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Move beyond the comfort zones to excel in your Supply Chain performance.
My interaction with several supply chain leaders across various industry sectors indicates that their teams develop sort of a comfort zone within which to operate. All their improvement initiatives are conceptualized and executed within this narrow comfort zone. If a promising idea is outside the zone, it meets with resistance.
A leading FMCG company had developed excellent vendor relationships built on trust and transparency. They were reluctant to try out reverse auction as it could undermine their relationships. It took time for them to realize, after they actually executed one, that reverse auctions don’t have to interfere with relationships, if executed in the right spirit.
Another leading company in the Food sector had got very comfortable with reverse auction for their packaging materials. They feared that deeper vendor partnerships could push up the prices if they stopped the auctions. Only a trial with few select vendors convinced them that the two are not in conflict.
There are several areas where supply chain teams get comfortable with an ‘either / or option’. It takes a conscious effort to overcome the inertia and move beyond the comfort zone to realize the benefits of ‘and’.