Aspen

- Q and A -

What interested you in third party logistics?
I have worked for several different manufacturers of everything from automobile wheels to copiers and printing presses. I was always involved at a customer service / inventory control level and just assumed that all manufacturers ran their own warehousing and transportation.

I actually discovered 3PLs by sheer chance. I was working for a major manufacturer in their Customer Service department and heard that they were ‘switching warehouse vendors’. Up until that point, I had always assumed that the warehouses listed on the inventory screens were ‘ours’ and run by ‘us’. I was intrigued enough about this discovery to find out who the ‘new vendor’ was going to be, then contacted that vendor to see what positions, if any, they were looking to fill. I then actually scheduled an interview. During the interview I found out that they actually ran warehousing and logistics for multiple other well known companies. I decided that dealing with multiple products from multiple companies would be much more exciting than just dealing with the same old stuff every day.

How has systems integration influenced the industry?
The saying “We want more, we want it quicker, and we want it cheaper” comes immediately to mind. The only way to accomplish this is to integrate our systems as closely to our Customer’s and our Customer’s Customer’s systems as possible. Orders don’t get phoned, faxed, or hand entered much anymore – they get EDIed. The Customer no longer has to call to find out where a shipment is, they receive status updates via EDI or other automatically generated messages. Manufacturers, Logistics Suppliers, Carriers, and even the end Customers are all becoming linked together in an information chain of events. This has lead to fewer mistakes, faster turn around, and absolutely minimum surprises as all the players can ‘see’ statuses, changes, and dates.

What has Aspen done to stay at the forefront of supply-chain management solutions?
Aspen has maintained a huge investment in its systems. Requests to the I.T. department are continuous. The I.T. department regularly interviews the facilities to find out where they can help out. Aspen’s I.T. department is involved with facility staff meetings. Our I.T. department is involved in meetings with our Customers. We are continually discussing industry direction, customer requests, operation direction and what that means for information flow. Our systems are ever-expanding and ever-changing to meet not only current but future needs.

How do you stay ahead of the technology?
This is a really tricky question… I am not sure there is really a way to stay ahead of the technology, but there certainly are ways to utilize technology as it comes out to the marketplace. We are constantly looking at what different industries are utilizing – even industries not traditionally related to our offerings. We also consistently examine new gizmos and gadgets that even remotely may have an application within our service offerings. Most of these never get implemented, but a few do. Most of the ‘new technology’ items are horrifically expensive when they first come out, so when we do find a useful one we schedule a review for the future to go back and re-examine it as the prices fall.

Aspen focuses on utilizing cutting-edge management systems, what are some examples of the capabilities that you provide?
There are so many capabilities we have and each is either more or less important to each individual customer.

Our main strategy is to be as integrated as possible both within our internal systems (OMS, WMS, TMS, FMS, CRM, LMS) as well as with our Customer’s systems – this usually involves heavy information / data flows for orders, receipts, inventory, and transportation statuses.

Probably the next most important would be visibility. We want to give our customers the most visibility we can into our processes and statuses. Even with customers that are heavily EDI, we offer Web access as well. The more informed we can keep our Customers, the better. Again the goal is “No Surprises”.

What is best about your job at Aspen?
It is ever-changing. New challenges and opportunities present themselves daily (if not hourly!). I believe our Team is exceptional- we are all about “get the job done right the first time”. I enjoy being part of this philosophy and environment.

What do you wish people knew about you?
Even though I have been told that I am a no-nonsense, blunt, tell-it-as-it-is kinda guy – I am a really nice guy too! I will do whatever it takes to get things accomplished in the best and most cost effective way. I do not, and will not, gloss over any mistakes – things happen – lets get it fixed and try to ensure that it never happens again.

Probably the thing that most surprises people is that I am an avid motorcyclist. I still own and ride the motorcycle I purchased new back in 1982 – a Honda GL500I Silver Wing. I now have over 144,000 miles on it, still love it, and ride it as much as I can. I do, however, freely admit that I am now a ‘fair weather’ rider and if it is too cold or hot I take the car. Since moving to Salt Lake City 11 years ago, and having to garage it for 4+ months a year, it has undergone some renovations. It now looks brand new again. It also now has an AM/FM radio, CB radio, integrated passenger intercom system, GPS navigation system, Altimeter, digital gauges, clock, compass, and hookups for my cell phone and MP3 player built in. Oh yeah, and the obligatory cigarette lighter to power other devices – you never know what will come next!