Where is Supply Chain heading to?

A few days ago an article from a leading magazine regarding where Supply Chain is heading fall in my hands and now I can’t do anything but share with you some of the insights from that article, as I do believe are a condensed extract of what most companies and senior members think about the future Supply Chain and the challenges that will face in the coming years.

A few words kept repeating constantly: multichannel, customer collaboration, strategic role etc.

These are the key messages and conclusions I extracted from the article:

• Multichannel is the future, and the present. Adapting to multichannel is more and more the top challenge by both manufacturers and suppliers. Even though the key focus of the supply chain remains service level, forecast accuracy and cost, these challenges are being made harder by the advent of multichannel.
  
• There has been a change in the way Supply Chain is perceived by the industry and the distributors. From a more tactical vision we are moving now towards a strategic vision of the Supply Chain within the business.
•  Leadership remains the single most important capability, recognizing that it is the people that will drive the change and ensure success.
•  Customer collaboration is the way forward when it comes to improving the Supply Chain, even though the initial reluctantly expected from some customers, sharing information such as sales forecast, promotional and media plans or sell out data will result in a win-win situation for both parties. Manufacturer can expect tangible reductions in stock levels and obsoletes whereas distributors will increase OSA as well as their service level leading to an increase in customer satisfaction overall.

This is it. You know now where Supply Chain is and where is heading. Know is time to try and put in place all look at the future, and the present, with renovated eyes!