Do you have “supply chain intimacy”? If not, do you want it, and
how do you get it? Or, even more basic, what exactly is it? Let me help:
- Supply chain intimacy, defined: It is having a detailed
and thorough knowledge of your company’s supply chain.
- Should you want supply chain intimacy, and how do you get
it? Yes,
it is a critical competency to maximize your company’s profitable growth results from having a robust understanding about the art, science
and processes of your supply chain and its impact on your company’s success.
- If you have supply chain intimacy, what do you do with it? This is an
important question for the ongoing vitality of your career. If you have it, you
need to do three things:
- Grow it
- Gain more global experience
- Gain more leadership talent
If you need to acquire supply chain intimacy, or wish to grow it, five
actions are necessary:
- Do a deep dive into each of your company’s supply chain mega
processes of PLAN-PROCURE-MAKE-MOVE-STORE-SELL. You cannot be intimate with your supply chain by only
being a “buy” expert, or a “move” expert. End-to-end breadth and depth is the
key.
- Understand the relationships and interactions among your company’s
supply chain processes and the impacts of key performance indicators (KPIs). Do
not focus on supply chain KPIs at the peril of your company’s performance. Understand
the many trade-offs and compromises that need to be made to balance the
processes that beget great customer satisfaction, low costs, amazing speed and
high flexibility.
- Become adept at manipulating your company’s supply chain to
achieve profitable growth. This entails going beyond the “profitable” focus
that results from lower cost and truly grasping that the supply chain also has
a huge impact on the “growth” side of your business and that the real goal in
supply chain is to both grow the top line and the bottom line.
- Develop
the ability to collaborate both externally and internally. External
collaboration with suppliers (supplier relationship management) and with
customers (customer relationship management) is essential to achieving supply
chain intimacy. This includes collaboration internally across the organization
to include IT, finance, HR, marketing, sales, etc. to assure that the supply
chain is aligned and contributing to the overall strategy of the firm.
- Increase
your capability to
execute continuous improvement and transformational changes to achieve organizational
excellence. The pursuit of supply chain excellence requires both tactical and
strategic planning, as well as precise execution.
So this is what
supply chain intimacy is all about. Your success in helping your company
move forward depends upon it.
Go!Go!Go!
Jim
More Resources
Supplier Relationship Management
Podcast #60: The New Frontier for Profitable Growth in Business:
Leveraging the Supply Chain -- Shareholder Value, Part 1 of 8
Podcast #61: Strategic Market Planning and
the Paradox of
Profitable Growth