Its a challenging time for supply chain professionals. With high profile press coverage of pilot projects in the US such as Wal-Mart and The US Department of Defense placing RFID mandates on their suppliers, the UK will soon feel the knock-on effect. We are already starting to see high profile projects in this country with Tesco announcing its plans to roll out a full scale RFID technology across its stores and warehouses as part of its project to upgrade and secure supply chain delivery systems.
Whats more, analysts are predicting that RFID will enter its second phase this year, after a somewhat slow initial start in this country. They predict that budgets will increase and that the bigger players will enter the marketplace providing purchasers with more choice.
In addition, issues such as rising steel and energy costs, increasing logistics costs from globalisation coupled with mounting customer expectations and demands means that there is more pressure than ever on organisations to retain an effective and efficient supply chain. All of this is resulting in increased demands on supply chain and IT professionals to keep up to speed with the key developments in the market, and in turn the latest technologies available.
Now in its thirteenth year, Softworld Supply Chain aims to address these key issues. We have put together a first class educational programme which will keep visitors informed about the latest trends and developments all of which is completely free! A number of sessions this year will focus on RFID and its impact on UK Plc, as this looks set to be one of the hottest topics for 2005. These sessions range from practical advice from experts, to real-life examples from Marks & Spencer and a panel debate on this topic. The programme also covers all of the other key areas that executives should be focusing on such as: effective supply chain management; avoiding legal pitfalls of IT contracts; managing the logistics provider relationship; and improving supply chain planning.
A new feature for this year is the vertical market sector seminar programme. Focusing on manufacturing, retail and logistics, visitors will find product demonstrations and case studies specific to them with the latest methodologies unveiled.
All of this is in addition to the exhibition of around 60 of the leading supply chain and logistics software providers on the showfloor!
I hope you have an enjoyable and valuable day out at Softworld!
Liz Wood
Portfolio Director
Softworld Supply Chain 2005
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