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Chapter 2: Building Organizational Support for Supply Chain Improvement
Overview
Project planning: Educate for support.Brian Dowell called out of the blue after getting my name from the Supply-Chain Council—which he had located through a web search on the topic. He was looking for some direction for his company, Fowlers Inc., and described enough motivation within the company to justify making a visit.We showed up a week later, and Brian, the company's chief operating officer, gave us a warm greeting and a quick overview that demonstrated Fowlers to be a well-run manufacturing conglomerate with the seeds of a supply chain strategy already in place.The strategy had been developed at the division level by David Able, vice president of operations in the technology products group—one of the three operating units. He had pieced it together with just a little background in supply chain management and a whole lot of operating pain. His efforts had been encouraged by his boss, the division president, who had brought the strategy to the attention of other executives in the company.They had become an informal "gang" with a common feeling that, while David's ideas would solve some short-term issues, there had to be a way to solve the company's supply chain problems at a more strategic level. It didn't take much prodding to get this gang to start sharing their thoughts."Our products are good for a week, maybe ten days, in the store," said Doris Early, president of the food products group. "We've got to move a lot of inventory around with a lot of speed. And if the FDA were to bring in the label from something we processed six months ago, we need to be able to identify the plant, the line, the day, and the names of everyone on the shift that produced it.""Our shelf life is short, but not that short," added Martha Tekitch, president of the technology products group. "We also have some other things in common with the food group; we buy a lot of commodities. The prices we pay change day-to-day, but our customers won't let us be quite that flexible."Brian took over. "There's some seasonality in our sales—and spikes that are harder to forecast."It all came together as they spoke: many products that have short shelf life and short life cycles; price-sensitive customers sold through various and sophisticated channels with volatility on both ends—demand and supply."The demands of our business tear us in every direction all the time," offered Joe Farelong, president of the durable products group. "And even at that, we're a pretty good company. If we had a supply chain that was really good and really strong, nobody would be able to touch us in our markets."The executives described how a chosen manager, David Able, had outlined the strategy and its main components. They then assigned the strategy to their direct reports in other divisions to make it happen.Brian wasn't quite ready to admit this at our first meeting, but it was clear what happened: The managers at the next level down thought they'd just been briefed on the latest program-of-the-month and did very little with the strategy. They did take some small steps, identifying a few projects and improving a metric here or there—at the expense of others. But after three months, Brian pushed Joe, Martha, and Doris to join him in looking for outside help.
Without realizing it, Brian had already taken a few important steps to ensure a successful approach. Selling supply chain management into an organization is tough. It's an educational sell to everyone involved. Not only is the reality of an integrated supply chain complex; everyone has his or her own preexisting ideas of what supply chains are all about and how they fit in with operational strategy.SCOR, as an industry standard, makes the sell easier because it has gained credibility from a long list of successful case studies. But the model can't sell itself, and it can't teach people who aren't ready to learn. That's why any SCOR project will depend on three key roles in the education process. These are the evangelist, an active executive sponsor, and the core members of an executive steering team. Without these, you can't hope for a project's success.
