Jeffrey Chong, General Manager of Jebsen Logistics
Reveals how he ignites and sustains positive change throughout the business
The logistics and supply chain management industry has always been the backbone of global trade. An age-old industry, it facilitates the movement of goods and now, is experiencing a movement of its own.
The rise of related industries like e-commerce, amplified during the pandemic, has led to a spike in demand for logistics services. Placed in context of a growing focus on digitalisation and sustainability, logistics businesses are now standing at a crossroad of risk and opportunities. Jebsen Logistics has chosen its path, with Mr Jeffrey Chong, General Manager of Jebsen Logistics, pointing the way.
Building on foundations
Jebsen Logistics was founded in 2000 as an independent, third-party logistics provider. It provides a full spectrum of solutions including air freight, sea freight and warehousing, alongside specialised services like wine logistics. As a member of Jebsen Group, Jebsen Logistics is also the Group’s logistics partner, supporting other business lines.
“Jebsen Logistics has all along played a very important role in contributing to the success of the Group by acting as the logistics partner for the Group’s operating businesses. With the rapid change of market and increasing expectation from our customers and consumers, we will invest in Jebsen Logistics to undergo a series of adaptations, modernisations and upgrades in order to bring enhanced value to our operating business lines as well as third-party clients,” announced Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr Alexander Spitzy in 2021.
With this came the appointment of Mr Jeffrey Chong as General Manager of Jebsen Logistics, in June 2022. An IT professional by training, Jeffrey brings with him over 20 years of experience in the logistics industry. Before joining Jebsen, he was General Manager of Southeast Asia for Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, where he was responsible for order fulfilment from China to the Southeast Asian region as well as quality control and strategic planning.
In his role as General Manager of Jebsen Logistics, Jeffrey drives continuous innovation, optimisation and operational excellence for the business, with a focus on identifying process enhancement and performance optimisation opportunities.
There is an industry-wide movement to transform supply chain management to be smarter, faster, and more efficient. I believe Jebsen Logistics is in a strong position to become a forerunner in this race because it has strong fundamentals.
Successful transformation will enable Jebsen Logistics to contribute to the Group’s overall growth in many ways, such as supporting cross-selling from different business lines and leveraging logistics insights to develop potentially new business areas or customer segments.
Embarking on the quest for quality
An enduring challenge in the logistics business is the “Iron Triangle” of budget, scope and schedule, with quality residing at the intersection of these three constraints. This project management concept essentially means that budget (cost), scope (service features and functions) and schedule (time) need to be delicately balanced in order to achieve quality.
In logistics, speed to market and quality assurance are top priorities — these are non-negotiable. With operating costs rising, however, we need to rethink how we operate so that we achieve a new equilibrium.
For this reason, Jeffrey and his team implemented two major initiatives in 2021 — process re-engineering and resource optimisation. Both are based on ‘lean management’ principles designed to optimise manpower, resources, effort, and energy towards creating value for the customer.
Together with a transformation agency, we co-developed a web-based program in 45 days to fix a core issue of scan packing. We also worked with GIT to build a future-ready warehouse management system that would support us now and into the future.
These early efforts are already bearing fruit for CASIO, a brand represented by Jebsen Consumer. Understanding that time is money in supply chain management, Jebsen Logistics set out to improve response time and reduce downtime.
With B2B and B2C distribution channels, CASIO’s logistics requirements are rather complex. Our goal was to optimise our operations from manual to systematic, and systematic to automated.
To prepare their team for a new way of working, Jebsen Logistics invested in staff training. The team also benefited from clear objectives, regular performance reviews, and timely corrective actions to ensure that they were equipped to deliver on the agreed outcomes.
Now, both the inbound procedure lead time and manpower allocation for the pick-pack process have been reduced by 60% and the number of outbound units per week has increased by 30-50%.
Driving the vehicle of change
Jeffrey credits a large part of the transformation success to his team.
Change is always challenging. It is human nature to be wary of, or even resistant to, change. I think Jebsen’s culture of entrepreneurship makes a difference because our colleagues are open to change; they welcome innovation and new ways of doing things.
Communication and stakeholder buy-in have also been key success factors. Jeffrey believes that by sharing the big picture, helping each team member understand why this is important, what role they play, and how this would benefit them in their daily work has enabled change to take root.
The very nature of change creates uncertainty and that makes people nervous. My ‘secret’ is to address this through clarity. Setting clear objectives and deliverables, agreeing on action plans, creating feedback loops for review and improvement — this may sound very academic but it really does work!
Finally, Jeffrey is also an advocate of celebrating success. Showing appreciation when the team reaches a milestone or exceeds their goals, for example, can be a powerful motivator, especially since transformation is a long journey.
This sparks the chain reaction that Jeffrey hopes to see, building success upon success to achieve Jebsen Logistics’ vision of becoming a smart supply chain partner to business everywhere.