Posted July 6, 2000 Manufacturing News Tompkins logistics CEO survey According to a recent survey of CEOs in third party logistics (3PL), customer service is their top priority for improvement in 2000. The survey, conducted by Tompkins Associates (www.tompkinsinc.com), identified CEOs' top business challenges for the coming months. Over 67% of survey respondents chose "improving customer service" as a top challenge. With the roles of warehousing, transportation and service providers blurring, it is no longer uncommon to see organizations taking on functions of lead logistics companies, managing complete inbound and outbound networks and providing goods to demand points across the entire supply chain pipeline. With this in mind, Tompkins wanted to know what executives saw as imperative to maintaining competitive advantage in this changing marketplace. Enhanced supply chain visibility, improving operational efficiency and employing e-commerce sQlutions were identified as CEOs' next highest priorities, all at 43.5%. Responding to competitive influences was the fifth highest priority. Suprisingly, challenges such as reducing costs and improving overall performance measures were lower on the list of priorities for 2000. Fifty-five percent of CEOs surveyed were from companies with over 1000 employees and $250 million in sales. The largest industry segmentation came from the electronics and retail industry with 14% of respondents. The automotive and industrial parts industries followed with 13%, and 11% each came from the general commodities and grocery industries. The Manufacturing Report © Copyright 1999 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. E-mail Editorial Dept: tmr-editorial@lionhrtpub.com Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com