Experience Creates Reliability
ZLU Consulting and Management
Supply Chain Strategy
In our view, the supply chain strategy constitutes an integral part of a company and is therefore tightly connected to its business strategy. This is entirely independent of the question if the concentration on key business fields requires giving up peripheral activities or building up new business fields. This necessitates deriving the required supply chain strategy as well as implementing the same. The goal is to network the functions of the value chain to create profit. These are incoming orders, production planning and –control, purchase and procurement, transportation, production, inventory stocks and commissioning, as well as distribution and payment processing.
Further important issues accompany the value chain and make up part of the supply chain management. Here, we see working capital management, supply chain controlling, supply chain risk management, human resources development and IT. The key job of a networked supply chain is, according to our understanding, to generate competitive advantages for the company in question, be it by optimising interfaces and services for customers, reducing costs, or to safeguard against risks.
Key Questions
- How do you derive the supply chain strategy from the all encompassing business strategy?
- What concepts do you follow, or live in order to make changes on company level flow into the supply chain?
- Are there real life processes which transfer the requirements of the supply chain strategy on to the single functions of the value chain?
- Do you measure the success of your supply chain management projects and operations by using specific key figures?
