MEGATRANS2020: Meet the speakers

Monica Velez, National Director, Logistics & Supply Chain Consultancy | Occupier Services, Colliers International

Monica is a passionate and engaging logistics and supply chain expert, backed by twelve years of international experience across businesses including Keralty, CEVA Logistics, Asahi Beverages and Colliers International. Monica understands operational, strategic and commercial objectives to ensure best-practice, and understands the opportunities for businesses around supply chain transformation, network optimisation, strategy and digital challenges.

Monica started her career as an industrial engineer in her home country of Colombia. Shortly after working in this area for a few years, she decided to further her study. “I wanted to study a Masters in Logistics Management, but at the same time master my English communication skills, so I decided to study here in Australia,” she says.

After completing her studies, Monica worked at CEVA for five years in a number of different roles. “I was designing warehouses and transport solutions for a number of different industries. From automotive to FMCG there was a great variety,” Monica says.

Recognising that the FMCG market is a very exciting sector to work in, Monica then took a role at Asahi. Here she worked as Supply Chain Transformation Manager for just over two years.

“This was an amazing opportunity. When I first joined Asahi their network was scattered across Australia. Recognising the benefits for consolidation, automation and digitalisation, I led a variety of strategy development projects within the company that focused in future proofing and establishing competitive advantages for the business’ supply chain. ,” Monica says.

In her role at Colliers, Monica heads up the company’s recently launched in-house Logistics and Supply Chain Consulting service. The new team is tasked with providing a range of services to corporates occupying industrial space, including network strategy development, location selection, cost-to-serve analysis, facility design and automation selection.

“As the industrial landscape becomes more increasingly dynamic, a strong logistics capability is essential for occupiers to increase optimisation, productivity and speed to market. Historically, warehouse design has all been about big sheds but now there is a need for them to use the space wisely, have the most agile processes and to be located much closer to the consumer, which has changed the kind of facility required to be efficient,” Monica says.

When discussing the cost of delivery, Monica believes organisations should find out what are the different service levels they can offer according to customer expectations and align them to their cost to serve “Really we have seen how profitable businesses can be with tiered service platforms that act more in line with costs,” she says.

With regards to automation, Monica has some sensible advice. “There is this frantic shift towards automation, but it isn’t always for everyone. Organisations need to assess whether their business will work with automation. Sometimes there are other digital solutions that may be easier to implement, given their iterative nature. There is a range of technology that may or may not apply and it’s important for companies to explore technology but not race to implement at any cost,” she says.

Monica has also co-authored an e-commerce paper called The Industrial Property of the Future, focussing on how property can impact on logistics and supply chain, thoroughly explaining opportunities for optimisation. The report is in final stages of editing, and will be launched at the Colliers stand at MEGATRANS. Monica will be discussing warehouse design, automation, technology, functionality and last-mile logistics.

Monica will be sharing her expertise on all things e-commerce on Friday 3rd April. Don’t miss out and book your place today: https://megatrans.com.au/ticket/