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How should we help Supply Chain teams to overcome inertia?
When I speak to supply chain teams across industries, I notice a lot of inertia, a tendency to maintain status quo and not rock the boat. The downside of this status quo mindset is that it blocks various breakthrough improvement opportunities.
Companies have adopted several methods to overcome inertia. The most common is meeting with customers and end consumers to understand their pain points. Some companies have mandated that their supply chain team members visit the market as well as meet with consumers. Is it enough?
My experience suggests that team members who visit markets and meet with customers do come back with pain points of retailers and consumers. They know that change is needed. However, their improvement ideas mostly hinge around improving efficiency of the current processes to serve the customers better.
If we want to make breakthrough improvements, efficiency improvement is just not enough. We must challenge some of the fundamental beliefs which form the bedrock of the current processes. Teams must get exposed to new knowledge and discuss how it would make substantial improvements to customer service.
A good mix of dissatisfaction with current system and a vision for new improved system are both required to overcome inertia.