A conversation with Dan Ludwig, senior vice president of DHL and head of the company's new office of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Management for the Americas. DHL, a leading global express and logistics company and a subsidiary of Deutsche Post World Net, recently created a new humanitarian and emergency management office to formalize procedures and provide oversight for all the company's regional disaster preparedness and response efforts. This includes management of DHL Disaster Response Team Americas, which is part of a worldwide network of disaster response teams developed in partnership with the United Nations to support humanitarian relief efforts in the international community. Dan Ludwig was tapped to head this effort.

In a perfect world, the tight coordination of systems and processes would allow goods to flow continuously from manufacturer to customer. With total understanding of consumer demand, who needs a lot of excess product taking up valuable real estate? • Second in the Best Practices series.