Logistics needs new blood as skills gap looms


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The University of Hull’s Logistics Institute is arguably a unique institution in the UK. Not only does it offer a full range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and is involved in a lot of research, but it also fully engages with the commercial world. Institute director Professor


David Grant has wider ambitions, though.


“Obviously, we want to


continue the good work we’ve been doing and grow the numbers of undergraduates and postgraduates our academic research and expand our teams, and to enhance. Plus we’d like to integrate our activities deeper with business, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. We’re also working with a local retailer to develop a foundation degree for their logistics people and we could do something similar for other firms too.” But there is an even wider focus


to the Logistics Institute’s efforts, says Professor Grant. “We’d also like


to help raise awareness of logistics which, if recent surveys are anything to go by, is not a well-understood industry.” Many of the people on the


Institute’s courses are from overseas. “We need to get more Brits involved,” says Professor Grant. Tellingly, perhaps, he himself hails from Canada. “Other areas can seem more


exciting to youngsters – the City, the creative industries and so on – and the logistics industry still has this image of being all about trucks and big sheds. But supply chain is a huge, global industry.” There has perhaps been a


collective failure by the industry to enthuse the next generation of


logisticians, to point out the


opportunities for overseas travel and the sheer excitement and intricacy of it all. One of the industry’s problems


is actually that, almost all the time, it works too well, so that, rather like


the plumbing in your house, it tends to get taken for granted – unless something breaks. The UK has some of the best-performing supply chains in the world, and it is only when there is something like a tanker driver’s strike or a major and prolonged weather event, that it fails to get bread on the shop shelves or the latest fashions into our high streets. Nevertheless: “During the 2000 fuel crisis, Professor Alan McKinnon (of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh) did a survey for Commercial Motor magazine on ‘Life without lorries’ and the answer that they came up with is that, if the industry ceased to function, we would be only seven days away from empty shelves in the shops.” Just-in- time has largely eliminated strategic stocks of goods, so perhaps we are closer to disaster than we realise. So, like plumbing, logistics is not


seen as a ‘sexy’ industry but perhaps it is beholden to the industry to make itself more exciting. “There


is a real disconnect between the supply chain and the average person. Perhaps we need something like a TV show, something along the lines of ‘The Box that Changed Britain’.”(The programme on the revolution wrought in all our lives by the humble shipping container.) That isn’t such a far-fetched idea, Professor Grant says. “There was such a TV programme in the US and it was very exciting stuff.” Make no mistake, the logistics


industry is facing a looming skills shortage as the older generation reaches retirement – and at all levels, not just


lorry drivers but


management as well. “We are just going to need more people, and at all levels.”


Issue 4 2012


///HUMBER


The cluster effect


The Logistics Institute at the University of Hull is building up a cluster of logistics expertise. A suite of ‘incubator’ offices is nurturing a range of small businesses involved in


the supply chain, including


soſtware firms and training firms. The incubator


unit offers a


relatively low-cost entry for new firms but more importantly it creates a nurturing environment and moreover one in which ideas and talents can cross-fertilize. For example, Carmichael offers training for drivers and others involved in transportation. “It’s a far, far better environment than anything we could find in a stand- alone office,” says managing director Ian Carmichael.


“And I


think it also helps that it’s part of a university. We could hire a room


in a hotel, but I think when people come here, they realise they are in a training environment and they react accordingly.” Roy Clayton of cloud computing


specialist Keyfort offers a range of tailored solutions for the freight, logistics and other industries. It had a base in Bournemouth, which was convenient for Southampton port but it was looking for a second location on the M62 corridor. “At first, Wakefield looked ideal from a geographical point of view but then we realised that there was benefit in being closer to the logistics community,” says Clayton. Keyfort already employs interns from the local university at Bournemouth and it is now starting to do the same at Hull, where there is a strong computing department. The HumberPort initiative will be essential in starting the process


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The Institute’s research work is as varied as the industry itself. Professor Grant is personally very interested in ‘last mile’ distribution to shops and on-shelf availability. He also believes that the non- food segment of retail has a lot of catching up to do with the food sector; on-shelf availability is an “abysmal” 60-70% compared with 90%-plus in food – an interesting and fertile area for research. (It’s all to do with relative power of the retailer versus the supplier or manufacturer in the two areas, he believes.) And there are also big challenges in areas such as online retailing and the vexed problem of how to handle returns. But other people at the Institute


are also looking at how to detect clandestines in trailers and containers or even piracy on the high seas. And there is also a lot of work looking at global sourcing and whether it is necessarily the best way of getting goods on the shelves consistently, and at the cheapest


price. The Institute has also invented


the concept of ‘Near Porting’ – a concept developed by Professor David Menachof, Peter Thompson Chair of Port Logistics at Hull University Business School. Nearporting is the concept of


bringing goods into the port nearest the chosen distribution centre to minimise carbon-heavy road miles – it has been calculated that ocean shipping is six times friendlier per ton-mile than carrying those goods by lorry. Although this may sound like


common sense, many businesses land goods at the first port they hit, rather than travelling further by sea. In the UK, over 60% of the containers ending up north of the Humber/M62 corridor were brought into the southern ports of Felixstowe and Southampton, according to DfT figures. Professor Menachof says that


although it wasn’t called this at the time, ‘nearporting’ was common


providing TOTAL logistics


and helping companies to pull together, Clayton believes. “That way, we’ll generate more skilled jobs and benefit the logistics community. And, with the backing of the Local Enterprise Partnership, I think we can start to get things moving quickly.” A lot of Keyfort’s work is in


supply chain visibility, and networking initiatives like HumberPort can only help the process.


Under the microscope


practice before the development of major road and rail infrastructures. As containerisation grew and big hub ports were developed, organisations focused on ship turnaround time. However, as fuel costs rise and companies become more carbon-sonscious, firms have to look for savings by using the most efficient and friendly mode of transport available. Taking the example of a 20-tonne shipment


from China


that would normally be discharged in Southampton and taken by lorry to Leeds. If that container was transported onwards by sea to Immingham on the Humber, and then driven to Leeds, the effects would be an additional 317 nautical miles by sea but road transport would be reduced from 240 miles to just 73 miles. And as ocean shipping puts out approximately six times less CO2 per tonne- kilometre, the net effect for this shipment is a 200kg reduction in CO2 output.


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