Due to the immense resources required to bring complex products to market on a global scale, supply chain professionals must foster earlier and closer supply-partner relationships to stimulate the intimate collaboration needed to realize the mutual value that can be created from lean extended-enterprise concepts.

Companies who fully integrate a formal environmental management system (EMS) can reap significant benefits internally and externally in terms of a sustainable supply chain strategy, while other plants struggle with sustainable development, integration, and compliance.

The Launch Director of a rocket destined for space relies on a series of signed-off instructions before a rocket is “go for takeoff.” These operational checklists are meticulously reviewed to assure each flight is executed safely and flawlessly. Similarly, manufacturers must maintain a robust process to efficiently and effectively assess suppliers’ capabilities, operations, and financial stability both early in the supply-building stage and post sourcing to ensure successful production launches and ongoing operations.

The best performing supply chain operations in the world didn’t start out as highly efficient profit centers. Through struggle and sometimes failure, leading companies have refined, adapted, and improved processes to meet the needs of the organization and customers.

A high functioning business team can disrupt an industry by creating value via developing new products that contribute to new growth for an organization. A company’s supply base is similar to building a talented business team in that it takes time and resources to identify, qualify, and engage world class supply partners that can contribute to co-creating value for the organization. A robust process and the supporting systems for identifying, qualifying, and engaging suppliers can create a competitive advantage for companies and allow them to out innovate competitors.

The key to successfully managing logistics comes from a well thought out strategy on how companies will reach the consumer base. Logistics & Inventory Management is a very critical supporting function on how these activities will be executed. Recent studies show that nearly 50% of businesses surveyed continue to see logistics as a nonstrategic business function, while the other 50% are investing in developing logistics as a competitive advantage.

This blog post is the continuation of our Identifying the Factors for Successfully Managing Supply Chain Risks - Factor 4 – Performance Metrics (Part 4 of 5) research post. Our recent study to better understand supply chain risks focused on the structure, implementation, and maintenance of a formal system for managing risks in the supply chain.

A make versus buy cost analysis involves comparing all of the costs associated with fulfilling a supply need (making) a good or service in-house against the cost of fulfilling a supply need (buying) a good or service from an outside supply partner. The common factors that companies consider in a make versus buy decision include proprietary knowledge, capabilities, quality, capacity, labor, volume, timing, and cost.

This blog post is the continuation of our Identifying the Factors for Successfully Managing Supply Chain Risks - Factor 3 – Process Management (Part 3 of 5) research post. Our recent study to better understand supply chain risks focused on the structure, implementation, and maintenance of a formal system for managing risks in the supply chain.

This blog post is the continuation of our Identifying the Factors for Successfully Managing Supply Chain Risks - Factor 2 – Supply Chain Organization (Part 2 of 5) research post. Our recent study to better understand supply chain risks focused on the structure, implementation, and maintenance of a formal system for managing risks in the supply chain.