 Aspen is made up of more than 500 Associates, more than 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space, and a transportation fleet consisting of both refrigerated and dry equipment. These are just some of the assets that Jim Emmerling oversees in his role as Executive Vice President. Jim has been with Aspen for 6 years and has been in the logistics industry for more than 25 years.
- Q and A -
What brought you to work in third party logistics?
The short answer is “a headhunter”. I had been with Coca Cola since my college days and a former boss referred me to an executive search firm. They were performing a search for a leading public warehouse company. What I saw there was quite different than the dedicated distribution activities in which I was involved at Coke. The idea of interacting with so many top tier companies and providing support to so many different industries was very intriguing. Where else can you assist in the national launch of a new operating system, make preparations while awaiting word from one of your pharmaceutical clients on the FDA’s approval of their new prescription drug, and then set up an assembly line to retro-fit thousands of garden hoses that came from Asia with the wrong connectors installed?
How have you seen third party logistics roles change?
Mainly in the evolution of how client companies have utilized 3PLs. Back in the day, most of the business was tactical in nature – seasonal support, overstock storage, or the use of public warehousing until new facilities were ready to bring it “in-house”. Now our business is almost exclusively strategic in nature. We are the logistics solution because we out-perform “in-house” operations in accuracy, cost and, most importantly, our understanding of the marketplace.
What is best about your job at Aspen?
The best aspect of my job is in dealing with quality people. The members of our Management Team are not only skilled business professionals but are people of character and conscience.
What sort of benefits does Aspen’s Operations Team bring to the table?
Our true value is in bringing ideas to our clients about how they might consider doing things differently in order to take advantage of market conditions or simply to reduce cost. Just within the last two years we have re-designed client prescribed routes to eliminate trucks, save fuel and reduce cost; set up and managed “public warehouse” operations within two of our clients’ own facilities to reduce their building related costs; and recommended use of satellite technology to reset trailer temperatures while in transit in order to speed product availability and save fuel.
We also understand how key our role is – positioned squarely between our client and their own customers. Aspen uses our 3DL (three dimensional logistics) strategy to understand our clients’ customers needs in detail. We coordinate site visits, ask our clients’ customers’ to rate how we’re doing in servicing them and then provide that feedback, along with our recommended actions to our clients.
What is Aspen doing in regards to its focus on green operations?
We have taken a few large steps and many small steps. We recently replaced the metal halide lighting in two of our facilities with high efficiency fluorescent lighting with motion sensors that cycle the lamps off when there is no activity in a particular area. We have also replaced an older fleet of tractors with a more fuel-efficient fleet of trucks at our Utah operation.
We bale and recycle our cardboard and stretch-wrap, we have separated and diverted edible solid refuse from landfills to stockyards and we are in the process of replacing our first diesel yard-truck with a propane-fueled version. We have established idling guidelines for our tractors and will be posting our idling rules for outside carriers coming on our sites by January 1, 2009.
What do you wish people knew about you?
I am passionate about what I do and I like to have fun while I do it. I walked into a Coca Cola warehouse 1974, and I have been in someone or another’s warehouse ever since. Believe it or not, the warehouse is a great place to enhance the product offering and positively influence the consumers’ opinion of the manufacturer.
On the personal side, I have been married to Carol since 1979 and we have two children, Laura and Joseph. I’m a big fan of the Dodgers, the Fightin’ Irish (through good and bad) and the St. Paul Swordsmen. I enjoy home remodeling, work out and run regularly and play golf irregularly (take it however you like!) |
