Supply Chains Companies Have Been

Supply Chains Companies have been only moderately successful in implementing successful supply chains. Describe in some depth two (no more) of the major obstacles that you believe have inhibited success in building effective supply chains. What (in your opinion) is the single most important action for companies to take to assure success? Explain. Of the many challenges that impede the ability of companies to successfully implement their supply chains, the most difficult are transforming existing supply chains into more lean and demand-driven, alleviating wasted processes and time as a result.

The second is the challenge of globalization and its effects on a supply chains' ability to provide accurate and responsive support to multiple manufacturing locations, according to Mike Ledyard, Bill Keough (et.al.). The third most challenging area of supply chain development and improvement is the development of suppliers' collaboration initiatives that promote the concept of higher levels of transparency both between suppliers and manufacturers and also between suppliers themselves.

The Toyota Production System is an example of a collaborative supply chain system that also supports many quality management processes as well. Collaborative supply chain initiatives that include support for quality management are increasingly becoming important to manufacturers as they support multiple production locations according to Mu-Chen Chen, Taho Yang, Hsin-Chia Li (pp. 524). In conjunction with collaboration at the supplier level the priority of creating a high level of supply chain system integration from the planning through execution phases are critical.

The strength of integration in any supply chain is tested by the demands of launching a new product as well. Burkett (pp. 12 - 13) specifically discusses how critical supply chain collaboration and the synchronization of suppliers in support of a new product introduction. Of these many challenges to increasing the effectiveness of supply chains, the most critical one is determining how to make processes more efficient and less wasteful both in terms of time and demands on the organizations' resources.

The concept of the demand-driven supply chain (DDSN) as defined by AMR Research (Burkett, pp, 12 - 13) is based on an analysis of the worlds' top 25 performing supply chains. From the analysis completed to define the DDSN concept, it was found that organizations progress through a maturity model from having essentially isolated departments and suppliers, to a highly integrative network of suppliers with systems and process integration both between suppliers themselves and with customers.

At this highest level of the DDSN Maturity Model, supply chains have becoming in essence "learning organizations" that have the ability to interpret supply chain performance and key performance indicators (KPIs) and learn what works best for the group of suppliers an d the manufacturers they collaborate with. DDSN-based supply chains are capable of interpreting and responding to sources of demand from orders across multiple manufacturers accurately and at low cost. The competitive advantages of having a DDSN supply chain are significant and not easily replicated by competitors.

Discuss the roles of technology, collaboration, and trust in supply chain development and management. The ability to generate and sustain trust both with suppliers and foster trust across a supplier basis is foundational to the success of any supply chain strategy n the long-term. From this basis of trust and a concentrated focus on streamlining processes that enable communication between manufacturers and suppliers, technology is often introduced, albeit selectively.

It is erroneous to look at technology in the context of supply chain management as the panacea; rather it needs to be seen as the enabler of efficiency and inter-supply chain collaboration, quality management, and supplier relationship management. Technology is only applied to supply chains after the fundamental relationships and trust have been defined, along with a culture that is unique to the collaboration within a given supply chain.

The culture that has emanated from high quality standards that Toyota has placed on suppliers and the development of the Toyota supplier base as a learning organization over just transaction partners. Toyota has rigorous standards for defining their suppliers and use technology including many forms of online collaborative applications to further support their quality and egalitarian approach to managing their suppliers (D R Towill, et.al.).

Toyota's best practices focus on the selective use of technology to further support their strategic objectives of enforcing very high quality standards, adherence to their internal processes for performance and execution of supply chain functions, and the ability of suppliers to create their own learning community. Technology and its collaborative aspects are then used to strengthen the trust and interdependent nature of the supply chain.

Studies have shown that that the higher the level of collaboration and resulting trust, the higher the level of transaction velocity and accuracy throughout a supply chain. The ability of technology to create this level of transparency and trust through the use of collaborative tools including.