Tompkins Associates goes global, adds supply chain strategy expertise

Consulting firm known for its work in materials handling and logistics execution merges with strategy consulting firm.

By Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/10/2008

Tompkins Associates, a consulting firm well known in North America for its expertise in the nuts and bolts of supply chain operations, is now offering its clients additional expertise in global supply chain strategy.

The firm announced this week it has hired Gene Tyndall to head its Global Supply Chain Services division. Tyndall is the former president of Supply Chain Executive Advisors (SCEA), a boutique consulting firm specializing in advising senior executives on supply chain-related topics.

SCEA’s business operations are being merged into the Tompkins organization. Tyndall says he expects SCEA’s other associates from around the world to join him at Tompkins in the coming months, effectively completing the merger of Tompkins and SCEA and making Tompkins a global company.

Strategy and execution under one umbrella

The deal also creates what Tyndall calls an “exciting mix” of strategy expertise and execution expertise under one umbrella. Mixing the MBAs at his consulting firm with the engineers at Tompkins Associates, he says, allows Tompkins to offer a unique multidisciplinary approach to supply chain consulting.

“The Big 5 consulting firms don’t have the operations and implementation experience,” he says. “And you can’t really advise C-level executives about what they’re going to do if you don’t know how they’re going to do it.”

Prior to co-founding SCEA, Tyndall was president of Ryder Global Supply Chain Solutions. He has also led the Global Management Supply Chain Consulting Practice at consulting firm Ernst & Young (now Capgemini).