Warehousing Education and Research Council releases DC Measures 2014 Report

OAK BROOK, Ill.–The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC), www.WERC.org, has released DC Measures 2014, its annual benchmarking study of key warehousing and distribution performance metrics. The study captures the 47 key operational metrics of particular importance to most distribution professionals, grouped into seven categories: customer, operational, financial, capacity/quality, employee/safety, perfect order and cash-to-cash cycles.

New to the report this year is a special section of case studies highlighting how two companies turned their benchmarking data into actionable steps that resulted in performance improvement, said Karl Manrodt, PhD, Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Logistics at Georgia Southern University and Director of the Southern Center for Logistics and Intermodal Transportation.

“Companies who compare their own performance metrics, against those included in our benchmarking reports often then ask, “now what?” Manrodt explained, “To answer that question, we conducted in-depth interviews among best-in-class benchmarking practitioners. The resulting case studies explain how two of those companies used the metrics to alter their processes, justify technology investments and/or empower their workforce to find alternate solutions.”

“Interest in the report’s findings has increased annually throught its 11 years publication,” said Michael Mikitka, CEO of WERC.

“We attribute that to two things,” noted Mikitka. “First, this year’s survey found that an increasing number of respondents now directly report either to C-level executives or to their company’s Board of Directors-which supports the trend of increased emphasis on warehousing, distribution and supply chain by many of the world’s leading companies. Second, companies have become more adept at harnessing and mining their own metrics, thanks to advanced systems that help them manange Big Data and convert it into useful analytics.”