{"id":42943,"date":"2020-12-30T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sticky-highjinx.flywheelsites.com\/?p=42943"},"modified":"2025-04-09T09:19:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T13:19:56","slug":"supply-chain-network-strategy-as-a-process-instead-of-a-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2020\/12\/30\/supply-chain-network-strategy-as-a-process-instead-of-a-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Supply Chain Network Strategy as a Process Instead of a Project"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

How often does your organisation perform supply chain network strategy<\/a> analyses? Organizations that put off designing a new network or making improvements to an existing one due to perceived complexities or complications are actually putting their competitive advantage at risk. Agile processes and accurate network modelling can yield improved customer service levels, lowered transportation and operations costs, and reduced inventory to enable a resilient and optimised supply chain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A network is a living organism that lives, breathes, moves, shifts and changes. It changes drastically from one year to the next. Because of the ever-evolving nature of a network, it is important to constantly monitor your network as opposed to it being a one-off project. A network should be continuously and frequently analysed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By analyzing frequently, you could react and pivot to make changes and adjustments, so you are responding to changes in your market conditions such as changes within your suppliers, the emergence of new ports, tariffs, etc., which all happen in real-time. If we react only every three years, we miss out on a competitive advantage — making it important to be agile and make adjustments in real-time when needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tNow Is the Time for a Supply Chain Network Strategy\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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Discover the six questions your company should ask when considering a supply chain network strategy update.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tDownload\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

A Look at Traditional Supply Chain Network Strategy Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the past, supply chain network strategies were completed without data but rather a vision of creating a company. Many decisions were routing and last mile based. These traditional network strategy projects can take anywhere from 10 to 14 weeks, requiring herculean efforts and an extensive number of resources across the organisation and external resources in some cases. The typical level of effort by step is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding Ongoing Supply Chain Network Strategy as a Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Today, many businesses have realized the benefits of treating supply chain network strategy as an ongoing process that is reviewed and refreshed frequently. There are three steps to get started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Data collection<\/strong> \u2013 Obtain and organize past data throughout the organisation\u2019s entire supply chain<\/li>
  2. Discovery<\/strong> \u2013 Understand our customers\u2019 businesses, including its competitors and end customers<\/li>
  3. Data and network analysis<\/strong> \u2013 Identify inbound cost, outbound cost, fixed variable cost, and capacity limits<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These first three steps can be very time-consuming, taking about seven to eight weeks (approximately a third of the entire project). However, by building this baseline model to refer back to, you are able to cut out and drastically reduce efforts over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The whole purpose of a supply chain network strategy is to create several scenarios that you compare to others. This strategy comes out within five percent. We do not expect it to be exact, but what we expect it to do is validate a model, create scenarios and evaluate them against each other. This data enables you to analyse inventory, capacity and sensitivity to put together a recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once you have a valid baseline model, then you can take that model and build upon it, creating additional updates with it. Because the baseline model is already validated, data network analysis is very minimal, so most time is spent on network scenarios \u2013 the level of effort goes down from 100 percent to 40 percent, creating time-saving benefits beyond the cost. When considering the cost spent with an outside group, the internal costs of resources will decline as well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In addition to time and cost savings, there are a variety of supply chain benefits to managing your network as a process rather than a project, including the ability to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n