Supply Chain Visibility: Consistent with Supply Chain Digest’s own research, the IBM study finds that while improving supply chain visibility is rated as a high priority, many companies are not backing that need with a strong level of programs and investments.
“Making matters worse, the majority of those who have tried to improve external visibility describe their efforts as largely ineffective,” the report says, “making external visibility projects the least effective of all initiatives executives are undertaking.”
It’s not technology that is the problem, the report notes, but rather organizational silos.
“We were shocked so many executives reported that their organizations are too busy to share information or simply do not believe collaborative decision making is that important,” the report says.
Risk Management: Managing and mitigating risk has moved high on the CSCO agenda, in many respects with the supply chain taking on some of the responsibilities for risk management that was formerly shouldered by the CFO.
This concern for mitigating supply chain risk has been building for years, and has little to do with the current tumultuous financial times per se.
“Although it may be exacerbating concerns, the current economic environment was not the impetus for this response,” the report says. “Instead, this sentiment was built from thousands of recall headlines and a deepening realization that globalization and greater supply chain interdependence have not only elevated risk, but also made it more difficult to manage.”
It notes that it is very difficult to manage performance and risk together. 31% of respondents say they do that, but we suspect the real number is probably lower if the definition was accurately applied.
The report says “top supply chains are taking risk management a step further – incorporating it into their plans and using IT to monitor and act on disruptive events.”
Customer Demands: The report notes a basic truth: most companies integrate and collaborate better with their suppliers than customers.
We will note that even this implies a one-way street, since everyone is also a customer of their suppliers, and vice versa. So the sense must be that the collaboration with suppliers is taken from a narrow view of what is best for my company.
Not surprisingly, the report notes that leaders do more joint forecasting and collaboration with customers than do the laggards, but this section of the report is the most vague. We would have liked to seen more detail as to what this really means – and what the real barriers are to more companies doing it.
Globalization: Here is an interesting number: more than one-third of the executive respondents said supply costs have actually gone up as a result of global sourcing rather than down, the result of long lead times, quality issues, etc.
Many companies are looking at globalization more as a chance to grow revenue and enter new markets than simply as a sourcing opportunity.
The report also finds a big gap between the companies that felt the least “pain” and greatest financial gains from their globalization efforts.
Part 2 of the report presents a vision for the “Supply Chain of the Future” – we will look at that next week.
Do you agree that these are the 5 areas that should comprise the “supply chain executive agenda?” What would you add or subtract? Any comments on what companies are doing in any of these areas? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.
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Supply Chain Trends and Issues: Our Weekly Feature Article on Important Trends and Developments in Supply Chain Strategy, Research, Best Practices, Technology and Other Supply Chain and Logistics Issues 
Consistent with Supply Chain Digest’s own research, the IBM study finds that while improving supply chain visibility is rated as a high priority, many companies are not backing that need with a strong level of programs and investments.
