Supply Chain Fundamental Rethinking

Supply Chains have always relied on the Western World models and in certain instances - Japan. So the configuration of Supply Chains draw a lot from the practices in that way of working, including the approach to improvement initiatives of Supply Chain.  A close analysis of the yesteryear's Supply Chain Improvement models lead me to three conclusions - they are resource heavy, the wish to always be very structured and are unclear of their ROI. Lets take an example of an organisation which wishes to create a Supply Chain Improvement. In all probability it creates a Steering committee which in turn creates a sub-committee which in turn leads to Team players who in turn will ask people to generate ideas. This idea collation leads to idea screening & by the time one implements the idea the time consumed in the  life cycle of an idea, cost of Management time involved in decision making & more importantly assumption about the market environment (which is dynamic)...

It looks like the world has got frenzied about the 'customer' & the customer is believed to need everything 'cheaper' today than what is was 'yesterday'. Supply Chains of the world undergo a structural to meet the challenge of cost reduction. China being the 'Plant of the World' & India being the 'Back office of the world' made the western geographies set their supply chain nodes in these countries. These countries thrived on the export of work from the West to these countries. As  inflation in these countries coupled with the infrastructure bottlenecks increase over a period of time the competitive lever of 'cost' would move to some other geographies as these countries may not be the 'least' cost provider of goods & services. Particularly in India where the policies have been such that the cost of electricity, gas or oil along-with the real estate in many parts is more than the cost in US of A. It looks appar...