser technology, which means we have a manless operated cold room. Everything is guided by lasers and sensors. We’ve already installed five or six systems in Europe which are working dramatically well. That was a concept developed by myself and people in Switzerland.”

But he doesn’t believe in technology merely for the sake of technology. “One of my missions is, ‘let’s automate the process, rather than automate the system’. And that’s where people can expect efficiencies and cost savings. To use software and handheld terminals with conventional warehouse equipment – normal forklift trucks, normal racking, normal pallet handling, pick to voice, pick to light – I call ‘automating the process, rather than the system’. This can carry enormous benefits. This is what is happening now in this part of the world.

Wade Thompson,
Sales and Marketing Director,
CEVA Logistics

When war broke out in East Timor in 1996, food companies supplying the military units were copying Wade Thompson’s supply chain solution. At the age of 22, Thompson had developed a transportation strategy for moving products from Australia to the Sultan of Brunei’s chain of grocery stores through Indonesia’s poor infrastructure. “I then got picked up by TNT and was working on the food and military supply chain to the Indonesian war,” he says. “I ended up moving to East Timor.”

With TNT in Saudi Arabia, Thompson developed the country’s extensive land network from scratch. He also set up IKEA’s home delivery and assembly system in the kingdom.

Today, as Sales and Marketing Director for CEVA Logistics, Thompson continues to create innovative solutions, managing the company’s freight and logistics divisions. “I’m so happy,” he says. “I’m busy as hell, but I’m totally invigorated. I love my job.”

Thompson’s bragging rights include revamping the automated ambient retail system for a major group in Dubai. He and his team designed a conveyor that was able to handle 100 per cent of the diverse company’s brands, everything from ladies knee high boots to small watch boxes. “Based on the back of that, we have then been able to roll this design out with another two Arab businesses,” says Thompson. “This is an innovation that will be coming into the market.”

Thompson makes effective use of technology, in particular, CEVA’s Click software, which tells you exactly where to place a pallet based on its space requirement and rate of use. “We use this software to produce more space,” says Thompson. “Customers before would charge for a full CBM. If a customer only had a half cubic metre of space, we would charge for a full cubic metre and lose the other half cubic metre. Our business was running at a loss through us not being efficient enough.”

He applied Click to a fashion retail customer, with outstanding results. “They were doing just over 2,000 units a day with 13 staff,” says Thompson. “Now they’re up to 12,000 units a day. On a good day, when they’re on overtime, they can go up to 17,000 items, just through the implementation of this IT system.”

He has a passion for fashion logistics and has spent time studying from the best fashion retailers in Europe, including Christian Dior, Zara, Mango, Massimo Dutti and Diesel.

Thompson also has several other innovative projects in the works, but they are top secret until deals are signed and government approval is earned.

Vincent Brank,
Executive Director – Group,
Swift Freight International

Most people would consider freight forwarding a relatively simple business – moving goods from A to B in the most efficient manner at the lowest price. But, as Vincent Brank, Group Executive Director for Swift Freight International, demonstrates, the industry leaves plenty of room for creativity.

Innovation in freight forwarding is usually brought on by customers’ conundrums, for example the congestion in Far East airports which brought on Swift Freight’s Sea-Air Model (SAM) from Asia to Africa through Dubai. “Air freight was a huge problem, as there was no capacity in Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore,” says Brank. “Shipments were coming in two or three lots.” Air freight that should normally take seven days would show up in 18 to 25 days, he explains.

So in 2006, Brank led the development of one of his company’s biggest products, shipping cargo by sea from Hong Kong to Dubai, transiting in Dubai and air freighting to Lagos. Customers were taken aback. “We said, ‘We’ll do it for you in 18 days at a 30 per cent lower cost,’” he recalls. “The customer said, ‘That’s not possible.’”

Goods, however, made it from Hong Kong to Lagos in 16 days, and SAM to Africa took off. “In the first month, we had two or three tonnes going through SAM,” says Brank. “Now we are doing over 100 tonnes per month.”

While sea-air was already happening from the Far East to Europe, Brank who had travelled throughout Africa for over a decade was the first to make an official scheduled product into the intimidating continent. “No one knew how to handle Africa,” he recalls. “They found the customers complex and demanding and didn’t know how to arrange payments.”

Brank has also stepped out of the box by turning to Khorfakkan Port for SAM, a solution when faced with congestion at Jebel Ali. Freight arrives at Khorfakkan and then is quickly transferred to either Dubai or Sharjah Airport. “These containers are hot-spot containers,” he says. “They are loaded last-in and first-out.”

Another innovation includes setting up shop at the Dubai Flower Centre. Previously, forwarders had been shipping flowers from Africa to Asia through Europe. “We found many of the customers were having problems getting the shipments in good condition, and it was taking a long time via Europe,” says Brank. “We had to attack the market.” Thus, Swift Perishable Logistics was born, cutting around nine hours off the transit time by using Dubai as a hub. “It saves 30 per cent on the airfreight costs, because of reduced transit time and zero pilferage,” says Brank. “Now we are over capacity. The flights are completely chock-a-block. We’ve totally introduced a new product on the market.”

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Rob Kennaugh,
PDO Account Director,
Bahwan DHL Exel Supply Chain

Rob Kennaugh is Account Director for Bahwan DHL Exel Supply Chain, which provides fourth-party logistics services to Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the country’s leading oil exploration and production company. He manages PDO’s primary logistics activities of cargo haulage and transportation of land-based oil rigs. With the 3PLs he moves 35 oil rigs, very “lumpy pieces of equipment” weighing up to 50 tonnes each, around Oman approximately 400 times per year. Overall the rigs and supplies he oversees travel around 36 million kilometres per year.

Kennaugh says his job is to translate the geologists’ drilling sequence into a logistics sequence. “Maximising efficiency and minimising downtime has been our key value proposition to the PDO over the past 12 to 18 months, because downtime for rigs is very, very expensive.”

His strategies for maximising efficiency include setting a tough target to reduce the time it takes to move rigs by 10 months over a year. That’s 10 months of 30 days, 24 hours a day. “Since January 1 this year we have cut down eight and a half months,” exclaims Kennaugh. “We will surpass our target.”

He has made this possible, in part, by securing rig moving equipment, which can be hard to come by in Oman. “Previously the 3PLs were not encouraged to invest, so we ring-fenced a bunch of rig-moving assets,” he says. “We pay the owners every day for those assets. If they do nothing, we pay them 70 per cent of their daily rate. When they move, they get the other 30 per cent. That means this equipment is ours all of the time. The 3PLs are commercially locked in.”

He has also changed how his business measures its performance. “A lot of the measurements were based on historical averages, but if you manage your business by averages you will get average performance,” he says. “If you measure to the best performance, then you will only ever arrive at best performance.”

Kennaugh also places a heavy emphasis on training and staff development. “I like to empower my team. I like to let people make decisions, even make wrong ones, as long as they make them. I have a very open door. People are more than comfortable to ask for advice.” He has also developed seminars for 4PLs and 3PLs in Oman, and has started a national training scheme to encourage Omanis to participate in the work force.

And what are his strengths? “Apart from being a pretty cool boss, one of my key skills is identifying value-added areas, such as how to streamline savings and how to express the value of logistics savings to your client’s core business,” he says.

Syed Wajihuddin,
Supply Chain & Logistics Manager
and Senior Sales Manager,
Grand Mills for Flour & Feed Co

Since joining Emirates Foodstuff and Mineral Water Company (Agthia) early in 2007, Syed Wajihuddin who serves as Supply Chain & Logistics Manager and Senior Sales Manager has completely revamped the Grand Mills for Flour & Feed Co supply chain.

Improving how the company moves approximately 21,000 TEUs worth half a billion dirhams (more than US$136 million) a year, has helped the company grow phenomenally. In the quarter ending March 31, 2008, for example, Agthia reported an increase in net revenue of 41 per cent and growth in profits of 104 per cent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

These improvements include converting from a top-down forecasting system to one that moves from the bottom-up. “You start managing your budgets with a realtime forecast coming from each individual salesperson,” explains Wajihuddin. “Each month, a sales man will sit down on a tailor-made system outsourced to an ERP company and he will input a forecast for each SKU and for each customer, predicting what
he will sell in the current month and for the next three months.” Sales and operations then agree on one number – a financial goal for the entire company. Sales, supply chain, finance, logistics, customer service are all aiming to reach this one target. “With any function, the language becomes the same,” says Wajihuddin. “We have developed a culture where people talk one single business plan.”

Wajihuddin has also secured precious transportation for Grand Mills, by partnering with Lloydstar which provides a dedicated fleet in exchange for guaranteed business. “The beauty is that customer services, warehousing and logistics are sitting on the same lot. I don’t need to fax, I don’t need to call.”

With his team, he follows a Myers Briggs Type Inventory profiling system, in which each member’s strengths and weaknesses determine his or her role and objectives. He also leans towards Management by Objectives, which aims to increase organisational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout an organisation. Employees get strong input to identifying their objectives, for example targets and time lines.

Under Wajihuddin’s watch, he says Grand Mills is currently fulfilling 98 per cent of its orders, with a 95 per cent on-time delivery rate, usually within 24 to 48 hours.

Hisham El-Sawy,
Supply Chain Director, Saudi
& Bahrain, IATCO , a member
of the Abu Dawood Group

As Supply Chain Director for IATCO, the distributor for Proctor & Gamble in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Hisham El-Sawy oversees the order and movement of 50,000 TEUs per year. He has organised these TEUs so precisely, however, that only 17,000 ever see a warehouse. “The rest we ship from the plants directly to the customers,” he says.

As a member of IATCO, El-Sawy has seen his business double in the last four years. “This was sudden growth,” he says. “Nobody was expecting this. We managed to sustain our service levels and grow our profits. This was huge pressure on everybody. To sell a case is easy, you just take a team of people, train them and go and sell. But to build an infrastructure of warehouses and fleets takes a long time.”

In this time, he has overseen the construction of a 12,500 sq metre distribution centre in Jeddah. “This was a breakthrough,” he says. “It is one of the best in Saudi.”

El-Sawy is also proud of building his customer service unit. Last year they received P&G’s “Leading Light” award for excellence in supply chain, due to their effort to reduce shelf out of stocks. His team is also building a “Logistics Services Business Unit” to serve business partners and others, expecting to launch its first services project in Dammam this month.

The company owns hundreds of vehicles, ranging from three to 24 tonnes, but it also leases vehicles. “We own our own fleets and outsource,” says El-Sawy. “Our volume is huge, so we are able to work with both.” He is currently in the process of introducing SAP to manage some of these vehicles, and will start to migrate to SAP as a platform for the whole company.

Demand planning can be complicated when dealing with such a wide range of products. “Forecasting depends on the brand,” he says. “We are focusing more now on bottom-up. With some brands like chocolates, they are too sensitive for a push model, we use a pull model.”

Another challenge is keeping his more than 250 employees on the same page. For this, he uses a monthly booklet called the ‘Canvas’, which states company plans. “Whatever we agree on is in this booklet,” he says. “This is the guide. Everyone goes through it and takes whatever is relevant to his function. We guarantee that everyone is working according to it.”

And he appears to be a team player. “I’m very much a people guy,” says El-Sawy. “I like to be with my team. I very much focus on people who are stars. I spend a lot of time on a one-to-one basis with my team. This is what takes most of my time.”