Why Training?

The options for supply chain training abound. Today, it seems that nearly everyone has a training program. This includes organizations like APICS, CSCMP, IBF, Accenture Academy, and the Supply Chain Council. So, why would Supply Chain Insights offer training? The reason is simple. It is because clients have asked us to provide it. They want a training course for supply chain leaders that allows actionable insights based on independent, objective research.

In the new training course that we have developed, participants will gain insights from the first thirty years of supply chain practices. Through a series of experiential activities, and a look at corporate balance sheet results of supply chain leaders, they will gain the critical eye necessary to sort through supply chain practices. The course is designed to give participants a greater understanding of supply chain excellence.

Participants of the class will gain insights into questions like:

  • Why are companies stuck on the Effective Frontier’s performance plateau of growth, profit, complexity and cycle management?  How do they use supply chain processes to improve their supply chain’s potential?
  • What is the difference between a marketing-driven and a market-driven value network?  Why does it matter?
  • Why is there a need to take demand-driven value network concepts to the next level and be market-driven?  How do market-driven concepts mitigate supplier risk, mitigate the cost impacts of commodity volatility and improve new product launch?
  • How do companies use new forms of data like social and sentiment data to listen, test and learn to shoppers, customers  and consumers?  Who does it well? How can companies use these new forms of data to transform processes from inside-out to outside-in?
  • What is an effective supply chain strategy? And, why is it essential to align horizontal processes to achieve alignment, flexibility and balance in supply chain processes?
  • How will corporate sustainability change supply chain processes?

To make the transition in thinking, the attendees will be asked to Learn, to Unlearn, to then Relearn.

Learn.  Supply chain practices are now thirty years old.  We are beginning the fourth decade of supply chain process evolution. In the class, participants will gain insights from the first thirty years of practice. Combining quantitative and financial ratio research into actionable case studies, Lora Cecere, founder of Supply Chain Insights and co-author of the book Bricks Matter, will facilitate the group discussion.

The course is interactive. It is designed around a series of team-based, experiential activities.  To better understand supply chain excellence, each participant will get a report card outlining how his company performed against peer group metrics of growth, cost, cycles and complexity on the Supply Chain Effective Frontier over the past decade. This will be followed by a lively debate on who did supply chain best. The goal is to drive a greater understanding from case examples of supply chain excellence.

Unlearn. Using case studies, the class will then be asked to draw, and then refine, traditional (supply-centric process)  flows and then modify them to be market-driven.  The discussion will include best practices in demand sensing, demand shaping, and demand/supply orchestration.  Participants will gain insights on case studies of supply chain transformation and learn how leaders have designed and executed the journey to move from inside-out to outside-in processes.

Relearn.  The group will then work in teams to craft an outside-in market-driven journey for their company.  This journey will outline the steps for a multiyear road map, and will detail plans to overcome the supply chain hurdles of the next decade.

We hope to see you there! For more information check out our training page.

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