Supply Chain Europe

Q: How well are supply chain professionals doing in becoming more influential in their companies?

A:  State of Flux has seen a number of recent factors that have helped the Supply Chain Professional in their quest for influence within the organisation;

1    The current outsourcing focus

2    The tighter economy leading to a focus on cost improvement

3    A realisation of the Supply Chain 'multiplier effect' i.e. every £1 saved goes directly to the bottom line

There is however room for improvement; the Supply Chain Professional have started 'talking the 'C'-level talk' (CEO, CIO, CFO, etc), however they have yet to start 'walking the walk'. That is, we are seeing the key Supply Chain messages getting to the board or executive team, but we are still not seeing the Supply Chain Professionals taking full responsibility for the entire Supply Chain within the organisation, we are still not seeing the Supply Chain Professionals doing the basics well and we are still seeing some of the old 'tactical buyer' mentality coming across.

Some key focuses for 2004 will be; balancing the 'self promotion' aspect with the reality of how much improvement is actually needed, Getting the business to further understand the part that the Supply Chain Professional SHOULD play and to be open to the challenges the these professionals will put to them and doing the basics well, i.e. ask yourself do you actually know how much you spend on your categories (no not an approximation  - exactly how much!!), has your team mapped out the Supply Chain process flow and do you actually have visibility (let alone control) of ALL your organisations spend.