Two kinds of VDC: catch the line, or consolidate near the market
One manages plant takt time, the other manages order structure. Mixing their KPIs is the most common mistake in vehicle distribution.
Selling Audi: the harder half is before the sale
We run two Audi dealerships. After several years the lesson is not about discounting: what closes a deal is the customer believing, before they walk in, that this store knows cars.
JIT is not about speed. It is about never being wrong
Getting material to the line takes a truck and a driver. Getting the right part, in the right sequence, to the right station within the right few minutes is what JIT actually is.
Six places import and export freight goes wrong, and how we avoid them
Freight rate is one line on a quotation. What actually strands a shipment is usually much duller: classification, documents, whether a booking is truly confirmed, and free time at destination.
Stock accuracy is not a stocktake: four leaks in a parts warehouse
Reconciling at month-end does not mean the books are right the rest of the month. Variance leaks from four fixed points in the process, not from people's diligence.
Damage rate and OTD are the same problem
A car scratched during loading looks like a quality issue. Delays, rework and claims follow, so it is also an on-time issue. Both usually come from one cause: a handover with no verifiable record.
Expendable or returnable: compare trips, not unit price
Expendable packaging looks cheap on the purchase order; returnable containers look cheap after the twenty-fifth trip. One question decides it: how many trips a year will this container make in your chain?
FTL and LTL are two different trades: moving parts in China without losing money
Same customer, same lane — full truckload and less-than-truckload carry different cost structures, different risks and different liability. Squeeze both into one quotation and something will eventually break.
Roller-deck and sequencing trailers: where custom vehicles get hard
Anyone can buy a standard box trailer. The hard part is engineering one to dock with a customer's line takt, from chassis choice to roller height, where any step can send you back to the drawing board.