Supply chains are global - do your employees think that way?
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Sherry Harris has written a piece entitled “Are Your Supply Chain Management Employees Thinking Domestic or Global?” over at CEOConsultant.com.
One of her comments regarding employees is “they should understand the following principles: a) competition is no longer among independent companies but instead about connected supply chains b) supply chain competition is global c) winners will be companies that best integrate and achieve commitment to supply chain excellence among diverse organizations.”
The article brought to mind two comments from high-tech companies over the past year or so. The first was a brand owner who acknowledged that when they did all manufacturing internally, it was relatively easy to figure out how to respond to an unexpected customer demand, they simply walked down the hall and told their people they had to put in a little extra effort to meet this important customers demands. They acknowledged that this was much tougher to do in a globally outsourced environment with multiple parties involved. The other comment was from an executive at a contract manufacturer who previously had worked at brand owners. He acknowledged that “once a company outsources, it’s amazing how they seem to forget what it’s like to manufacturer and how their expectations increase dramatically.”
Both of these comments and Sherry’s comments reflect the growing challenge of successfully manage a global supply network. Supply chain management today is a function of being able to respond to change across this complex, distributed environment. My sense is that although companies have been outsourcing for some time, they are just now fully coming to the realization of what it takes to succeed in this environment. It takes a hands-on approach to proactive communication and coordination for all parties to succeed and, as Sherry points out, it requires supply chain management staff to be thinking globally.
