When I engage with supply chain leaders , I ask, “Are you making progress?” Most will nod their heads ‘yes’, but upon a closer look at the data they admit they are stuck. Acknowledging this truth is a freeing moment. Why? It is hard work to maintain the status quo in metrics performance. Most leaders are treading water. When asked to do more, they try to deliver. They often fail. A downward-facing…
Holiday travel. Packed airports and the children screaming in unison. Today as I sit scrunched into a coach seat in 26C, working on this blog post and hoping to not spill my coffee on my neighbor, I dutifully type to complete my weekly post. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I give thanks for our clients and the ability to do what we do. Here I share insights on the work…
Slowly, more and more companies are waking up to the cold and hard facts. Financial balance sheet improvements cannot be driven by traditional supply chain processes. In the words of a supply chain leader yesterday, “Lora, please give me stories of success. I have personally experienced the failure. Lift my soul by sharing some success stories.” This is my new mission. Through the next two months I am focusing on…
It was November. I was speaking at a client site. The topic was customer-centric supply chains. We started the morning by asking attendees to share their definition of a customer-centric supply chain. I slowly wrote the definitions on the whiteboard. At the end of the sharing I had as many definitions on the board as people in the room. The only thing that was clear was the lack of definition…
The Supply Chain Insights Global Summit is over, but we hope the energy to define Supply Chain 2030 is just beginning. Our goal is to build a guiding coalition to think differently to improve outcomes. Today only 12% of supply chain teams are driving improvement, performing better than their competitors and driving value (as determined by Price to Tangible Book Value). As companies prepare for Supply Chain 2030, we think that it…
Market-Driven Value Networks: An adaptive network focused on a value-based outcomes. The network senses, translates, and orchestrates market changes (buy- and sell-side markets) bidirectionally with near real-time data to align sell, deliver, make and sourcing organizations outside-in. Today’s supply chain processes are inside-out with a focus on orders and shipments. We have automated transactional data; but there are no systems available to take independent demand data (channel data) and move…
Functional silos define today’s supply chain organization. The silos compete. They lack alignment, and a result, cannot effectively collaborate. This lack of alignment is an impediment to improving balance sheet results. I am a product of traditional, silo-based thinking. My first job was in manufacturing in the 1980’s. I did not understand warehousing and transportation until reassignment to a logistics role in 1985. I needed to experience it to understand…
Today’s supply chain is inside-out. Companies wait and process orders. They cannot sense and respond to demand. It is a struggle. The processes are largely batch and out of cadence with the markets they serve. Increasingly, business requirements are outside-in. The channels are multi-tier and companies are more dependent on outsourcing. Systems are growing more complex. Yet, the primary means to manage trade with network partners is through spreadsheets and email….
This past weekend I decompressed and turned off my cell phone. The concept of being on and available all the time– 24/7– wears on me. I spent a beautiful, brisk, Saturday afternoon building monsters with my grandson, Jake, at the local children’s museum. (I find that even building blocks hold more possibilities today than when I was a child 55 years ago.) As I sat on the cold floor holding the…
Supply Chain Operating Networks: The building of supply chain applications using many-to-many architectures to connect multiple parties to multiple trading partners to improve multi-tier supply chain visibility, planning and execution to improve relationships in extended value chains. The winds of a recession are whipping. Trade winds are changing. Globalization and localization are happening simultaneously. Growth has slowed and customers are more fickle. Yet, the supply chain organization cannot see. The…
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