Philip Barton and Associates
White Papers I’ve been writing some White Papers, and accumulating information, about topics relevant to ERP and Manufacturing. Supply Chain Overview and ConceptsSupply Chain Management and World-Class Performance Measurement The Supply Chain is a complex, integrated web of relationships among suppliers, distributors, and customers that a company relies on, to make and sell their products. Many of these relationships are difficult to measure or assess in terms of usefulness, quality of performance or value added. The Supply Chain can be viewed as a portion of a typical Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) environment. This article identifies some key metrics that can be used to help measure performance in managing the Supply Chain in an ERP environment. This is from an externally published article on implementation "failures", and points out useful suggestions to optimize the process. Often, years after implementation, there is a need for re-training, due to large-scale changes in employees and staff, and/or a change in focus in terms of the business plan itself. I believe that there is a need to maximize value in the current application, before incurring expense in seeking alternatives.
The Customer-Focused Value Chain Building a value chain means integrating every facet of the supply and demand chains, to deliver maximum value to customers. The added values of an integrated technology solution include: The ability to serve new markets The ability to gain and service new customers The ability to provide existing customers with innovative new products The ability to offer a higher service level. Improved business intelligence Many Supply Chain solutions tend to focus on the back-end, with functional modules such as Advanced Planning and Scheduling, and MRP. What's required is more, and better, ways to interact with customers, and to deliver value. Price is no longer the foremost decision factor in Procurement. On-time performance, and responsive customer service, has become the new paradigm. |
