Market Research

Enhancing Customer-Centric Supply Chains

by Martin Christopher, Emeritus Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield University

An SCM World Study developed in partnership with GXS

Traditionally, most supply chains have been designed from the factory outwards. In other words they were designed to enable the operations of the supplier to be optimized—particularly in terms of costs and efficiency. Now, with the change in the balance of power, the supply chain needs to be designed from “the customer backwards.” The implication of this is that companies have to move away from the one-size-fits-all mindset when it comes to supply chain design and instead recognize that key accounts will require customized solutions that meet their specific needs.

Industry Perspective and Best Practices

The Manufacturing Industry’s War Against Complexity

by Steve Keifer

The optimization of supply chain partnerships, processes and technologies is a key factor in providing competitive advantage for large retailers and manufacturers. However, for the suppliers who sell to and sell through these large organizations, the effect has been anything but supply chain optimization.  No two customers approach supply chain optimization in the same way. Consequently, suppliers are forced to support a myriad of different order forecasting, fulfillment and logistics processes and a wide variety of technology standards for visibility, collaboration and synchronization. These manufacturers are in a battle against the growing complexity in their demand chains. Read more

Complexity in the US Apparel and General Merchandise
Supply Chain

by Steve Keifer

To ensure consistent execution of preferred supply chain processes, the general merchandise and department store sector of the US retail industry has created a sophisticated system of performance incentives for suppliers. The performance management system manifests itself in the form of retailer compliance guides, which outline detailed rules for processes such as Floor Ready Merchandise and Cross Docking. Unfortunately, one of the key challenges is that there is very little consistency between the retailers on the specific metrics being tracked. A typical apparel supplier might have 10 retail customers each of which has 150 compliance guidelines, 5% of which change monthly. Read more

Supply Chain Complexity in the Automotive Industry

by Mark Morley

The automotive industry has a highly globalized and highly specialized supply chain to support vehicle production. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) source sub-systems from Tier 1 suppliers who source component parts and raw materials from Tier 2 & 3 suppliers. Not only is the value chain complex, but the technology standards utilized to exchange information between buyers and suppliers are diverse and fragmented. ANX, ENX, JNX, OFTP, Galia, VDA, EDIFACT, ANSI X12 are some of the major vendors, network protocols and messaging standards utilized by the automotive supply chain. Read more

The Standards Deviation

by Steve Keifer

Someone once said, “The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” The quotation has been repeated for years, somewhat in jest, by various thought leaders in the technology and engineering industries. But it reflects a paradoxical challenge that exists with trying to standardize business processes and technology interfaces in a competitive marketplace. And the B2B e-commerce industry offers an excellent case study for exploring these challenges. Read more

Point of Sale Data Sharing — A Case Study in Standards Deviation

by Steve Keifer

Among supply chain experts there is almost universal agreement that the most important change manufacturers can make to their business models is to become more demand driven. A critical foundation of a demand driven supply chain is the ability to “sense” demand in the marketplace. Yet, despite the widespread agreement on the value of demand sensing for many years, the retail industry continues to struggle with information sharing strategies. One issue is the level trust between retailers and suppliers, who are increasingly becoming both partners and competitors. But trust is not the only barrier. Inconsistent technology practices add significant complexity to data sharing efforts as well. Read more