We now have 15 months of CORE behind us. Probably ‘behind us’ is not the best expression, since the work that has been done during those months has an effect on the rest of the project. And since some parts are not done well enough, we will even have to go back to that past.
This brings me to probably the major CORE-meeting of the past few months: the first review done by the European Commission. Five well-chosen experts and the Project Officer reviewed the progress of the project. If I have to summarise it in a few words: the review was done in a tough, but at the same time, fair way. And in a sense of partnership, meaning that both the Commission and the partners in the Consortium shared the same opinion! When done well, CORE will be the reference for those who want to build a Secured and Optimised Supply Chain.
On a personal note, it was a very interesting experience. In my career, managing several parts of logistics as a shipper, I ran a lot of projects. So I have my point of reference when it came to ‘judging’ the way the European Commission did the review. My personal judgement: respect for the way the reviewers prepared themselves and how they approached the Consortium!
I like to compare the start of CORE with a big puzzle. A big pile of pieces, chaos! The thousands of pieces were there and they needed to be brought together. Only, some pieces of the puzzle were still even too fuzzy to be used and needed further image processing before they could be used.
I am convinced that we are now passed that Chaos- stage and that all who are involved are more focused now. However, it will still be a big challenge to keep everybody focused.
So far for the ‘internal affairs’; what about the ‘foreign affairs’ or in other words ‘making CORE known to the broad public‘.
A lot has been done. CORE was presented during several Trade Fairs (e.g. SITL in France and Transport and Logistics in Belgium) and on a number of other occasions; during a yearly event on Supply Chain in Vienna where over 500 people were present, an event in London that dealt with Port Security , a Supply Chain event that was sponsored by the Port of Antwerp. The latter one was an interesting one since topics like ‘security‘, ‘how to Supply Chain moves to Value Chain‘ and ‘how Supply Chain finally finds its way into the Boardroom’.
And not just in Europe: CORE was presented in Singapore and, yes, in Brazzaville where the African Shippers’ Organisation gathered.
Most of these presentations were done by means of ‘PowerPoints’ that are based on the content of the DOW. Some were done by playing a Supply Chain game that clearly demonstrates the effect of collaboration on one hand and the effect of external factors on the Supply Chain. It is clear that playing this game has much more effect than any PPT. At the same time , I am convinced that the ‘PowerPoint –approach’ will since the work done in CORE, and mainly with regard to the demo’s , will become more and more concrete.
I am also looking forward to the First CORE Forum that will be held in Antwerp on 24 September. A ‘save the date’ is already on the website, more news to follow soon.
Managing ‘ External Affairs ‘ should however not be one way, meaning telling the World about CORE. It is also about learning how the World evolves outside CORE. And there are a lot of interesting items to be mentioned and probably to be taken into account as well.
In that respect, the Mercator-programme as developed by the World Trade Organisation was adopted by the WCO. Even better to hear is that the WCO puts Cross Border Management and Time Release Studies high on their agenda. Time Release being the measuring and improving of the time between Cargo-arrival and Removal of Cargo. KPI-thinking in customs, what more can a shipper want (apart from no duties, everybody AEO and no fines).
By the way, Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish geographer and cartographer who presented the Mercator-projection in 1569. This projection enabled mariners to take correct compass readings. A serious contribution to Trade Facilitation and increased interconnectivity. Without him, for example, Britannia would never have ruled the waves. Although today it tends to be more like Britannia waives the rules, but that is another story.