Supply Chain Management

In the first wave, organisations have adopted best-of-breed supply chain solutions that have driven significant changes in their business processes very rapidly, while helping them with some quick wins - reduced inventory, increased space productivity, automation of processes etc., At the same time, they had access to so much information that the real value out of this information could not un-locked. Realisation of the full potential was probably suspect in a number of organisations.

These two waves of transformation had another important impact on the industry as a whole. That is, learning from one organisation to the other was quick and the knowledge transfer was achieved on the back of mature and rich packaged software capabilities. Software companies constantly enriched the supply chain solution capabilities based on continuous learning achieved, thereby providing standard features that matched industry best practices.

• Has this knowledge transfer ensured consistent levels of supply chain maturity across organisations within industry verticals? Therefore reduce differentiation?
• After multiple waves of investment and mature product capabilities, are there organisations that have leapfrogged in achieving supply chain excellence and benefited from it?

The answers to both of these questions is probably “yes” in some sense and therefore an expectation that there is a foundation within each industry vertical that is consistent across enterprises. However, it does not mean the differentiation has completely vanished. Leading enterprises continue to leverage these investments better than others and compliment these investments with processes that help them sustain differentiation, some of which are

Industry leaders are seeking better insights into their supply chain
For example, focus on category analytics for better insights on customer/demand side and increasing focus on spend analytics for better insights on supply side.

Leverage these insights to devise and constantly refine their demand and supply strategies.
For example devising (or) refining promotion strategies, pricing strategies are driven by these category insights whereas sourcing strategies are refined based on insights from spend analytics.

Tighter integration between strategy and execution through better collaboration and process integration.
For example, demand planning process helps integrate promotion strategies with efficient supply response and maximise revenue, whereas contract compliance processes are critical to integrate sourcing strategy and operational procurement to realise benefits projected by sourcing strategies.

Focus on a robust governance mechanism to ensure consistency and compliance to processes.
Consequently, Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process has widely been acknowledged as a means to achieving much needed governance for global supply chain operations.

Therefore, while it’s undeniable that investments in supply chain technologies have delivered a common platform based on technology, it’s time to start creating a supply chain eco-system that can help differentiate and sustain excellence through better integration and collaboration on a global scale.