10/03/2017 | Press release | Archived content
What does "think differently" mean? For many supply chain organizations, the past decade has required a lot of different thinking. From the global financial crisis to the devastating tsunamis across Japan and Southeast Asia to the avian flu outbreak and more recently hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, have forced supply chain leaders to think differently in times of great risk. At the same time, the rise of the more informed customer has placed great pressure on supply chains to deliver higher quality products faster and cheaper with greater levels of service.
To visualize her "think different" call to arms, Lora highlighted an exercise she conducted during one of her training programs where she asked participants to draw their supply chains. Sounds relatively straightforward right? However, Lora pointed out that every single supply chain drawn started with the supplier and branched out from there. The center of the supply chain universe, according to these drawings, was the supplier. Think differently flips this around and places the customer at the center.
Regardless of if you sell directly to consumers, wholesale or direct to other businesses/manufacturers, the customer is the life blood of your organization. It is critical you place them at the center and design networks and processes that will most cost-effectively satisfy them while driving profitable growth for the business.
As part of the "think differently" approach, Lora also highlighted five key trends from Supply Chain Insights' research.
How have you started to think differently in your supply chain? Are the five trends Lora highlighted significant to your business? Let us know at [email protected].
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