Supply Chain Fundamental Rethinking

The dynamic (i think almost chaotic ) nature of the operating environment in India has created a need to identify new set of parameters to succeed in future. Actually the term 'Success' is also being redefined. Although to leverage global experience is useful, the success in managing Supply Chain comes from possession of knowledge of indigenous practices of Supply Chain. India by many means represents unique set of evolving parameters in Strategically aligning & Operationalising Supply Chains to deliver the Goals of enterprise. It looks like a set of parameters need to be appreciated for making success in the times to come. My imperatives for Indian Supply Chains are (& far from being all!), Adopt a Supply Chain Excellence Model - Businesses have long been developing practices of Business Excellence predominantly around Quality & Productivity. Life needs to move further up where the money is & Supply Chain is where the money is. This is the period of

Business cycles come & go. And if history is any evidence then the cycles also get 'repeated'. The nature of the cycles undergoes a time frame change & a characteristic change although the broader 'structure' remains the same. Arguably the goal of the organization also shows continuity over the history & the overarching goal although is 'creating / preserving stakeholder value' the more commonly understood goal is 'Profit' . The current industry cycle seems to be of demand contraction hence decelerating revenues & profits. I was wondering what may constitute a 'Profit Protection Plan' for organizations. My five point agenda for Profit Protection is; a. Target Volume - It is unlikely that one enterprise has a capacity which exceeds more than quarter of the total market demand. Need to redefine markets & start selling more to the ones who you didn't sell. b. Price - Think 'service'. This is where the

Organizations undertake improvement initiatives. The expected outcome of the improvement initiatives is to bring about a positive change in the performance of the entity. The initiatives range from incremental and consistent to breakthrough improvements. The initiatives are titled differently. Sometimes it is a radical BPR, in some other instances it is adoption of Lean practices or in some other it may be Six sigma. All these lead to a structural change in the processes and in certain instances policies of the organi z ation undertaking the initiative.  In most of the cases, these initiatives would impact the entity which initiates the improvement initiative. e.g. a large OEM undertaking an initiative to be 'Lean'' or some OEM implementing a 'Pull Based Replenishment system'. These systems bring about a change in the way the organi z ation now plans the flow of the product. The initiatives like pull based system or vendor managed inventory or Kanban put the