MIT Supply Chain Strategy is an independent newsletter published by IOMA with the mission to drive competitive advantage by linking corporate strategy and supply chain management. Its 12 issues each year shepherd senior executives from a broad cross section of industries and corporate disciplines through developing a strategy that defines how their supply chain should work.
The management of a company's lifeline— its supply chain—underpins its competitiveness. Organizations that understand this, and fuse corporate strategy and supply chain management to create a strategic asset become market leaders. Yet many enterprises—and otherwise sage business leaders—still fail to make this crucial connection. Supply Chain Strategy exists to help both leaders and laggards bridge the gap between supply chain professionals and the boardroom.
If you are intimidated by the idea of lifting your supply chain out of the transactional weeds and turning it into a competitive weapon, then take heart from the journey that wireless network company Alltel embarked on.
Brightstar rises with the wireless industry
In this month’s cover story, we describe how wireless company Alltel transformed its supply chain to keep pace with a rapidly evolving industry. Another change provoked by the industry’s development is the emergence of a new breed of supply chain service provider, exemplified by the rise of Brightstar Corp.
A guide to moving transportation
When companies experience a decline in profitability, a shift in business priorities, or a major change in management, they are often forced to rethink and change their transportation strategies to reduce costs. But balancing the trade-off between the immediate cost of switching strategies and the long-term savings can be challenging.
Technology that brings partners together
High-level collaboration that involves the sharing of strategic information between enterprises is the Holy Grail of supply chain planning, but relatively few trading partners have achieved such a level of integration. That could change with the development of a technology that removes a formidable obstacle to collaborative commerce: resistance to sharing sensitive commercial information.
How to make consistency pay
There are countless ways in which you can raise the efficiency bar, but here is one that you might not have thought of: introducing more consistency to your inventory counting practices. Sticking to a regular routine when tallying inventory is one of those rare ways in which you can actually improve productivity without incurring
cost.
As the recession bottoms out or—depending on your outlook—gathers steam for a second dip, the game of picking the likely winners and losers becomes more urgent. Here is one candidate for the winner’s circle that you will not see in any Wall Street financial forecast: supply chain collaboration.
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