Our experience has shown that many companies want to look to the future, but are missing the key foundational components necessary to be successful.
Common reasons for missing these foundational components include:
- Lack of a transformational roadmap for the supply chain organization that is aligned with business objectives and vetted with business cases to ensure the company remains on its strategic path
- Rapid growth often triggers a “we’ll capture that data later” mindset, especially with organizations that are in a race to build out their infrastructure to meet demand
- Growth through M&A without tying together the operational systems results in extensive manual processes, spreadsheets, and gaps
- Not getting the most out of yor current systems due to poor change management or misaligned incentives
- A perception that it is too expensive to catch up, which results in shortcuts that, in the short term, save time and money
- Exclusive focus on core competencies (i.e., manufacturing, gathering/ processing, customer service) at the expense of supply chain, limiting innovation and maturity growth
- Traditional supply chain and procurement leaders can get so focused on volume and the workload required to operate the business that they become complacent or don’t know how to make the changes required to drive efficiency
- Not looking outside the company to take advantage of industry or cross-industry thought leadership on how to accurately structure a procurement and supply chain organization for cost savings, planning, and growth
We recently published a guide that explores six of the leading trends in supply chain, as well as the importance of having a strong foundation to support them. You can download it by clicking here or filling out the form below.
Businesses that maintain a supply chain are faced with challenges, especially if the supply chain is missing some key components. The goal is to identify what these missing pieces are and then take measures to fill in the gaps. It certainly helps to understand why the components were missing in the first place!