Squeezing the Most Out of Your Supply Chain

Many companies are investing copious amounts of time and money on their supply chains as business becomes more complex and global By Jessie Chimni and Ashok Santhanam

Investment in supply chain management (SCM) applications, which topped $6 billion last year and is expected to reach an impressive $7.4 billion by 2010, (according to AMR Research) should never be considered a waste. Still, as companies have piled more products, suppliers and distribution plants into their supply chain scenario and changed replenishment strategies, a slow erosion of effectiveness has followed.

But despite the increasing investments in supply chain effectiveness, many companies are finding that such key metrics as on-time delivery, order fulfillment lead time and supply chain response tend to slide as time passes.

In fact, it's likely that your supply chain isn't operating at its peak efficiency right now. Supply chain opportunity assessments can help you determine if this may actually be happening at your company. Like an annual doctor's physical provides a snapshot of overall health, a supply chain opportunity assessment will give your company a complete look at the overall state of one of its most critical functions and provide with you a comprehensive list of opportunities for improvement.

Armed with the report from a supply chain opportunity assessment, a company can immediately begin to take a series of actions to help improve its operating efficiency and ensure that the supply chain is structured to meet any growth trends or expected sales increases. An assessment also guarantees that processes and data can be more tightly integrated and shared with partners, helping fulfill the ultimate goal of realigning the supply chain with business and operations strategies.

Though an assessment might sound intimidating, it's a pretty straightforward and proven analysis process that entails a thorough review and examination of a company's existing supply chain processes. It's also a method that's been proven to work across industries and has been used to improve supply chain performance in businesses ranging from consumer packaging to semiconductors to communications devices.

The following is a working framework to consider when planning a comprehensive supply chain assessment.

1) First, consider the scope of an assessment. Will it be limited to a division or business unit or include the entire corporation? Will you look at a subset of supply chain processes or examine the full spectrum, including demand planning, supply planning, production scheduling, supply replenishment and order promising? Once the scope of the assessment is determined, identify the company's existing concerns in areas such as demand and supply planning, production scheduling, inventory planning and order promising. (One key strategy, from the start, is to recruit the right people to work on the assessment, including both the key stakeholders that own the supply chain process and those managers in all applicable business units.)

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