Supply Chain Planning Priority: Improve cross-functional collaboration and process

With the fast-paced nature of business and the ever-changing international political landscape, supply chain organizations must continuously evolve to keep up with shifting priorities. APQC conducted its 2019 Supply Chain Priorities and Challenges research to determine organizations’ areas of focus and the success barriers they face. The research revealed significant pressure across the supply chain to control costs, increase market share and increase service. The current state of the industry requires organizations to give each of these outcomes nearly equal focus.

With organizations facing these circumstances, it’s no surprise that organizations rate supply chain planning the second highest priority for the year in terms of investing resources, innovation and hiring. Of the organizations responding to an APQC survey on priorities and challenges, 43% indicated that supply chain planning is a high priority. This was surpassed only by manufacturing/production, which 49% of respondents indicated as a high priority.

Many organizations recognize that they need to improve the effectiveness of their entire supply chain. As shown in Figure 1, 88% of organizations rate their supply chain organization as effective or very effective in achieving its goals. Fewer organizations give that rating to their supply chain planning function: 86% rate this function as “effective” or “very effective,” and 14% consider their supply chain planning “slightly effective” or “not at all effective.”

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