CEVA Logistics Middle East

Warren Angus, regional sales and marketing director for the Middle East operations of leading supply chain specialist CEVA Logistics, talks about the vibrant market environment and CEVA’s response to this region of opportunity.

CEVA was formed in August 2007 as a result of the merger of TNT Logistics and EGL Eagle Global Logistics.United as a single entity, the organisation is one of the world’s leading supply chain management companies. CEVA's first office in the Middle East opened in 1993 as Eagle Global Logistics in Dubai. Since then, it has rapidly expanded throughout the region, now offering multiple centres in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordon, Qatar and Iraq as well as the United Arab Emirates.

Warren Angus joined the company in 2003 and is based in Dubai as the regional sales and marketing director for the Middle East. He is delighted for the company’s rapid progress in the region. “We have recently expanded our operations in Qatar with relocation to new premises next to Doha International Airport. It is an ideal location which will allow for future growth, especially in the oil, gas and energy sectors as well as catering for the many projects related to preparation for the World Cup in 2022,” he states.

The company has also recently begun direct operations in Sohar, Oman. “We needed to invest further in Oman to support the aggressive growth plans we have for 2012 and Sohar was the obvious location to do so,” he adds.

Business in the emirate of Dubai is equally buoyant. “At the end of last year, we launched our third multi-user facility in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, taking our logistics footprint to over 90,000 square metres in Dubai alone. We took this major investment decision in order to be able to offer a world-class service to support our global customers who are increasingly looking to the region for new business opportunities,” he states.

The new facility, known as CEVA number ‘four’, is located in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing free trade zones. It covers 63,000 square metres and comprises two discrete units with a temperature controlled environment. Within the industry, it has been recognised as incorporating a number of state-of-the-art design features and has been certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative. This is an internationally-recognised green building certification system, which provides a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

CEVA is a pioneer in the construction of this new generation of eco-friendly warehouses, which feature in-built photovoltaic panels. Within the Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (SEMEA), this kind of investment is enabling CEVA to save 10 million kilos of CO2 emissions each year. As the company expands across the region, many other programmes have been adopted for reducing waste in operations as well as optimising network efficiencies to reduce the environmental impact of transportation.

The drive towards more efficient operations has also led to the development of many new IT solutions. “IT is fundamental in securing a competitive advantage in this business and advanced IT infrastructure will play an integral part in the growth of our business in the Middle East,” he declares. “Real time visibility in the supply chain is a relatively new phenomenon in the Middle East. These platforms already exist across the CEVA network globally and we believe that by extending them to this region, we will be able to far exceed the current service expectations of our customers.”

As part of the service package, CEVA engineers have identified and standardised the core supply chain processes. The company’s SMART Solutions are a set of modules built on CEVA’s vast experience of logistics around the world and a thorough understanding of the specific industries it serves. “Every supply chain is different, but designing each logistics solution from scratch takes a long time, involves lots of unknowns and invariably comes at a high price. Our SMART Solutions are a set of established and proven processes which help us identify common areas where customers are able to standardise their core processes. Using this approach enables our engineers to customise supply chain solutions according to specific needs while applying proven best practice experience,” he explains.

To drive strategic advantage for customers through every link in the supply chain, CEVA has also launched its new End-To-End SMART Solution. This is a standardised, consistent and configurable process that delivers value at every stage, and when coupled with CEVA’s commitment to Operational Excellence, it provides rigorous management of global supply chains for both finished goods and production and spare parts. Under this new solution CEVA is able to manage everything from components and inbound logistics, through to moving the finished product.

Several leading global customers in a variety of sectors are already implementing the End-to-End solution to their benefit, including General Motors (GM). “They are using our SMART End-to-End Solution to manage their global inbound and outbound flows of materials across multiple different locations across the world and it is delivering continuous improvements to the efficiency of their supply chain,” says Angus, adding that the solution is capable of delivering average year-on-year savings of up to 15 per cent when twinned with CEVA’s Operations Excellence programme.

“Visible performance management is how we ensure the effectiveness and consistency of our operations across the globe. Our operations excellence programme is based on the following building blocks: SMART, Zero Defect Start-Up to deliver complete compliance at the start of a new project, measurable lean and performance management programmes, and health, safety and environmental targets. These all combine to drive us further towards a culture of operational excellence,” he adds.

With this sort of infrastructure in place, Angus is convinced that CEVA is ideally positioned to increase its footprint in the region through straightforward organic growth. “In those countries where we do not currently operate in our own right, we will definitely be looking to either establish new centres or possibly acquire established businesses which have synergy with our own values. However we proceed, this region is one of the most exciting prospects for CEVA,” he concludes. www.cevalogistics.com