Organizing operational assets and making long-term assurances regarding production and supply related risks is not just enough to create a global supply chain that can successfully survive in this world of growing complications and uncertainties. In addition to this there are considerable organizational challenges as well which is because of the influence of sales team, marketers and product developers on decision and activities of any company’s supply chain group and vice versa.
The end results are nothing by greatly disturbed trade-offs. Is it that the company should move its product to a manufacturing facility of reduced price to save money if it is to increase delivery times? Wonder the results of cutting down the company product portfolio in order o reduce manufacturing complexities and costs could suppress marketing efforts to reach the customers. When do the advantages of superior customer service affirm the extra operational expenditure needed to deliver it?
The fact is supply chain, sales and marketing managers always take such trade-offs through their own perspective which usually leads to misinterpretation and disagreements. Recently a McKinsey survey of international executives revealed the failure of functional groups to know their impact on one another as the potential cause for inability to collaborate to resolve major supply chain trade-offs.
Ineffective collaboration has always been a sore spot of supply chain but sadly its costs are hiked significantly. If it is hard to have a consent on correct response to disorder in supply chain today, it will become much more difficult in the coming time when the companies will be dealing with interconnected supply chains when each one would be needing a separate solution. Also take into the account the long and short-term supply chain trade-offs executives need to balance in the world where a business unit may have to shift its manufacturing lines to a costlier near-shore location in order to build capacity as a caution against future concerns about labour and transportation costs.
If such issues and other supply chain related queries need to be sorted out, it is necessary to have a hands-on attention from CEO and other company leaders. Probably this can be initiated by working together of executives so as to discover the place where information sharing and teamwork will have the greatest impact. Then look at the three biggest collaboration worries which we usually observe and witness how the companies are abridging organizational differences to make flexible and capable supply chain.