Strategic Supply Chain Management @CSCMP 2010

Yesterday I finished the “Strategic Supply Chain Issues” Pre-Conference Workshop “Where Tactical Functionality Meets the Big Picture”. The following key points were intensively discussed:

• Fundamental SC Strategies: Operational Excelence (eg. Walmart), Customer Intimacy (like Zara) and Product Leadership (example: Apple)

• A broad view on customers has been propagated, customers equal stakeholders
• Lean SCM, premise: Thinking of inventory as being without (direct) value for the customer, a strong focus on flexibility and inventory reduction therefore is necessary
• Introduction to the method of value stream mapping for Supply Chain Analysis as a Basis for Supply Chain Design
• Supply Chain Design: The network should be checked permanently for necessity of change
• As the subtitle of the workshop suggests the right communication of the strategy is of the utmost importance. The optimal balance between short term actions and long term strategy have to be sought (without being disaligned)
• Importance and categorization of Collaborations (Vendor-Buyer, Focussed, Partnership, Alliance)
• Planning (S&OP)
• SCM Metrics
• SCM Future

But of course there are many, many more things. A really new thing I learned about the definition of core competency:
It’s the “capability to kick their ass”.

Disclaimer: The experiences described here do not necessarily reflect the my views and I haven’t found a singled peer reviewed reference. But that’s business, isn’t it?