Word Salad Spin
Word salad is a term used to describe a confused or meaningless mixture of words and phrases. Supply chain leaders are guilty of word salad spin. With the spring conference season in full swing, attendees can put their hands in the air (roller coaster style), take the ride, and then return home scratching their heads.
Do concepts like autonomous supply chains, antifragile supply chains, artificial intelligence (AI), control towers, digital supply chain transformation, probabilistic planning, and real-time visibility add value? Or do they merrily add momentum to improve the gyration of the ride? In my opinion, they add to the gyration. Sadly, word salad spin cycles have grown in my lifetime.
Over time, I watched waves of hype pass through supply chain narratives. Few drove value. I have listened to speakers waft eloquently about the value of concepts like networks, big data, ERP II, industry 4.0, and digital supply chain transformation. Did these investments drive value? I don't think so. My 67 quantitative studies over the past decade do not support a value transformation from the many varieties of digital programs.
Today, I watch as thought leaders push new concepts. Tech companies rally. Most lack clear definitions, and the delivery of value. Without tangible results, the concepts evaporate over time. AI is everywhere, but nowhere. Each concept has a cycle, typically with a large investment, but leaves no fairy dust residue. An opportunity cost to the industry.
Will they prove valuable in the future? I don't know. (I could write a blog about each story, but let's save that for coffee. I will be at the Consumer Goods Forum in Chicago on June 11-14, and Kinexions on June 16th-20th in Miami. If you are there, let's grab one. I like mine black.)
What Drove Value?
To get past the word salad spin, actively test and learn. Make sure that all concepts have clear definitions before embarking. Embrace design thinking. Actively test outcomes.
When I reflect, the investments that I believe drove the greatest value in the last five years were the shifts in Advancements in Sensors, Cloud Deployments, Improvements in Warehouse Management for E-commerce, Narrow AI, NoSQL, Ontological Learning, Schema on Read, Vector DB and Streaming Data, and Visual Analytics. Supply chain blockchain deployments largely failed.
In contrast, as I look back, network technologies became self-serving with limited interoperability. Industry consolidation reduced value. Companies are slow to adopt/define digital passports and embrace standard adoption. While we talk about ESG, few are actively building digital identities for the company, nodes, and products. ERP platforms became more complex and inside-out. Success in supply chain planning was in pockets. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think drove value.
I struggle with why companies focus on the upgrade cycles of conventional ERP and APS versus rethinking the technologies to improve value based on the Art of the Possible. I am continuing to work on the testing of outside-in planning concepts and will publish a report in the fall on the current state of technologies to support the evolution to an outside-in approach. I am also excited about the work on defining value through metrics regression testing with Georgia Tech and the understanding of "What Drove Value in the Last Decade" in testing with the data science group at the University of Wisconsin. Let me know if you would like to attend the small event, we will host in Atlanta in late fall to discuss the mathematical representation of value by industry based on the testing.
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Stepping Past Word Salad
If you are interested in kicking the word salad into the garbage and innovating, actively learn and clearly define terms and outcomes. Consider participating in the outside-in planning pilots, building a balanced scorecard based on an operating strategy, investing in digital identity for your corporate supply chain, and use of large language models to test and learn to improve role-based proactivity in the areas of customer service, product quality, and security. If you have a question, drop me an email.
Until next month. Take care of yourself. Please don't accidentally throw your back out in the word salad spin at most conferences right now.
If you missed a blog post during the month of May, here I share the links:
Supply Chain and Operations Excellence Leader | Leading teams and influencing others to deliver on quality and cost initiatives
2moGreat read - AI (and similar) solutions need to deliver value, which is traditionally measured using our standard metrics (on-time performance, fulfillment, etc.).
Consulting & Industry Executive | Practice & Business Growth | Global Supply Chain: Consumer, Industrial, Manufacturing | Private Equity / Investments | Digital Transformation | Change Agent
2moNailed it, Lora...seems a lot of this is more about a company's desire to coin the new term first to appear innovative in the market space (drive sales), when reality is its a normal advancement of a current situation that is trying to be sold all over again. Also completely agree with your take on blockchain.
Supply Chain Analyst, Center of Excellence at Penn State Health
2moThank you for saying out loud what many of us say on the sidelines. People use many words to say very little.
Chairman & Managing Director
2moAlways the best info and analysis on Supply Chain. Thank you Lora