Supply Chain Strategy and Implementation

 

Any Supply Chain strategy must follow from the Business Strategy. Will we compete on cost, customer service, innovation, or "fashion"? Have we agreed on the core competencies we will leverage and which activities we will outsource? Do we know what new competencies we will need to build or acquire in the next few years?

Have we tiered our customers and suppliers? Having decided which of our suppliers and customers are strategic, we can plan with them how to integrate and synchronize our Supply Chain to eliminate waste, duplication and cost.

Most corporations have strong functional expertise but require a different way of working to successfully integrate their Supply Chain. Even if the company is an accomplished process-oriented organization it is likely that many of its Supply Chain partners are not. Implementing a partnering strategy will require a willingness to learn together and to measure success with agreed, new metrics.

It is advisable to plan this initiative with someone who has done this successfully before.

References

Designing and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies, and Case Studies
David Simchi-Levi, Philip Kaminsky, Edith Simchi-Levi, McGraw-Hill, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Myron Feinstein is an independent executive consultant to Fortune 500 corporations. He helps them migrate to the new business models that leverage the power of the Internet and the Worldwide Web. Utilizing outsourcing, auctions, channel collaboration and customer relationship management increases business speed and reach and leads to business improvement; lowered costs and stronger, information-based relationships with customers and suppliers, whether B2B, B2C or m-Commerce.
E-Business leadership requires a successful digital transformation. The impact of new software implementation, retraining of employees in changed business processes and competitive pressure from new global competitors has transformed the agenda of management leadership.
The e-future depends upon gaining and maintaining competitive advantage by reducing uncertainty and risk and "finding the profit in e" --- the critical business issue in the digital economy.
Myron Feinstein has extensive international experience in a global corporation and is an expert in supply chain integration - purchasing, manufacturing and logistics operations - and strategy implementation. He has enabled organizations to implement large-scale change management and restructuring projects and to develop performance metrics for aligning demand chains, value chains, electronic commerce, knowledge management and reengineering. Website design, as well as the management of variety, complexity and intellectual capital, requires expertise in the behavioral aspects - the adaptive challenge - of practical implementation and is essential to ensure real world solutions.