Aberdeen sees poor supply chain visibility as a top exec concern
by Randy LittlesonIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Aberdeen has just released research that found poor supply chain visibility as a top concern of executives (see articles at IndustryWeek and Manufacturing Business Technology).
I’ve read the report and found it interesting, but very narrow and tactical in it’s focus. The overwhelming majority of the report was focused on providing better visibility of where end products were in terms of shipping - when it would arrive at the customer for example.
I certainly agree with the report’s statements that visibility alone is not enough and that you need to leverage visibility to drive sustainable improvements in customer service and operating performance. I also agree that there’s an increasing focus on “externally focused supply chain processes.” And, the report also says that “companies are foremost concerned with improving customer satisfaction and reducing cycle times and lead time variability to lower inventory and operational costs.”
The report lists top pressures for improving supply chain visibility and shows the leader (68%) as the “need to improve on-time delivery performance” and also lists “want to improve ability to make midcourse corrections” (46%). I would argue that these two are quite linked. The ability to make midcourse corrections is essential to improving on-time delivery performance and many other aspects of the business. What I see happening quite frequently is that a company builds a solid plan, then the phone rings. The ability to make midcourse corrections is essential to satisfying the customer on the other end of the phone - and the ability to make midcourse corrections is not simply a matter of visibility. They require collaboration and deep analytics that understand the impact of any proposed course correction.
The report lists a bunch of obstacles to achieving visibility. I agree with what’s there, but would also add that one of the biggest obstacles to day is that fact that much of the data resides at a third party, and external supplier for example. This is touched on a bit under the technology point they make, but there are other issues like a fear of being micro-managed by that supplier that are also real.
So, in net, I thought the report was useful, but it was narrowly focused in my mind. I think there are a lot of areas that require visibility and areas that are very strategic in nature. And, I believe, visibility is a pre-requisite but not an end-point to solving critical business problems.
