Updates
(March 24, 2003)
DMAP
held another election last week for the position vacated
by resigned Ramon Timtiman from Kimberly Clark. PRO
Jun Gabrino of Splash Corporation will succeed him,
while Jun will be replaced by John Guillermo of CDO
Foodsphere as PRO. Jun is a veteran of many DMAP Boards,
having been a Director for several years, and particularly
active in DMAP's annual logistics conference.
Last
week DMAP also held its first seminar for the year,
the Basic Shipping Course, a one-day classroom seminar
designed to provide to both new and old practitioners
the basics, as well as updates. Participants were mostly
from the shippers sector.
Speakers
from government were two ladies - MARINA Domestic Shipping
Director Lilian Javier, and PPA Port Services Management
Services Division's Lourdes Roberto. To balance the
contents of the course, speakers from the private sector
were Tet Gambito of the CSPM and former DMAP President
Cora Curay, now with XVC Logistics.
The
Basic Shipping Course could also serve as a prelude
to this year's Shipping Immersion Course, which will
be held in May. This year's destination is still being
decided. It may be a repeat destination, as most of
the good destinations have already been visited in past
immersion courses. The immersion course has been held
annually since 1993. The places already visited include
Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Iloilo, Gumaras, Puerto
Princesa, Tagbilaran, Boracay, Coron and Guimaras.
Updates
on Shipping
Rate Issues
¥ 20% Increase in November 2000. Still no entry
of judgment on the Supreme Court's decision. Until then
the matter cannot be brought to the MARINA
¥ 6% Increase in November 2002. Temporarily shelved
to await the result of costs unbundling.
¥ Cargo reclassification. Interested parties, including
DMAP have submitted their comments.
¥ New AFRA. DSA has written to MARINA about AFRA4.
Awaiting MARINA's response.
¥ Indirect contempt case filed by shipping lines
vs. DMAP and two DMAP officials. Complainants have been
asked by the Supreme Court to comment on the respondents'
comment.
All,
except the last, have a direct bearing on rate increases.
The justification for three of them have been challenged.
Cargo reclasification, if implemented as proposed by
DSA, could result in increases for many commodities
for no justifiable reason.
Rate
increases should always have a justification. The best
justification would be value added. Cost increases would
be the next best thing, but cost increase with no value
addition is what causes problems. The worst cases are
those rate increases which appear to be whimsical. A
good example of this is an attempt several years ago
to increase the Pasig River cargo handling rates for
private ports because the Manila port was losing customers.
A recent example is an attempt to revise the definition
of revenue ton that would grant a 13% increase in effect.
Surely this is a sure way to uncompetitiveness.
Address
inquiries and comments to Ed Sanchez at tel. 671-8670,
fax 671-4793, or email dmap@i-manila.com.ph. Those interested
in DMAP training and other activities are requested
to send their e-mail addresses.
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Indicators
of difficult times (March
10, 2003)
Difficult times continue to plague companies. DMAP member
companies, 85 in all at the start of the year, have
been having mixed performances. Some of the big consumer
goods companies are doing quite well, but other companies
are not doing so well. Some are in bad shape.
Even
without examining financial statements of member companies,
from our DMAP vantage point, we have a good idea of
how the economy is going by observing DMAP activities
and events. Very good indicators are:
1.
Changes in membership
2. Changes in representatives of member companies
3. Direct comments from representatives
Changes
in membership give information about how many member
companies have left the DMAP roster, and how many have
been added. To be sure, interest of companies to become
members has been continuing.
Membership
grew from 75 in January 2000 to 85 in January 2003.
This is a slow growth, but this is net of deletions.
We have not checked the records very carefully, but
over a dozen members, probably 15, were removed from
the list. Most of the deletions have been due to financial
problems, directly or indirectly. A direct deletion
due to financial problem would be something like the
cases of National Steel and Uniwide. An indirect deletion
is where a company is cost cutting and decided to resign
its membership with DMAP as one of its cost cutting
moves. In one rare instance, DMAP initiated the deletion
of a member because of conflict of interest.
The
additions to the roster, 25 in three years, also seem
few, but DMAP has never actively recruited new members.
Indeed it has been over cautious in approving the applications
of new members. This has been the practice because the
policies of DMAP are still evolving, and the Boards
over the years have seen it fit to be careful, to avoid
mistakes and to ensure the continuity and strong character
of the organization. At all times, DMAP has strived
to be professional, ethical and technically competent.
Over
the last 2 to 3 years we have heard a lot of downsizing,
cost-cutting, reengineering, reorganization. Many company
representatives have been assigned to participate in
these studies and activities, and still more have become
the beneficiary, or victim (depending on the person's
plans) of these company moves.
There
have been rapid and numerous changes in company representatives,
so that it is becoming difficult to keep our DMAP directory
updated. Sometimes, we are not advised, and we hear
about the change later. As we are now using email addresses
to send our communications, instead of fax, we may not
be aware that we are not reaching a member company.
The reason is that company employees take their email
address with them when they leave the company, whereas
a fax machine remains with the company.
The rapid movements of people have also been reflected
in the roster of the DMAP Board and officers. You will
recall that incoming President Ike Castillo of Zuellig
Pharma resigned from his company, so that the elected
Vice President - Arlene Azul had to take over. A subsequent
election named Ramon Timtiman as the new Vice President.
But Ramon Timtiman has just opted to retire from his
employer Kimberly Clark. It has just been two months.
You
will also recall that then President Ike Castillo left
Nestle in July 2001 and Vice President (and former President)
Cora Curay had to take over. The following year Cora
herself retired from Coca-Cola and had to be succeeded
by then Vice President Lorie Cinco.
The
succession rules of DMAP have been tested quite a lot
and, so far, have been working. DMAP continues.
We
have also observed that people have become busier and
busier, making it harder for them to attend our DMAP
Board meetings and general membership meetings. I am
sure this is happening not only in DMAP, but in other
organizations as well.
Direct
comments by company representatives are the most direct
source of qualitative information on how the companies
are doing.
As
we said above, we have heard a lot of cost cutting,
downsizing, reorganization, reengineering, streamlining.
We have also encountered mergers and dissolution of
companies. There have been several instances of companies
being renamed. The other things we hear about are factories
being closed, and supply source being transferred to
another Asian country. There is also a lot of activity
about installation of new systems. Head hunting for
specific positions is also on the rise.
Basic Shipping Course. This is a one-day classroom seminar
which aims to provide basic knowledge on shipping and
an update on the latest developments in this important
logistics function. Speakers will be from government
(Hector Miole, Southern Luzon Port District Manager
of the PPA, and Lillian Javier, Domestic Shipping Director
of MARINA) and also from the private sector (Cora Curay,
DMAP Sea Transport Chair, and Tet Gambito of CSPM).
The seminar can serve as a prelude to DMAP's Shipping
Immersion Course, or as a self-contained 1-day session
for busy practitioners. Target participants are:
¥ Logistics, distribution or transport staff requiring
an introduction to shipping, older staff requiring a
refresher and update
¥ Managers and no-shipping or non-transport staff
in related and interface functions (warehousing, distrtibution
planning, trucking, inventory mangement, purchasing,
accounting, engineering, QA, etc.) who require a basic
understanding of domestic shipping and the latest developments
Fee is P4,000 VAT included for DMAP members and P5,000
VAT included for non-DMAP members. This includes lunch
and 2 meriendas plus materials.
Advanced
Warehouse Management Seminar. We apologize for the several
instances of re-scheduling this. We have had conflicts
in speakers' schedules. We will announce later the final
schedule.
Address
inquiries and comments to Ed Sanchez at tel. 671-8670,
fax 671-4793, or email dmap@i-manila.com.ph. Those interested
in DMAP training and other activities are requested
to send their e-mail addresses.
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