The Project Freight industry is in need to collect its effort to keep the know how and expertise from slipping away was one of the main takeaways in the panel discussion of industry seniors.
A panel of Shippers’ at the Breakbulk Americas was united in its concerns that the continued economic downturn is pushing talent away from project logistics and verticals and into positions in Amazon, automotive, among others.
“I think that the next generation challenge is a really important one for us to embrace as an industry,” said Gary Sostack, administrator, logistics and services division at Aramco Services Co. “We need to attract those people and make sure they come to this part of the supply chain business and not somewhere else. We’re in the middle now of the baby boomer departure and you see now that the best people aren’t coming into this industry; they’re going somewhere else.”
Pascal Ochquee, global director international logistics at Halliburton, said that logistics was built on people and systems. “There should be emphasis on supply continuity and ensuring that you have the right talent in place internally and through service providers,” he said. “One of our biggest worries is people leaving and going to other industries. We need to retain talent both within our own companies and within our vendor base.”
The industry was criticized for poor self-promotion, which was blamed for the increasing inability to retain good staff as well as not taking up the educational programs that are out there and that range from introductory classes to Master C|lasses like the iBrabble Project Freight Management 2/day program that has already trained so many.
Lee Tipton, corporate logistics specialist at FMC Technologies, said she had worked hard to get the message out that logistics is the foundation of what project people do. “It can really make or break a project,” she said.
Tipton added that this needs to be coupled with more focus on practical training of new employees. “We need to foster an environment where not only are we training the newcomers to the industry academically, but we are training them with practicalities as well. There are a lot of academic logicians now and they need to get out with the carriers and see what they do – it will make them earn a little respect.”
iBrabble.com
Breakbulk.com
