MIT-CTL Supply Chain Strategy is an independent newsletter published by IOMA with the mission to drive competitive advantage by linking corporate strategy and supply chain management. Its 12 issues each year shepherd senior executives from a broad cross section of industries and corporate disciplines through developing a strategy that defines how their supply chain should work.
The management of a company's lifeline— its supply chain—underpins its competitiveness. Organizations that understand this, and fuse corporate strategy and supply chain management to create a strategic asset become market leaders. Yet many enterprises—and otherwise sage business leaders—still fail to make this crucial connection. Supply Chain Strategy exists to help both leaders and laggards bridge the gap between supply chain professionals and the boardroom.
Tata’s Market-Driven Supply Chain;
A Road Map to Collaboration;
Face[To]Face: SCS Q&A: Staying Top of the Class;
[Re]Searching for Answers: Keep Thinking Agility;
[Back Page] Double the Watch in Stormy Seas
In a field as fast-moving as supply chain management, it is difficult to pinpoint defining moments, but a likely candidate is the unveiling of the Nano car by India’s Tata Motors on Jan. 10, 2008.
Chances are you have been involved in supply chain collaboration initiatives that yielded some gains but missed the mother lode of cost savings originally envisaged. Aligning trading partners’ interests is difficult and gets tougher the deeper you go into the relationships involved. A detailed road map that guides you every step of the way would help—and that is what leading companies in the retailing industry are developing.
Staying Top of the Class
Staples’ Dan Marous on the importance of supply chain
Staples Inc., the world’s largest office products company and inventor of the office superstore concept, achieved record first quarter 2008 sales of $4.9 billion and opened 38 new stores worldwide and continued industry-leading growth in its delivery business in the same period. Much of the organization’s success can be attributed to the performance of its supply chain.
Take a bow for making supply chains agile enough to counter the complexity of globalization. But don’t celebrate for too long: The economic downturn heralds the return of inventory and capacity issues that you ignore at your peril.
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to get intimate with your supplier network. Many vendors are being squeezed in the vise of rising costs and declining credit. Hopefully most will survive; those that don’t could deliver a nasty surprise if you fail to detect their distress signs.
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