Management Questions

The following list of questions about supply chain characteristics can be used as a beginning benchmark of how well your company is progressing with supply chain management.

• We clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of our current supply chain sub-processes and have developed action plans for improvement?
• We have defined our supply chain improvement objectives and have unwavering management commitment to achieve superior performance in our industry?
• Our Supply Chain system provides high quality, relevant and timely information flow that effectively supports decision-making for inventory replenishment, capacity activation and for synchronizing material flows at all tiers within the supply chain?
• Supply Chain process operational responsibilities are well-defined and personnel are thoroughly trained and cross-trained?
• Our supply chain does not operate on “push” technology rather it is based on “pull” to actual demand?
• We have dismantled organizational silos that resulted in cross-functional barriers to high velocity information and material flows?
• We continually pursue improving our supply chain processes by streamlining information and material flows to support short-cycle, synchronized and lower cost performance?
• Our trading partnerships are well-formulated and grounded in strategic supply chain alliance agreements?
• All organizations in our extended enterprise have been trained and developed to perform new roles which require fast, high quality decision-making and material flow?
• We continually review evolving logistical business models for their impact on distribution planning, movement of goods, cost, cycle time and customer service?
• We utilize E-commerce for selling, buying and business-to-business paperless transacting?
• Our information technology provides a system that truly mirrors what we want to do throughout the supply chain?
• Our supply chain has effective techniques for real-time planning, execution and control including the simulation of alternatives to support the short-cycle pull of material through the supply chain?
• We use performance measurements that encourage and reward behavior that improves supply chain performance?
• Our company has developed supply chain management to a core competency level?

Source:
Supply Chain Management: Plan to Succeed
by R. Michael Donovan
The CEO Refresher

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Consider these questions in the context of your overall company, business units, and IT department. Do you have: 

• A focused approach to managing alliances?
• A formal process for creating service strategies?
• A formal process for maximizing sourcing and distribution?
• A new-product development process that considers standard components and processes, and includes suppliers and customers?
• A way to incorporate changing customer needs and new technologies in your processes and supply chain?
• Benchmark tests to measure supply-chain performance?
• A willingness to take advantage of supplier and customer expertise in collaborative planning, delivery, and forecasting?
• Alignment between supply-chain performance objectives and your overall competitive strategy?
• The necessary resources to globalize your supply and demand?
• A systematic process to categorize suppliers based on their capabilities, competencies, and performance?
• Supply-chain systems that link logistics, operations, and procurement with external customers and suppliers?
• A formal supply-chain management function?
• A system for identifying cost drivers and costs across the supply chain?

Source:
Reducing Costs Across the Supply Chain
by Robert Handfield
Optimize, December 2002, Issue 14

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Ask the supplier to respond to the following questions with a rating from one (lowest) to 10 (highest):

• Do you enjoy doing business with us?
• Do you feel we treat you as a vendor or as a business partner?
• Do our employees treat you courteously?
• Are we a larger or a smaller customer for you (10=largest)?
• Do we supply you with enough information about our business for you to do your best work with us?
• Do we give you enough time to fill our orders?

Source:
All the Right Moves
by Tad Leahy
Business Finance, April 2000

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• How do our existing manufacturing capabilities limit or constrain product design? What portion of these constraints is truly unchangeable and what portion is bureaucratic, procedural, cultural, and/or political?
• Will our next-generation (or generation-after-next) products require radically new materials or processes? If so, what are we doing now to prepare our manufacturing organization to incorporate those new materials or procedures?
• How much do our product designers actually understand about the manufacturing process, its capabilities, its leading-edge practices, and next-generation materials and processes?
• How much of the reluctance to experiment with (or even to become familiar with) manufacturing and process technology is driven by real (as opposed to assumed) assessments of costs and benefits? By product strategies that ignore the potential for process-based product innovation? By history, politics, and culture?
• Do our accounting practices unduly limit or misdirect investments in process knowledge and innovation? What might be more instructive or revealing measures of return on investment in process knowledge?
• Do our staffing, compensation, and career development practices contribute to an undervaluation of process knowledge?
• What exactly are the unwritten rules of product design?

Source:
Cash Flow Forecasting: Keeping Your Company One Step Ahead
by Clare C. Jones, CCM
TreasuryPoint.com Knowledge Center

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• If we were freed from the tasks we are doing today, what could we do to increase the shareholder value (in other words, the competitive advantage) of our company?
• What tasks are we doing today that we would be willing to surrender, as long as we were sure they would be handled correctly?

Source:
Directions in Collaborative Commerce: Managing the Extended Enterprise
by John Ferreira
Deloitte & Touche

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1. Which value chain issues are most troublesome for your company (e.g., customer retention)?
2. Which pain points do you have with key trade partners that hurt your revenue potential or increase your costs? Or impede your competitiveness?
3. Which competitive capabilities do you believe your competitors are better at? How critical are these to your business?
4. Do you have visibility of demand, inventory, and/ or product availability issues with trade partners? What have been your challenges?
5. Are there frequent inventory shortages, frequent stock outs, high inventories, or high product costs (driven by the inherent process) that are causing tension among partners? Is this also decreasing customer satisfaction?
6. Do you believe that all critical information required from your key trading partners is made available when needed?
7. Are you seeking to reduce product development time and costs?
8. Are you presently improving the multi-tasking among product design engineers both within and outside your company?
9. Do you have a proliferation of initiatives that utilize different underlying technologies?
10. Has the resulting proliferation of deployed technologies prevented you from scaling or supporting initiatives as fully as you would like? Has this resulted in reduced realization or benefits for the business units?

Source:
Directions in Collaborative Commerce: Managing the Extended Enterprise
by John Ferreira
Deloitte & Touche

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1. Every product has a well-defined service, manufacturing and inventory deployment strategy?
2. We have a comprehensive and effective sales and operations planning process that is management’s throttle on sales, production, inventory and lead-time?
3. We have agreements with key vendors for short cycle deliveries and mutually agreed upon goals for continuous improvement?
4. Will improved supply chain management performance give us the leverage to transform ourselves into market place leaders?
5. Have we redesigned new supply chain management principles, processes and systems to help us achieve our objectives for cycle time reduction, lower inventories, improved service, reduced costs and increased market share?
6. We have clearly defined supply chain management information and material flow processes with quantified objectives for improvement and we are aggressively pursuing superior performance?
7. We have developed the right links with our customers and suppliers and implemented the best supply chain management processes for our company?
8. We can exchange relevant demand and supply information online in real time?
9. Our performance measurement and reward systems are heavily weighted toward a high velocity supply chain with a minimal and inventories and maximum service?
10. We can quickly simulate the impact of material availability on manufacturing schedule performance and customer service using internal and external information? 

Source:
e-Supply Chain Management: Managing The Extended Enterprise
by R. Michael Donovan

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1. Do your suppliers have lower operating costs than yours, and do you get low prices from suppliers?
2. Do your suppliers provide you with product or process innovations?
3. Do your suppliers have products and processes of the best quality?
4. Do your suppliers reduce your costs and risk in product launches?
5. Are your suppliers financially healthy?
6. Do you formulate unique plans for each supplier to help you build competitive advantage?
7. Does your supplier base enable you to take advantage of strategic opportunities to manufacture globally?
8. Do you make appropriate investments to reduce operating cost, improve quality, and drive innovation?

Source:
Building the Advantaged Supply Network
by Bill Jackson
strategy+business, Fall 2004

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1. What aspects of your supply chain have the most influence on your brand promise and your customers’ buying experience?
2. Is your brand promise aligned with your current supply chain capabilities?
3. How can you ensure that marketing executives know your supply chain’s capabilities and limitations while supply chain executives know the brand promise and their role in fulfilling it?

Source:
How Your Supply Chain Can Build or Destroy Your Brand
by Bret Kinsella
MarketingProfs.com, April 20, 2004

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