Do trade organizations create value?

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I spent the better part of this week in Oakland, CA at a logistics conference on behalf of a client. It was a three day event, bookended by two long travel days), and had numerous very well prepared presentations.

There were numerous companies and trade organizations represented and a lot of work and information was shared. What became apparent to me after the first day was that a lot of people were spending a lot of time and effort but were delivering very little results or value.

The conference dealt with cold chain logistics, which is essentially monitoring and certifying shipments worldwide of products that must be maintained at specific temperatures. There are numerous federal agencies monitoring movement of these as well as hazardous shipments, but there are very few standards documented as to how to meet the guidelines.

One trade group had been working for three years to document best practices for packaging, shipping, storing and monitoring these critical shipments. The results of three years worth of work was an incomplete set of guidelines, for companies to look at and decide if they wanted to use them.

There are very few published standards or even audits for things like pharmaceuticals and biomedical products being shipped. The FDA will fine a manufacturer for violations of label temperature requirements but there is no real monitoring format. They leave it up to the manufacturers to monitor their shipments and report excursions, unless they happen to trip over an obvious violation.

The issue here is the manufactures create value through their core business, which is research and development of pharmaceutical products. I’m absolutely certain their manufacturing processes are closely monitored and are state of the art. All that is left to chance however when a product leaves the door.

The shippers use whatever packaging the manufacturer recommends. If the package is verified to maintain 0 to 8 degree Celsius for 96 hours, they make every effort to deliver the product within 96 hours. The shipping process however is not within anyone’s control. The package can be bumped off a flight because the dry ice quota has been exceeded, it can be held in customs, delayed die to equipment failures, left on a tarmac or in an uncontrolled warehouse. There is little ownership of the process once the product leaves the manufacturer, and little or no monitoring or escalation of exceptions.

It just appeared to me the whole industry is focused on providing pockets of information but not focused on how to create value.