Ten SAP supply chain management (SCM) best practices
Published April 17, 2012
The supply chains at most organizations have become longer over time and contain more partners than ever before.
These longer supply chains are the result of vertical integration strategies yielding to first outsourcing and then off-shoring. In addition, organizations continue to add more products, more suppliers and more plants or distribution centers. They have also evolved their customer and product mixes, implemented new postponement or replenishment strategies, or simply scaled in volume, leading to a significant change in the structure of their supply chains.
As the assumptions used in the initial supply chain model change over time, its model and processes are not likely to keep pace with the changes. What was once a smooth and efficient supply chain can begin to show weak performance metrics. As organizations seek to improve their supply chain metrics, the key question is what best practices they should adopt.
These longer supply chains are the result of vertical integration strategies yielding to first outsourcing and then off-shoring. In addition, organizations continue to add more products, more suppliers and more plants or distribution centers. They have also evolved their customer and product mixes, implemented new postponement or replenishment strategies, or simply scaled in volume, leading to a significant change in the structure of their supply chains.
As the assumptions used in the initial supply chain model change over time, its model and processes are not likely to keep pace with the changes. What was once a smooth and efficient supply chain can begin to show weak performance metrics. As organizations seek to improve their supply chain metrics, the key question is what best practices they should adopt.