By Andrew K. Reese and Sarah Murray
Spring this year brought a faint thaw in the global economic deepfreeze, as little by little slightly less negative data began to trickle out of disparate sectors.
Supply chain executives have been laser-focused over the past year on reining in inventories, driving down costs and otherwise ensuring that their companies sustain the least negative impact from the current downturn. That's understandable: We're all in survival mode. And "saving the enterprise" literally means finding innovative ways to save jobs, save market share, even save the company itself.
However, as the economy starts ticking upward again, enterprises will be turning to their supply chain functions to begin ramping up supply quickly and agilely to meet increased customer demand. "Saving the enterprise," in this case, means that supply chain executives already must be working today to ensure that their business strategies are not focused solely on "short-term survival" but are truly positioning the company for sustained growth moving forward.
The winners in the next lap of the economic race are likely to be those enterprises that have spent the recession putting in place the people, processes, technologies and partnerships necessary to meet the requirement not just of the current downturn but also of the next upswing in the business cycle.
In this year's article, we turn to the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 to give you their best advice, and even some real-life examples, to not only help your company in the short-term, but also position your company for the inevitable growth to come.
4flow AG
(Berlin, Germany)
Prepare your supply network for the future by redesigning it today to take into account not only the current economy but also future logistics challenges, such as rising fuel costs and the need to reduce carbon emissions.
Aankhen Inc.
(San Jose, CA)
www.aankhen.com
Focus on the "shouldbe cost" of each cost element that makes up the total cost of procurement to expose inefficiencies across the supply chain across multiple functional organizations contributing to cost such as product engineering, procurement, logistics, finance and manufacturing.
Acsis, Inc.
(Marlton, NJ)
Investigate solutions to extend the functionality of manufacturing and warehousing systems to eliminate inefficiencies in manufacturing, supply chain, warehousing, outsourcing, data collection and transaction processing.
ADR North America, LLC
(Ann Arbor, MI)
www.adrna.com
With travel budgets tight but the need for training as high as ever, leverage e-learning programs that allow staff to improve their competencies and help you fill critical skills gaps.
Amitive
(San Mateo, CA)
Explore whether a community supply chain management solution can help you synchronize "real" demand with "lean" supply and gain real-time visibility across your trading community.
Aras
(Andover, MA)
Look into open source solutions that can reduce upfront capital expense for technology while also reducing risk and remove barriers to scalability.
ATC Logistics & Electronics
(Fort Worth, TX)
If you have complex logistics requirements, including returns management and "Six Sigma"-level standards, consider a 3PL with a track record serving other demanding customers in your industry.
Basware
(Stamford, CT)
www.basware.com
Tackle procure-to-pay automation as a whole, not just discrete parts of the process, in order to gain better visibility into the financial supply chain.
Blinco
(Toronto, ON)
A global supply chain requires tools that provide the visibility into a product's global lifecycle necessary to make decisions in response to continuously changing economic trends.
Blue Sky Technologies
(Coppell, TX)
When operational expectations vary outside of company-configured complex event tolerance levels, make sure you have solutions in place to alert, track, trend and analyze the exceptions so that you know exactly where to focus your efforts.
Bowen & Groves
(Mulgrave, Australia)
www.bowen-groves.com
Small and midsize companies should look for enterprise planning solutions that are flexible and fully support customization to ensure that the company's most valuable and unique business processes can be handled with ease.
BravoSolution
(Milan, Italy)
Leverage a "collaborative sourcing" solution for strategic categories like transportation and packaging to allow category managers to work with their suppliers to identify ways for both parties to operate more efficiently, thus producing natural savings without unduly squeezing supplier margins, ensuring savings today and a stable supply base tomorrow.
Bristlecone
(Milpitas, CA)
Supply chain systems can fall out of sync with the business environment, leading to inaccurate demand forecasts and supply recommendations and unnecessary risk. Consider a managed service to access expertise to maintain business rules, algorithms and models within these systems without having to hire new resources.
Cadec Global
(Manchester, NH)
Extend supply chain control into the cabs of your trucks by deploying technology to automatically collect data on driver behavior and vehicle location/speed in order to optimize fleet performance, maximize safety and improve supply chain visibility.
CDC Software
(Atlanta, GA)
www.cdcsoftware.com
Use technology solutions to integrate scheduling, operations, quality and maintenance as a way of unlocking hidden capacity on the factory floor by managing production scheduling in real time, pinpointing the causes of plant inefficiencies and providing immediate feedback on key operating metrics.
CHEP
(Orlando, FL)
You invest in quality, and so should your suppliers. CHEP is investing $160 million in quality improvements to enhance its customer service relationship by buying new equipment, improving its information technology equipment, and repairing and upgrading the roughly 100 million pallets it owns in the Americas.
CIMTEK
(Needham, MA)
New product introductions are ever more critical for building revenues, but quality must remain at the highest levels. Quality lifecycle management solutions can enable predictive and diagnostic product quality management across entire product lifecycles, lowering the cost of high quality while speeding market launches, keeping brands protected and improving overall financial performance.
Click Commerce
(Chicago, IL)
The parts managed by field service organizations are vital to customer loyalty and profitability, but companies must leverage technology to optimize/lower this inventory while improving key service metrics.
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