Global Supply Chain

May 26, 2010

Blinco Systems Inc. is proud to be selected as a leading supply and demand chain solutions provider in 2010.

The Honor:

Supply & Demand Chain Executive has identified leading providers of supply chain services and technologies who are customers/clients achieve supply chain excellence and prepare their supply chains for the post-recessionary return to growth. Based on submissions to the “100″ from end users and solution providers, the editorial staff of the magazine has compiled a list of leading supply and demand chain innovators.

“Our goal with this year’s ‘100,’ as in the past, is to highlight a broad range of solutions and services targeted at a variety of industries, addressing the needs of companies of varying sizes, and assisting in the transformation of a diverse mix of the functions that make up the supply chain,” added Reese.

After receiving nomination forms, the Supply & Demand Chain Executive editorial staff identified applicants that best fit the stated criteria for the “100.” Final recipients are featured in the cover story of the May/June 2010 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, as well as online at www.SDCExec.com/SDCE100.

In the Logistics Management magazine issue of 05/19/2010 Michael Levins (editor) published parts of interviews he conducted with four (4) supply chain analysts on current trends in Supply Chain Execution.  While a vast majority of the respondents to the Logistics Management 2010 Software User Survey are using some variation of supply chain software, the analysts imply that there is still a way to go for Supply Chain Organizations to achieve synchronization across their supply chains.

Of the four interviews, the interview that resonated most profoundly with me was with Dwight Klappich, Analyst and Research Vice President at Gartner.  He puts forward the concept of Supply Chain Execution (SCE) Convergence as the next iteration for companies that are moving toward supply chain execution excellence.  In a nutshell SCE Convergence is the cross functional integration and synchronization of processes, sub-processes and activities within the organization.

Dwight acknowledges that although companies have been able to gain improvements within silos from their current SCE solutions, achieving greater levels of excellence and the resulting benefit require the orchestration of end-to-end processes like selling, buying, making -to which could be added – accounting, finance, inventory control, transportation management, and compliance.

However, in order to achieve SCE Convergence, companies will have to significantly stretch themselves beyond what their current SCE systems offer.  SCE Convergence is achievable through a multi-functional supply chain architecture that supports the company’s end-to-end supply chain processes (operations), manages supporting data and information, and provides a comprehensive 360 degree view of the entire operation in an on-demand environment.

SCE Convergence requires system(s) that are designed to integrate, orchestrate, and enable (all) the processes and sub-processes that make-up the Supply Chain.  SCE Convergence enables operators across the supply chain to access information (push or pull) that is critical to fulfilling their functional responsibilities, provides managers with a comprehensive and contextual view of their sphere of responsibility, and supports organizational decision making and action.  SCE Convergence provides senior management with command and control of their business by providing information that is meaningful and actionable.

SCE Convergence is not new in practice.  However, few in the supply chain have successfully implemented SCE Convergence solutions because the mainstream ERP applications and the newer SaaS solutions have not approached the supply chain in a holistic, integrated manner.

Few truly supply chain organizations have implemented comprehensive supply chain execution solutions.  Those companies that have been successful have what Dwight calls SCE Convergence solutions that enable operators to work within their silos and insure that the validated information required for management planning, decision making and action is available when needed.

True SCE Convergence solutions enable companies to manage the entire Cash-to-Cash cycles within the context of their ERP solutions or independent of them.  They enable the streamlining of processes, the optimization of fulfillment with inventory, the control of costs, and the increase in compliance within one orchestrating software application.  True SCE Convergence provides the framework for intercompany integration and extra-company synchronization.

Stanford University professors Warren Hausman and Hau Lee and TradeBeam associates Graham Napier and Alex Thompson released, in October 2009, a detailed study on Global Trade Management (GTM) focusing on the complexity of the global trade environment.  In the report they detail  the >100 processes related to a global transaction and the value proposition for managing the processes efficiently and effectively.  The report,  “How Enterprises and Trading Partners Gain from Global Trade Management” is chock full or process flows, charts and formula that provide extensive insight into what is actually required to affect a global trade transaction.  For any practitioner or student aspiring to excellence in the area of  GTM, this document is a must read .

Their conclusions as to the benefits – translated into % savings in annual costs and % increases in annual profits for both importers and exporters – should be enough to make any senior executive involved in Global Trade Management take note, if not immediate action.

• Dollar savings amounting to 1.7% in Annual Sales for Exporters
• Dollar savings amounting to 0.6% in Annual Sales for Importers
• Benefits amounting to 28% increase in Annual Profit for Exporters (assuming profit = 6% of sales)
• Benefits amounting to 10% increase in Annual Profit for Importers (assuming profit = 6% of sales)

The downside of mismanaged global trade management exposes a company to direct costs (such as fines for non-compliance), and hidden costs (such as greater inventory safety stock, increased product obsolescence, lower productivity, higher customs fees, lost opportunity for duty-drawbacks and supplier/logistics claims.

To achieve the annual savings and benefits, requires IT-enabled solutions that streamline the processes required to execute complex, simultaneous global trade transaction.  To streamline the import and export processes requires two (2) vital capabilities:

1. The ability to seamlessly integrate processes across the internal organization and external partners, and
2. The ability to seamlessly synchronize information between the required actors so that they can efficiently execute their work and insure that shipments move effectively through the multiple processes.

The challenge in optimizing the global trade management environment is primarily that of streamlining complex processes.  With the myriad of cross-functional and cross-company interactions necessary to execute GTM streamling processes is virtually impossible without enterprise IT-eneabled GTM support.   IT-enabled GTM support will enhance organizational effectiveness and efficiency by enabling:

• operators to execute their work efficiently with minimal reliance on outside resources for their supporting information (streamline process)
• partners to share critical information collaboratively in (near) real time – suppliers, customers, 3rd party logistics providers, warehouses, customs, and financial institutions
• seamless information sharing across internal silos,
• total visibility of product and financial transactions across the entire global supply chain,
• full total cost control,
• comprehensive compliance management – regulatory and business,
• user centric analytics and reports, and
• real-time collaborative capabilities.

Global Trade Management is a relatively new discipline.  Over the passed several years several “GTM” solutions have matured and are deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.  However, these GTM solutions while supporting some GTM functionality, and in some instances extended GTM functionality, all are still somewhat specialized in their offerings and are dependent on larger ERP systems for the core business processes.  In order to achieve GTM excellence requires an enterprise-wide approach.   However, even with the interfacing of the current SaaS GTM offerings most of the ERP solutions do not have the robust functionality required to provide a comprehensive solution.   The journey is most often difficult and costly and the results deliver less than promised or expected.

Because of the unique orientation of enterprise Global Trade Management, there are still very few IT-enabled solutions that provide ture  enterprise capability.  The enterprise level GTM solutions are provided mostly by small and mid-size solutions providers and not the large GTM “best of breed” or enterprise solutions.  This simple reality presents the most fundamental challenge to a company achieving  GTM excellence – dealing with a small or mid-size enterprise-capable GTM  solution provider.

The recent study  by American Shipper magazine and AAEI, “ISF Benchmark Study: Achieving Complaince – Against All Odds”, presents some revealing benchmarks when it comes to meeting ISF compliance requirements on January 26, 2010.

The benchmark study highlighted 5 key areas that separates winners from the general population of importers:

• Will be ISF compliant by the January 26, 2010 enforcement date.

• Have a high level of confidence that their ISF filings are timely, accurate and complete.

• Keep total cost of ISF compliance below $100K per year.

• Pay <$25 per filing.

• Make amendments to contracts and service agreements to incorporate ISF compliance.

The ability to meet CBP ISF compliance is predicated on several key elements:

1. Having a system in place that helps the importer assure the suppliers are providing the ISF information in a timely manner that does not delay shipment cycle time.  The survey highlighted that delay in shipment cycle time due to ISF information reporting was a major concern for importers with the implied additional cost associated with a delay.

2. Being able to capture ISF supplier information electronically or through an electronic facsimile.  The ability to easily validate information and where necessary request amendments or updated ISF information quickly.

3. Preparing the ISF filing without, or with minimal, manual intervention.

4. Submitting the filing electronically to Customs or a Customs Broker.

5. Monitoring ISF filings status to insure CBP compliance.

To be a winner requires the ability to manage the entire process efficiently and economically.  Winners have software  solutions that streamline process and integrate information flow to ensure   data flows from suppliers and is convertedto meaningful information without significant manual intervention.  The system is able to validate the information to insure that all required data elements are recieved.  The solutions provide alerts if there is incomplete information requiring attention.  Finally, the system should automate the conversion to the ISF details for electronic transmission to the defined filing system.

However, achieving winner status is not likely achievable without a supporting IT infrastructure that provides  supplier PO shipment planning and execution visibility and the ability to monitor ISF information submissions.

Blinco Systems has implemented 3 systems with clients that are considered large (and approaching mega) filers by CBP.  Each client had their ISF solution implemented within 60-90 days and have achieved >99% accuracy on their filings within the time constraints required to comply with CBP.  Furthermore, with full visibility into their suppliers’ shipment schedules and ISF filing performance, they have experienced virtually no degradation in shipment cycle time due to the information flow.  Finally, and most importantly our clients have been able to fully automate the ISF process and reduce costs dramatically (<$5.00 per entry).

A quick slice of news from Procurement Leaders in the article “Experts warn firms losing sight of operations due to supply chain outsourcing” highlights the “Rule of Unintended Consequences”.  In this case, the outsourcing of either or both manufacturing and supply chain activities to 3rd parties was intended to increase efficiency and reduce total cost across the supply chain while relieving the company of supposedly non-core competencies and streamline operations.  In theory this works well.  However, as many organizations are discovering, without adequate systems in place to provide the capability to command and control an outsourced environment, the unintended consequences often lead to a significant lack of responsiveness and a meaningful increase in inventory and cost across the supply chain.

Outsourcing supply chain activities does not mean outsourcing responsibility for supply chain performance.  The issue of visibility is an important (but not the only critical) element in gaining control over the supply chain.  However, visibility into outsourced operations is more difficult than it might first appear because of the number of participants that must be monitored and the shear breadth and differences of activities  that must be executed across the supply chain.

It is important to realize that in the context of supply chain management, visibility is an outcome of information.  Because of the complexity of all but the most simple supply chains, it is virtually impossible to maintain a manual system and achieve a reliable and  meaningful level of supply chain visibility. Therefore, it is imperative to have systems in place that can capture the information from all the required sources and put it into a context that is meaningful to the user.

While I fully agree with Andre Pino, Marketing Director of Acsis, that “… new automated data collection and collaboration technologies can provide visibility and restore the management control over their demand-supply networks and minimise disruptions and operational errors”, the effort to achieve world class capability is not simple.  To achieve the results that he alludes to implies the ability to:

• collect and validate the information from all participants across the supply chain,
• distribute it seamlessly and make it visibile to the individuals who are responsible for monitoring and managing the supply chain,
• enable real-time collaboration with all required parties (both internal and external) for information sharing and problem resolution,
• and support action as required

True operational visibility across an outsourced supply chain will only be achieved if the organization has systems in place that synchronize information from multiple sources.

Narendra Mulani who heads up the Accenture Supply Chain Management service line wrote in the August edition of Logistics Management on Operational and Technical Excellence in the supply chain.   He highlighted six (6) areas where supply chain masters excel:

• Order Capture enabling a fulfillment team to view the status of available inventory (on the floor and incoming) to support order scheduling and fulfillment
• Inventory Management which provides insight into inventory availability and supports the allocation and reallocation of inventory to optimize order fulfillment and customer relations
• Warehouse and Transportation Management that automates warehouse processes and supports automated management of rate quoting, equipment constraints and lead-times with carriers
• Reverse logistics and Returns management to improve faulty products and services
• Technology and Data Integration to leverage information across the entire fulfillment system, and
• Analytic tools that support sophisticated collection and analysis of information and improve decision-making.

Today, with the available technologies there is little excuse for companies not achieving operational and technical excellence.  There are small, medium and large software providers of sophisticated integrated fulfillment solutions at solutions at almost all price points that bring supply chain excellence capability to virtually any organization that wants to see their business excel.  The benefits to achieving excellence can be readily supported with a return on investment analysis.

The journey to achieve operational and technical excellence in the supply chain might appear daunting but with the right partner and commitment to the outcome the results are very achievable and the rewards exceptional.

The next wave in global commerce will integrate and synchronize the supporting technologies, people and processes to create a comprehensive platform that responds quickly to the dynamics of the global environment whenever meaningful change occurs. Command and control over global commerce will mature as visualization, collaboration and execution competencies evolve and are tightly integrated to provide one version of the truth through multiple user-defined views. The integration of these three components enable management, operators and strategic partners to quickly view both the activity and financial impact of global supply chain events, draw the appropriate inferences from the information, collaborate with each other for optimal decisions, and implement action to resolve the issues.
1. Visualization tools provide the personalized views needed by all involved actors as to what is happening across the global supply network, ranging from event monitoring, workflow and exception-based alerting to highly sophisticated BI and Reporting tools. The more simple visualization tools provide the operator or manager insight into statuses but limited context. More sophisticated reporting and BI tools add the layers of increasing contextualization to the information with the value-add of dynamic orientation.
2. Collaboration tools built on web 2.0 structures, allow users to create teams/communities on-demand, around specific issues or projects that are contextualized by the integrated visualization components. The collaboration tools will go beyond traditional document sharing to enable virtual meetings among knowledge holders and actors that drive solutions that will optimize results across the entire supply chain.
3. Execution management refinement will continue to drive and streamline global commerce. The newer global commerce management execution tools bring together the vital components of global sourcing and distribution, global trade management, global financial management, trade compliance, global logistics, and total cost management in a tightly integrated and synchronized environment insuring full organizational control.
Today, many of these tools exist in one state or another. The visualization tools are maturing quickly with strong capabilities to view and contextualize information through sophisticated analytics, dashboards and scenario capabilities. Collaboration tools are still relatively immature, and their adoption has been limited. Execution tools while highly developed are mostly fragmented among many offerings and don’t provide one control-centric platform. In only a few cases are these three components tightly integrated and synchronized to provide the optimum value proposition.
The next wave in global commerce management will bring together these three basic components to insure many views (visualization) of one truth (standardized information) can be quickly shared among an authorized community of stakeholders (collaboration) to deliver solutions for the timely action required for optimal resolution. When visualization, collaboration and execution capabilities are tightly integrated and synchronized, organizations will achieve full command and control of their global activities and drive the promised values.

The global commerce landscape is markedly different than it was only 2 to 3 years ago. Available solutions provide global trade management, visibility, track and trace, compliance and landed cost either as a SaaS, hosted or traditional licensed model. Yet, companies still struggle to fully command and control their global commerce environment to drive the exceptional values promised.

The next wave of global commerce solutions will enable the shipper or logistics’ provider to drive exceptional competitive advantage by leveraging a true command and control capability over the organization’s extended global commerce network.

Command and control is a military phrase. While command and control often connotes a top-down hierarchy for decision-making and action to achieve a defined military objective, it’s more broadly understood to be the marshalling of resources for information collection, situational clarification, decision support and action.

In true global commerce management, command and control gives seamless integration to an organization’s resources to be able to view, orient, decide and act with timely and rapid organizational effectiveness. A command and control capability enables the streamlining and synchronization of the organization’s people, processes and technology — with analytics and visibility in a highly developed collaborative environment. The results are an organization that is highly flexible and adaptable in a rapidly and ever-changing global environment.

Four fundamentals must converge for an organization to truly command and control its global business environment and achieve the values promised. Systems must:

1. capture and present the underlying information required by operations and management. This requires clean data that supports multiple user-defined views of an organization’s business in an on-demand, right-time environment.

2. provide standardized contextualization of information through analysis and visualization so that individuals responsible for task execution or decision-making can orient themselves quickly to the issues requiring resolution.

3, support on-demand collaboratiion with internal and external partners based on shared information that is contextualized across diverse partners.

4. streamline decision processes and enable timely, decisive action. Acting decisively requires the ability to collaborate with all affected partners so that full transparency and traceability exists on the final command and follow up actions.

Management of global supply networks requires three tightly integrated capabilities -– visualization, collaboration, and execution — in order to support the four basic competencies of command and control: view, orient, decide and act. While each capability is important, the real promise in delivering optimal value from the global supply network happens when a company can execute comprehensive command and control over all participants, activities and costs across its entire global business environment.

Scenario 1: A large global 2000 company (it really doesn’t matter which industry) views itself primarily as a manufacturer. It has owned manufacturing facilities on several continents that manufacture most of the company’s products. It views its competitive advantage as being able to streamline its manufacturing facilities. However, because of competitive pressures for lower prices and the need for flexibility it has started to outsource some of its products to 3rd party contractors. It distributes its products in over 30 markets around the globe.

Scenario 2: A large global 2000 company views itself as a marketer of branded consumer goods product. It contracts out almost all its products to contract manufacturers that are located around the globe. It sees its competitive advantage in its research and design. Its brand is distributed in over 50 countries around the globe through a combination of owned distribution centers and direct sales forces and 3rd party logistics providers and independent sales channels.

These company profiles are caricatures of two business paradigms. They have defined themselves in old world business models that will shape the way they execute their business strategies. The company in scenario 2 reflects a more contemporary view of the world. By decoupling itself from its manufacturing component it has opted for flexibility over control. The company in scenario 1 is more representative of an industrial age company that focuses on manufacturing as its competitive advantage and sees control of its manufacturing environment more important than flexibility over its business model.

The traditional ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, QAD, Axapta) are more geared to the companies in scenario 1 than 2. However, when you are seen to be the only game in town you will still be the dominant player with the scenario 2 players.

There are many companies on the continuum from pure manufacturer to pure product/brand distributor. The companies in these 2 scenarios are simplistic in their nature. The reality is that there are no pure business models or best business models. What is important is that companies recognize that they play a role in the supply chain from the raw material to the end-consumer and managing their supply chains effectively and efficiently will provide real competitive advantage opportunities.

The Supply Chain Council definition of the supply chain applies to every company that exists, whether product or service centric. The SCC defines a company’s supply chain as everything from its supplier’s supplier to its customer’s customer. Indeed the product supply chain is a series of these company links, with each company of the chain managing “stuff” from its suppliers to its customers.

ERP systems inherently look at a company from within the four walls. Basically the ERP solutions are enterprise resource planning tools for each independent location with global accounting and financial capability, localized distribution management, and some inventory control tools. ERP systems primary orientation is to most effectively support the physical, human and financial resources within the manufacturing facility.

Supply chain focused companies are designed to look at how product moves to the customer from the supply side most efficiently and effectively. Supply chain focused companies strive to manage the flow of product from their suppliers (raw material, semi-finished, or finished goods) through their facilities (manufacturing plants or distribution centers) to meet the demand requirements of their customers.

ERP solutions weren’t developed and still don’t look a company from a holistic supply chain perspective and therefore fail to deliver a comprehensive global supply chain approach for companies to manage their business. While the major ERP solutions have significantly enhanced their customer and supplier focused capabilities there fundamental orientation and design has always been from that of a manufacturer.

Globalization has fundamentally changed the way the world functions. With globalization and the outsourcing of much manufacturing and many services, global companies must take a global supply view to excel. Success will not be defined by how well a company controls the flow of product into and within its four walls. Success will be determined by how well a company designs its supply chain to “flex” to the ever-changing competitive environment in which it exists.

Obviously no two companies are exactly alike. They have differing leadership styles, physical structures, goals and objectives, and values. However, what they all have in common is the need to buy products and services from suppliers, add value to them, and sell them to customers. This has not changed over time. However, as the world becomes more “globalized” the way companies construct and manage their supply chains to support their unique buy/sell environments will determine their competitive position.

I can hear the pragmatists screaming – What are the tangible benefits we will get from a global supply chain approach to our business? Show me the money! If I believe what you say what do I need to do to get a solution that supports my current and future plans as we continue to go global?

I can hear the realists screaming – I have a major investment in my ERP solution (we are talking $10’s of millions) and getting rid of it is not an option. What are my options if I want to transform my company into a global supply chain capable organization while still protecting my investment in my ERP solution?

In my next few blogs I will lay out:
1. the value proposition that almost every company can achieve by managing their organization with a powerful global supply chain orientation
2. the secret ingredients needed to build great global supply chain excellence
3. the reason that global supply chains are different and much more complex than domestic supply chain
4. the high level blue print as to what is needed to achieve best-in-class global supply chain excellence.

I have just returned from visiting several potential clients and I am still surprised how despite the discussions by consultants, analysts and the media about the need of companies to manage their business as an integrated enterprise demand/supply chain most still view their environment from a “within the four-walls” perspective.

While controlling activities within the four walls is essential, and indeed the foundation, for managing the company – purchasing, manufacturing, resource planning, sales, distribution and financial management are only several of the critical elements needed to insure success. I believe it can be argued that by focusing the vast majority of resources on these functions, organizations are ultimately short-changing themselves and indeed jeopardizing their competitive positions.

During my visits I met several companies that are just beginning or are in the midst of a major ERP implementation with the leading ERP vendor. These are large multi-billion dollar companies that are leaders in their industry. They are spending tens and hundreds of millions of dollars for the ERP software and the attendant implementation services. They are spending tens of millions more on their own resources required to support the implementation. More importantly for the next several years the companies ability to move forward with other IT initiatives is frozen so that they cannot even look at improving their externally facing environments.

These are not unique situations. This situation has been repeated time and time again and the results while meaningful have generally been less than expected.

This view is not meant to diminish the need for companies to strive to achieve excellence in their resource planning, manufacturing, distribution and finance capabilities. However, by focusing enormous amounts of both financial and human resources on ERP solutions instead of a comprehensive supply chain strategy companies limit their strategic options. This has never been truer than in our current globalized economies where outsourcing of manufacturing and logistics has become a competitive necessity for most companies.

I think that there is little room to argue that resource planning in support of manufacturing and distribution is essential. But I think that a greater argument can be made for a complete supply chain strategy of which resource planning and manufacturing play a more balance role in terms of insuring that the right product gets to market efficiently and effectively.

Several factors have dramatically altered the business landscape in the past 5 years. Firstly, globalization has created a powerful incentive for companies to look for raw materials, semi processed and finished goods from anywhere in the world that is price sensitive (and what products are not price sensitive today) and where the quality is acceptable. Secondly, outsourcing of many strategically critical activities, including manufacturing, have changed the way business must be managed. Most large and medium sized “manufacturers” are now hybrids of owned and contract manufacturing and logistics. Even in the “owned” manufacturing instance, companies have off-shore plants that require different planning, execution, monitoring and logistics tools to insure that products flow through the supply chain to meet the distribution requirements of the organization.

A complete supply chain view of the world requires that companies look at what their markets demand in the way of products and services and then create the appropriate infrastructure to insure that all activities required to support customer/consumer satisfaction is achieved while the company makes the required profit to sustain viability and adequate or superior returns for its stakeholders.

In my travels to clients and prospective clients issues that constantly come up are related to insuring that the right product is delivered to the right location at the right time and at the right price. The problems are more about resource execution than resource planning. Forecasting and planning is an essential part of the supply process and constant monitoring of the demand environment to drive better forecasts and planning is essential. Although forecasting has its own considerable challenges, companies must still manage their supply to meet the constantly changing demand environment regardless of the veracity of the forecast. From an execution perspective the ability to match supply with demand requires an inclusive view of where product sits across the entire supply chain. The ability to react, as changes in the velocity of demand occur, requires parallel changes in the supply of product to meet the “new” real demand requirements.

I believe that today’s conventional wisdom that ERP is the foundation on which information solutions must be built in order to insure integration of information is too narrow and therefore misplaced and outdated. The foundation for true success in either demand or product driven businesses is the ability to build and maintain highly integrated and adaptable supply/demand capabilities – supply chains that deliver the right product, to the right place, at the right time and price. One needs only look at those companies that have dramatically surpassed their competition in highly competitive businesses; Wal-Mart in retail, DELL in computers, UPS in 3rd party logistics, Zara in fashion retailing. While in highly diverse industries, each is highly customer focused and each has built the best supply chains in their business that allow them to dominate their competitors.

Is this a coincidence? I don’t believe so. I think that these companies are examples of organizations that understand that the entire supply chain must be the focus of their competitive strategy and they must excel across all functional areas within the supply chain. They realize that their ability to excel is only as good as their weakest capability.

Companies that have taken an ERP centric view of their business were initially focused more on execution within their four walls than on their entire supply chain. Today they are finding that this view has been too limiting and results often less than satisfactory. That is why the major ERP solutions providers; SAP and Oracle are scrambling to create supply chain capabilities as adjuncts of their suites. That is why I2, Manugistics, WebPlan and other supply chain solutions are seen as required enhancements to mid-tier ERP solutions.

However, by not having the supply chain as the fundamental strategy of their IT solution most companies have still not achieved the dramatic success that they hoped they would attain when they embarked on their huge investments in ERP.

Which brings me back to the feedback from my travels. Inevitably the issues I hear from virtually all members of a cross functional team is that their ability to control and execute across their supply chains is compromised because they don’t have visibility into points across the entire supply chain. With their current ERP and supply chain solutions they have achieved better control over what goes on within their immediate manufacturing facility and they have been able to optimize what inventory is required at the manufacturing facility or distribution center. They have achieved greater visibility and execution capability over their financial execution and visibility with their ERP solutions than the pre-ERP implementation state. However, most companies lack the ability to manage and gain visibility into inventory supply availability and execution at remote or 3rd party contract manufacturing facilities across their diverse supply chain networks.

The bottom line is that in order to truly optimize the value proposition for the organization inventory must be controlled and optimized across the entire global supply chain while meeting the demand requirements of the customer. Whether the organization model is fundamentally manufacturing or distribution the ability to minimize inventory while insuring maximum fulfillment across the global supply chain is critical to drive value.

Today’s ERP approach just doesn’t do it.

So what is required to achieve an optimal level of global commerce management?

The answer lies in building a highly flexible, adaptable supply chain environment that can respond quickly to demand requirements and minimize resource requirements in the process. It requires a fully integrated information environment that provides the organization with a 360-degree view of their environment. There is a blueprint for achieving this highly integrated, synchronized global supply chain environment at
Creating Value from Global Commerce Management.