White paper makes the case for “plug and play” supply chains that move beyond efficiency to growth
Years of globalization, growth, mergers, acquisitions and changing customer behavior have taken their toll on supply chains.
New research by DHL Supply Chain found that, as a result, 32% of firms are currently operating more than 10 discrete supply chains. Operating within this complex supply chain web proves to be inefficient, costly and can slow speed to market. It also provides little to no agility to respond to real-time market dynamics and exposes firms to quality gaps and risk.
According to the report titled “The Plug-and-play supply chain: Beyond efficiency to growth” the solution lies in an approach that standardizes 70-80% of supply chain operations at the core of a business. The balance then consists of tailored solutions to meet a segments’ specific market needs.
These standardized supply chains are based on smart segmentation strategies – i.e., segmentation derived from analytics around critical factors such as customer and product profitability, market/geography requirements and service parameters. They are designed to support and enable growth and competitive advantage – not just to cut costs or improve efficiency.
Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents report their companies are pursuing supply chain standardization – the plug-and-play approach. The goal is to reduce complexity and cost and increase agility. In many cases, this effort results in fewer discrete supply chains.
To learn more about supply chain solutions for your business, visit ProMat 2017 – April 3-6 in Chicago.
