Input obtained by supply chain practitioners and universities recently will definitely enhance the final content of the 9th State of LogisticsTMsurvey to be released in publication format in June. This is the upbeat view of Nadia Viljoen of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). As scientific editor of the publication on South African logistics, Viljoen gave a brief summary of the upcoming publication at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg on 14 March 2013.

"The survey usually presents figures from two calendar years ago. A major highlight is that the researchers at Stellenbosch University have gone the extra mile, or kilometres, to catch up a year's work. We will thus release the figures for the past two years - 2011 as well as 2012 - at the media and industry launch in June," announced Cobus Rossouw, Chief Integration Officer of IMPERIAL Logistics.

"This means that the most recent costs and cost drivers of logistics in South Africa will be available to support our drive for supply chain improvements across businesses, industry and the economy as a whole", Rossouw said.

The Stellenbosch team is calculating a preliminary view of 2012, although most 2012 data are not available yet. The latest findings will take into account, for example, fuel prices, interest rates and wages to determine logistics costs for 2012. A new view of logistics costs, including sectoral comparisons and drawing relationships between logistics costs and the "transportable" economy is being done for the very first time, making the 9th State of LogisticsTM survey probably the most in-depth edition to date in this regard.

Lew Roberts of GIBS explained: "We invited a select group of industrial leaders active in the field of supply chain and appropriate academia to the pre-launch event for the GIBS Supply Chain Executive Round Table. GIBS will host a number of these round tables each year. The primary focus of the round tables will be to provide a structured, facilitated forum for the sharing of best practices in supply chain management among member companies and for the dissemination of key supply chain and logistics information and knowledge to members through meetings, lectures, white papers and up-to-date research findings.

"The discussions around the 9th State of LogisticTM survey for South Africa provided valuable input at the pre-launch event of this new GIBS initiative. It was a good example for the attendees of how the round table concept can provide great value to participants through insight into research findings of reputable organisations, through participants' input for possible inclusion in these research findings and through their involvement and comments regarding national surveys," Roberts noted.

Private companies attending ranged from financial institutions, major logistics-intensive companies, Sasol and Anglo. University representatives hailed from the University of Pretoria, Stellenbosch University, Unisa, the University of Johannesburg and the Vaal University of Technology. Several professional associations were also represented at the launch event including the Association for Operations Management of South Africa, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Rossouw told participants that another important reason for the pre-launch round-table meeting was to ascertain the research regarded by industry as being relevant to their needs.

Participants then gathered around six separate tables, with Rossouw facilitating the discussion groups. Each group dealt with one of the research themes addressed in the publication, with the scientific authors responsible for the themes present at their respective tables.

The six themes are:

• Logistics costs and freight flow
• Road transport cost factors
• The impact of deteriorating road conditions
• Maritime connectivity of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
• The skills gap in the logistics and supply-chain sector
• Transport infrastructure and planning.

Viljoen concluded: "We received insightful comments from participants. We are excited about their inputs and believe these will provide added value to the end product, the publication on the survey and other discussions that will flow from it".