J&J's Deep Bench (page 3)

-- Logistics Management, 10/1/2005

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Bianca Alarcón is one of the newest additions to the GTO cast. The transportation organization is only her second assignment inside Johnson & Johnson, following time in customer support. "I was curious to see how my experience could translate," says Alarcón, who had completed an internship with a 3PL prior to joining the consumer products giant. "I had heard a lot of good things about the GTO, especially how they developed their people, and I wanted to be part of that."

Alarcón now owns the GTO's relationship with the company's skin-care product division and is part of an effort to integrate BabyCenter LLC, Johnson & Johnson's online resource for new parents, into a multi-year GTO relationship. "BabyCenter is an organization that we've bumped up against in several forums," says Alarcón. "We started talking about inbound freight management, and we made a presentation about what we could do for them. Now we're in the final stages of putting together a service-level agreement with them ... but at the end of the day, it remains their decision."

Harry believes that helping talented people develop their knowledge and skills, regardless of their length of tenure, provides long-term benefits for the GTO. "An objective that I have is for people like Bianca to come in here, eyes wide open," he says. "If they choose to stay, that's great. But if they don't, there's also a benefit for us. They take transportation with them, and then there are more people inside Johnson & Johnson who know more about what we do and why we do it."

A New Way of Thinking

When he considers everything the GTO has accomplished so far—delivering millions of dollars in cost improvements, implementing numerous best practices, developing a staff with broad expertise—Harry finds it difficult to single out his proudest achievement. Instead, he prefers to consider the benefits the GTO will bring to the table five years down the road.

"We're very good at identifying and delivering cost-saving projects, but I think we're playing a much bigger role than that now," Harry says. "We're developing capabilities, like expanding shipment visibility, that allow us to take a broader supply chain approach."

The GTO is ideally positioned to help its customers achieve the benefits of such an approach. As the only operations organization with a view of what's going on in all three business sectors, the GTO's competencies ultimately may pull those businesses closer together. "GTO members see similar issues in the three business sectors," he observes. "We have initiatives going on now where we're trying to tie those business together in certain areas, like dedicated fleets and integrated systems. That wouldn't have happened five years ago."

Johnson & Johnson at a Glance

Corporate Headquarters: New Brunswick, N.J.

Revenue: Worldwide sales in 2004 were $47.3 billion.

Business: Johnson & Johnson is a manufacturer of healthcare products and a provider of related services for the consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical devices and diagnostics markets. More than 200 Johnson & Johnson operating companies employ approximately 113,800 people in 57 countries.

Logistics Best Practice: In 2000, the company launched the Global Transportation Organization (GTO) of Johnson & Johnson Sales and Logistics Company, a Division of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. The GTO is an internal transportation management company that has established itself as a one-stop shop offering supplier sourcing and performance management, export services, hazardous materials and customs-compliance services, freight payment, claims services, and software support.

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