It’s not unusual that top management’s expectations and the supply chain practices are out of sync.
Year in year out, the business needs to go strong for the near and future development, yet the supply chain as backbone stays at the status quo. It becomes weaker to support S&OP, it doesn’t adapt to the new environment, new requirements, rather it pulls the rest of the business to adapt to itself at huge costs! There might be responses to some pop-up situations, overall the machine is running wearily.
At a time, when sales might well be limited by the global pandemic, the lightening up of supply chain operations shall give business big relief and let the business accumulate strength for the tipping down the channel.
To fulfil solidly the supply chain goals, there are 2 important aspects on top of what were previously covered under this subject.
▲ Land the goals at the smallest and farthest points
At the quiz of counting ‘f’s, a big percentage of people (from a typical participating group) omitted ‘f’ in the small word ‘of’ and only got 3 x ‘f’s. Total is 6. （btw, the quiz does not assess IQ, more for picking up people’s habitual attention.)
The SC goals or expectations are pointless if the front line members have little understanding or little involvement.
It’s also pointless if what the team members received are empty concepts or sidetracked initiatives.
▲ People are at the core of the ultimate happening
Once well structured, people at all levels of posts are important. They need to be filled with purpose, be motivated, have that drive and be proud to be involved in the big picture.
Leaders are responsible to foster a positive, inclusive, encouraging and resilient culture within the team and across.
More, abundance mindsets and context need to be set up.
People of a scarcity mindset put up walls around them, may well be resistant to the changes and improvements to be implemented. They need to understand it’s no longer zero-sum gaming time. It’s a time all members are encouraged to reach as high as they could on performance, that the whole function and the wider business are getting stronger at the same time, which in turn ensures team members career growth and success.
The SC leader, who is to lead and establish such a culture needs to be the first to have the mindset and the broad vision to work towards the functional growth with internal members and external stakeholders, in line with the strategic business goals.
Neither of the above is easy. It's well worth the tenacity and diving in. This is the way leading to people's well being, business growth and ESG excellence.
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