THE 6 KEY ASPECTS FOR A MORE COMPETITIVE CHAIN.

August 3rd, 2013

 

 

1. THE 6 KEY ASPECTS FOR A MORE COMPETITIVE CHAIN. a chain of

competitive supply in the market is the challenge of all logistics companies. That

must take into account?

Six key aspects for a more competitive chain

By Jesus Campos Cortes(*)

Keeping a supply chain up to date and making it competitive in the market is a

challenge of all logistics companies. Here are six factors to consider.

The dynamics of today's markets encourages organizations to reinvent themselves with

more often than in the past, reinvention must go beyond strategy and

consider at least the processes, resources, talents and indicators of

performance.

While the supply chain is subject to forces particular to its market, industry

and regulations, there are six key factors that must be considered under the environment

current competitive and these are:

1. Companies driven by demand

The amount of information generated by customers and the speed with which it is

available allows modern organizations to reduce their dependency on

statistical forecasting models and provides planners and designers with information

which should lead to better product design, better customer service and

higher business profitability.

The forecast does not disappear, but is integrated with the information to reduce the

uncertainty and to be able to develop business scenarios that allow organizations to

respond to the market in an orderly manner.

The fundamental objective is to listen to "the voice of the client" at all times to identify

and predict your consumption habits and preferences. Organizations must

take advantage of all contact with the client to glimpse their needs and transmit that

information to all partners in the chain to satisfy them at the right time and

with the required quality.

2. Collaborative and systemic networks

Collaboration is the key to virtual integration. In the search for optimization,

organizations concentrate on fewer activities and rely more on their suppliers

to respond effectively to your customers. Outsourcing will continue to grow as a

competitive need.

Collaboration should not be based on wills, but on formal structures

around systems that guarantee the availability of information in real time to

element of the supply chain that must make a decision that maximizes the

collective benefit to the chain and not that of a particular organization.

3. Agile and scalable structures

Agility is made up of two elements: the ability to respond quickly to

changes in the market and do it in a profitable way for the partners in the chain. The

Solutions must be designed, produced, distributed and sold at the right time

the client demands it, eliminating redundancies, bureaucracy and rework.

While responding quickly to demands is not new, today's challenge is to

achieve this without creating “mega organizations”; the model is based on creating virtual structures

appropriate to the temporary challenge and then dynamically disintegrate them without generating

losses for the participants.

4. Fast flow

The speed with which the chains move information will affect the amount and

availability of materials and services. The challenge is to have timely information in the

right time to only have the amount of product and service demanded by the

market.

We must understand the impact of speed on other critical variables of the

business. To do it quickly you have to do it right the first time, and this impacts quality.

By doing it quickly and well, it is possible to reduce the cost and this translates into better margins,

In addition, the customer's preference is won.

5. Digitization

The speed with which digital information is captured must be accompanied by its

distribution throughout the chain to achieve visibility of demand and supply.

The capture of information must be reduced to a minimum to avoid errors.

Information systems must be able to interpret the information and, through

“business rules”, generate actions without the need for human intervention. Next to

Therefore, these systems must act as supports for decision-making and not only

as data collectors.

6. Environmental and social responsibility

The above five factors have a direct focus on improving the competencies of the organization.

company to profitably serve its consumers and have a focus on

company as a generator of value for its customers and shareholders, however, the

Organizations must also be seen as generators of social value for their

communities.

Organizations must work closely with their communities creating bonds that

provide benefits to both such as the creation of jobs and the consumption of

products and services.

Responding to these trends comprehensively allows organizations to ensure their

competitiveness.

The interdependence of factors

If an organization seeks to implement new operating models or strategies, they must

consider these six elements in an integral way, otherwise the results will not be

the best for today's challenges.

The sequence of integration of these factors could be as follows:

• An organizational culture and systems focused on the end customer should be created.

Capturing the voice of the customer should be a critical task for each and every member

of the organization.

•Collaboration needs must be analyzed with other supply chain partners.

supply to which it belongs, and identify the needs for collaboration and the

systems that will support this way of working.

•Partners must be clear about their values in relation to social responsibility and

environment to ensure harmonious work between them and with the environment.

•With the members of the chain, the market scenarios that

demand agility and scaling of structures to establish specific actions of

each of the participants in these “events”.

•Already with the normal operating processes and the possible scenarios that demand

modifications to the capacity, the digital channels of communication must be defined; the

information is a means and not an end, but its opportunity and clarity makes the difference

between being just a meaningless set of data and generating specific actions with

based on decision-making models.

•With all this structured, it will be possible to achieve a rapid flow of materials that

become a competitive advantage for the chain.

Once the cycle is finished, it must be realigned according to what is demanded by the

customers and assess whether the strategies, resources, talents, and performance indicators

performance remain adequate for these new demands.

Jesus Campos Cortes*

* He is an engineer, CPIM CIRM, CPM, PMP, CPAM, CQIA, CEI, CSCP, CPSM, CPF, PLS;

President of APICS Mexico Chapter; and Managing Partner at Corporate Resources

Management.