Supply Chain Fundamental Rethinking

Customer needs drive Supply Chain to design its Products & Services. Over the years, customer quality needs have become tighter and tighter. Supply Chain, particularly the Supply side of Supply Chain, has initiated control measures to meet the new standards of performance.(e.g. from "Percentage" to "Parts Per Million" was a dramatic shift) Consistency of Quality is an extremely important measurement. Consistency in outcome is predominantly a function of "Processes & Systems". In Indian organizations, particularly the SME sector, the customer organizations demand of consistent high quality it often met with Supply side being stressed to meet those expectations. An example which I bumped into the other day offered a point to reflect on this phenomenon. A few years ago, when a customer bought an agri product, e.g. Watermelon, customer expectation of the product quality predominantly hinged on the "Appearance" (Red in colour) and Taste (sweet

Demand is the trigger for the Supply side of the Supply Chain. Supply side Strategies, Tactical plans & Operational execution activities are predominantly a function of the Demand side of the Supply Chain. The sanctity of the demand figure goes a long way in determining the performance of the Supply side. When it comes to accountability though, in many instances the Demand subordinates itself to the dynamics (or chaos!!) of the market place while Supply side is always the one which bears the brunt of not being able to meet the demand. More often than not, Supply side of the organization has experiences similar to what the Indian Healthcare system is experiencing at this very moment. I see a lot of analogies which can be leveraged to improve enterprise Supply Chains holistically. a. Demand is random but Supply is a Structure - Demand arises randomly, particularly if its a New Product. Responding to such cases the Supply side very efficiently develops new sources of supply, creates