How do they do it? Strategies for staying in the AMR Top 25
1.Mastery of content based supply chain
The content economy is here to stay. The top supply chains have mastered how they effectively leverage content towards distinguishing their brand, establishing deep customer connect and creating personalized user experiences.
For example, Apple has converted their devices into an integrated content delivery platform – be it media content thru iTunes, application content thru the Appstore or sync and personalization services thru MobileMe. Nokia is differentiating itself as a content aggregator thru their Ovi and N-gage platforms. Nike has proven itself to be a leader in using social media to promote their brand and designs. PC manufacturers like Dell are bundling pre-installed content to provide out of the box personalized entertainment.
Mastering the content supply chain involves driving innovation, protecting IP, creating seamless end user experience by providing capabilities for personalization and discoverability, fostering adoption by investing in development platforms and defining new monetization models. Organizations that understand this and are able to integrate this within their supply chain are able to differentiate and stay ahead of the rest.
2.Understanding the role of data in supply chain
Supply Chains are getting more and more complex. With addition of each node in the supply chain network there is an exponential increase in available data. Top supply chain organizations understand the role of this data and have effectively harnessed this to their advantage.
Procter & Gamble, Pepsico and Johnson & Johnson all have built in processes and systems to sense changing demand signals and respond quickly. Their ability to analyze massive amounts of downstream data and create long term demand-sensing and demand-shaping strategies helps them to prevent stock-outs and excess inventory.
Wal-Mart closely monitors supplier performance on a wide range of metrics in weekly intervals. Their ability to sense supplier risk and react quickly enables them to mitigate disruptions in their supply chain.
The RAM shortages of 2006 and battery plant fires from last year brought the entire notebook supply chain to a stand-still. Organizations that have invested in supply chain visibility and collaboration platforms are able to detect changes, disruptions & risks and react to these ahead of their competition.
On June 9th, 830am- 930am PST Infosys, Microsoft and AMR Research will present a Webinar to understand how organizations can harness the value of their supply chain data towards improved performance using visibility and collaboration. Join us..
Author - Krishnan Parasuraman, Principal Architect and Practice Leader at Infosys Technologies
