Supply chain “hot button”  issues will not fade away

Supply chain leaders from more than 40 companies converged in Knoxville this past April for the Supply Chain Forum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to discuss “hot button” issues facing the supply chain industry. The industry consortium hosted a record 146 business executives representing 44 companies across a wide range of retail and manufacturing companies. The next forum takes place in November.

Among the attending firms were P&G, Lowe’s, PepsiCo, Macy’s, Dell, Honeywell, Bayer, Deere, Alcoa, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly Clark, Walt Disney, Cracker Barrel, Eastman Chemical, Boeing, Nissan, BNSF Railway, Cintas, Winn-Dixie, OfficeMax, Amway, Bush Brothers, Caterpillar, Mohawk, Avery Dennison, and Boise.

“When supply chain leaders assemble from such a rich diversity of industry, the resulting discussions provide deep insights and realistic solutions to the issues faced by today’s supply chain professionals,” said Paul Dittmann, Ph.D., executive director of UT Knoxville’s Global Supply Chain Institute, of which the forums are a part.

Dr. Dittmann authored SCMR’s final installment of “Supply Chain Management Beyond the Basics.”

He noted that the topics covered in the two-and-a-half day session included supply chain mega-trends, network optimization, sales and operations planning, inventory management, and forecasting.

Senior supply chain executives from P&G, Honeywell, and Winn-Dixie presented their perspectives and moderated an open-panel discussion on relevant supply chain issues.

These were similar to the views expressed by industry experts at last month’s Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Major observations from forum attendees were:

· As the economy recovers, transportation capacity will become increasingly scarce, causing costs to rapidly escalate. Plans to offset these increases need to be put in place now.
· The rising cost of fuel is causing many firms to rethink their network structure and question whether they have the right number of warehouses in the correct locations.
· It is challenging, yet possible, for firms to cut inventory while simultaneously improving customer service. All they need to do is follow a number of well-defined strategies such as minimizing the number of offered SKUs, making sure accountability is spread appropriately throughout the organization, and aggressively reducing lead time.
· Integrating and balancing supply with demand remains a popular avenue to achieve competitive advantage for most firms. Best practices for properly achieving this balance include gaining the support of senior executives, having disciplined agendas focused on strategic issues, and involving all key supply and demand functions (including finance) in the process.

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