In Search of Supply Chain Excellence

Today, I am heads down preparing for a series of strategy workshops with a new manufacturing client. As I prepare, I put myself in the shoes of the participants.

Supply chain should be a team sport, but for most it is not. My observation of this company's S&OP process is that the group is trying to work together, but they are unclear on the rules. The executive team is composed of ex-leaders from General Mills, Nike, P&G, and Unilever.

Each leader carries a different definition of supply chain excellence. These paradigms are not expressed. I am not sure that each member of the executive team is even clear on their own paradigm. (Supply chain excellence is defined very differently from company-to-company.) One of my first goals is to align the group on a common definition and drive alignment.

It is hard to be a team, when the rules and definitions are not clear. A swim team is very different from a debate team. And a rowing team has little in common with a football team. It is not enough to say that a supply chain organization needs to be a team. We need to define it. I think that this lack of clarity increased the alignment issues--which grew threefold--over this past decade.

Driving Alignment on Supply Chain Excellence

For the participants, I fear that they see me as just one of a series of consultants facilitating a workshop to help them improve their supply chain performance. They don't know Lora. I don't know them.

I shudder when I am called a consultant. As an industry analyst, I define my role to triangulate the market to define the questions that companies should ask. In contrast, consultants believe that they know the answers to most questions in supply chain. I like facilitating groups to help them work better together.

I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to study the evolution of supply chain organizations and processes. I laugh when people tell me that they are supply chain experts. The reason? The more that I learn the more I realize that I do not know. I often reflect on the quotes:

"Ignorance breeds confidence more often than knowledge. “

Charles Darwin

 "It is one of the unfortunate things of our time that those who are confident are stupid, and those who have imagination or understanding are full of doubt and indecision".

Bertrand Russell

I often smile at the number of "supply chain experts" in the industry, and the irony that so much is unclear. I don't have the answers, but I look forward to facilitating meaningful discussions. The issue? With 82% of companies believing that their supply chain systems are underperforming, there is a need for change. While the gaps are clear, the answers are not.

We are all biased by our experiences and our internal paradigms. When we are clear and confident, we stop learning. In the industry, I find too many ex-supply chain executives do not question their own paradigms. The process requires learning from the past to unlearn to rethink outcomes.

Exploring Supply Chain Excellence

If these concepts resonnate with you, consider my open-enrollment, virtual class. I do not ask for money, but I will ask that you sign up to learn and participate in great dialogue. I design the class to enable a safe space for business and technology leaders to work together in groups to answer the questions of "How do we build better systems to help us use outside-in (market data) and improve the supply chain response?" The class is built around two recent reports: The Value of Outside-in Planning and The Supply Chains to Admire. Each company can enroll two employees for the five-week class.

Here is the class curriculum. If you want to join, drop me a direct message and include your email, bio and a picture. The invites and class information are targeted to go out this Friday.

Outside-in Planning Curriculum

Classes are virtual through Zoom. Each participant will be assigned a study group and invited to a LinkedIn group to facilitate networking.

Logistics:       Americas class 9:30-12:00 EST (Monday)

                     Europe/Asia class 7:00-9:30 EST (Wednesday)

                     Open Mic 9:30-11:30 EST on Fridays.

All classes are recorded and shared through the LinkedIn Group. Both groups can meet together in an open mic class on Friday mornings to network and ask questions.

The classes combine business, technology, and consulting leaders in a non-selling environment to question the basics of supply chain planning.

 February 26/(28) Class 1. What is supply chain excellence?

A review of case studies of Supply Chains to Admire award winners. Discussions with the supply chain leaders that outperform to understand why they believe they beat their peer group sector. For more insights check out the Supply Chains to Admire summary deck.

Focused learning. Discussion of engines/models/taxonomies. Evolution of planning and the current taxonomy.  How can the taxonomy be redefined based on the art of possible? How does this redefine work?

Homework: What Defines a Good Plan?

March 4/(6)       Class 2. Aligning for success. Measurement.

How do we align organizations by the redefinition of metrics? What is value? What is performance? What is improvement? Open discussion on the sharing of work by Georgia Tech professors on balanced scorecard options to improve value. Which metrics make the most sense by industry segment?

 Homework: How would you use a balanced scorecard in planning to improve value-based outcomes?

 March 11/(13)   Class 3. Mapping demand streams.

The transition from a time-phased data paradigm to conceptualize demand as a value stream. Learn the language of outside-in-demand processes. (Demand latency, market drivers, shaping/shifting, baseline demand, bullwhip impact, etc).

 Homework: Using COV and volume as insights, map the river of demand for an organization. Build a river of demand.

 March 18/(20)   Class 4. Bi-directional orchestration and redefining supply

Understanding variability and the impact of the bullwhip. Sensing, translation, and process latency.  How to define and drive bi-directional orchestration. What is the role of inventory in the outside-in process? Hear directly from the testers. What can we learn? Unlearn?

 Homework: Build a use case for bi-directional orchestration and an unlearning matrix.

Build a taxonomy for an outside-in planning process.

 March 25/(27)   Class 5. Wrap-up and next steps

Sharing of homework and insights. How do we drive unlearning and build a guiding coalition?

 Homework: Write a Wall Street Journal article.