The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) has released DC Measures 2014, its annual benchmarking study of key warehousing and distribution performance metrics. The study captures the 47 key operational metrics of particular importance to most distribution professionals, grouped into seven categories: customer, operational, financial, capacity/quality, employee/safety, perfect order and cash-to-cash cycles.
New to the report this year is a special section of case studies highlighting how two companies turned their benchmarking data into actionable steps that resulted in performance improvement, said Karl Manrodt, PhD, Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Logistics at Georgia Southern University and Director of the Southern Center for Logistics and Intermodal Transportation.
“Companies who compare their own performance metrics against those included our benchmarking reports often then ask, ‘now what?’” Manrodt explained. “To answer that question, we conducted in-depth interviews among best-in-class benchmarking practitioners. The resulting case studies explain how two of those companies used the metrics to alter their processes, justify technology investments and/or empower their workforce to find alternate solutions.” Interest in the report’s findings has increased annually throughout its 11 years of publication, said Michael Mikitka, CEO of WERC.
“We attribute that to two things,” noted Mikitka. “First, this year’s survey found that an increasing number of respondents now directly report either to C-Level executives or to their company’s Board of Directors–which supports the trend of increased emphasis on warehousing, distribution and supply chain by many of the world’s leading companies. Second, companies have become more adept at harnessing and mining their own metrics, thanks to advanced systems that help them manage Big Data and convert it into useful analytics.” Using the Report To help companies better refine their metrics analysis process, relative to DC Measures findings, WERC offers customized comparative reports including information specific to industry, customer type and business strategy.
WERC also offers deep dives into the report’s quintile rankings, which present the findings as based on type of industry, operation, customer, business strategy or size of company (based on sales).
Additionally, several of the performance metrics identified in the DC Measures reports have been embedded into the business intelligence tools offered from software provider TECSYS. Users of the Visual Metrics executive dashboard tool can easily see where their operational key performance indicators (KPIs) align to those of competitors as benchmarked by WERC’s industry study.
About the Study Conducted in January, the survey asked the more than 600 participants to share their actual performance levels from 2013. The data is reviewed across five demographic areas: type of industry, type of operation, type of customer, business strategy and company size. With 11 years of data sets available, the report also includes a review of developing trends.
Produced with support from Kronos and Kenco, the research was conducted and reported by: Karl Manrodt, PhD, Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Logistics at Georgia Southern University and Director of the Southern Center for Logistics and Intermodal Transportation; Joe Tillman, founder and CEO of TSquared Logistics; Donnie Williams, Assistant Professor of Logistics/Supply Chain Management in the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia College & State University.
Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) is the only professional association focused exclusively on warehouse management and its role in the supply chain. Members are experts from all facets of the distribution industry who come together to share practical knowledge and professional expertise to improve individual and industry performance. Learn more at http://www.WERC.org.
