The Perfect Order: Introduction

Ever since my introduction to supply chain vendor compliance in 1993, retailers, organizations and associations, advisory firms, transportation and logistics companies, and hardware and software resellers, have—from their different supply chain participation perspectives—talked about it and outlined points about what they believe comprises it. But, they have never really provided a unified, end-to-end and industry-agreed-upon definition of it. The Perfect Order has only ever been this vague concept to achieve without there ever having been a clear framework or distinct guidance on how to get there.

Akin to the Loch Ness Monster (first reported sighting on May 2, 1933) or Bigfoot, or UFOs, The Perfect Order is seemingly something that various people or entities keep pointing to on occasion but providing scant solid substantiation of. (For my part, I’m more of a believer in legendary monsters and outer-space aliens than the veracity or credibility of ambiguous business models.) And while everyone’s opinions matter, what does the collective cognizance agree on in the definition of The Perfect Order?

So, in essence, we know what we want the strategic objective to be for The Perfect Order. Piecing together the tactical goals to accomplish that purpose has been pretty much left to the designs of the vendor consumer goods companies. We can look at different best practice perspectives gleaned from seminars, but what we don’t have is a structured end-to-end approach to follow. This makes it a challenge to be successful. If an industry wants its members to achieve, I think that it behooves them, or rather, it is a responsibility, to create a workable model or framework that can be used as a guide for success.

In February 2005, I read an article in Logistics Today magazine, now known as Material Handling & Logistics. The article—”The Customer’s Bill of Rights”—was written by Dr. Edward J. Marien, who was at the time a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I was absolutely in admiration by what Dr. Marien had so clearly outlined, because what he described was—to me—not just what a customer should be deserving of for every order, but what I truly believed was the definition of a perfect order, regardless of who the customer is, regardless of what the customer ordered, regardless of the situation.

In summary, what Dr. Marien outlined was that logistics professionals should be tasked with the following requirements in the delivery (fulfillment) of orders/shipments to ensure that these 8 Rs (Rights) of logistics performance were met to the highlight levels.

1. The Right Product
2. In the Right Quantity
3. From the Right Source
4. To the Right Destination
5. In the Right Condition
6. At the Right Time
7. With the Right Documentation
8. At the Right Cost

As Dr. Marien pointed out, the 8 Rights apply to downstream supply chains for companies interacting with their suppliers in the acquisition of goods to be used, and to upstream supply chains for companies interacting with their customers in the distribution of goods to be sold.

Having read the article—and I still retain the original magazine hardcopy—I was awestruck, as if Nessie popped her head out of the water and nodded and winked at me herself. I was convinced that Dr. Marien had outlined not just the eight rights of logistics performance, but the operational framework for the execution of The Perfect Order.

I am not suggesting that companies dismantle their traditional corporate department structure, but I am suggesting that for CPG (consumer packaged goods) and other (e.g., durable, accessory, apparel/footwear) consumer product companies, perhaps an introspective perspective is in order. After all, what is the true purpose of your company? To deliver desirable goods to the marketplace, ideally, without error each, and every, time. Aligning your company’s organization to a single theme, a mantra, or a mission such as The Perfect Order makes sense to me. And here, finally, we have a realistic definition of what The Perfect Order is, albeit with some details to fill in.

(I cited Dr. Marien’s article and his Customer’s Bill of Rights outline in both of my first two books, the first from a fraud prevention perspective and the second as a framework for what every retail vendor company should be striving to achieve. The link to his original article, https://www.mhlnews.com/global-supply-chain/article/22046067/the-customers-bill-of-rights, has been updated since my books were published.)

In using Dr. Marien’s 8 Rights of logistics performance as a framework for The Perfect Order, we need to dig deeper—and from a current perspective—into what each of these “rights” mean. I did that in a 2018 presentation on understanding customer supply chain demands where I used Dr. Marien’s Customer’s Bill of Rights to explain to a business conference audience how to up their execution in a commoditized world.

(I attempted to reach out to Dr. Marien a few years ago at his last-known place of employment but to no results. I don’t believe that a good use of the internet is for stalking, so I left it at that.)

Dr. Marien’s 8Rs were—based on the opening line of his article—tailored to logistics and transportation professionals. In my article series here, we have to go beyond Dr. Marien’s audience scope and consider everyone and every step involved in all phases of the supply chain, such as product development, planning, fulfillment, data management, software, operations. We have to consider inception to disposition, start to finish, order to delivery and then some. Both the retailer and the vendor (whether you are a name-brand or a private-labeler) have roles to play in achieving The Perfect Order for the consumer.

I’m going to use my unique supply chain and vendor compliance perspectives, and technical and operational experiences, to explore each of Dr. Marien’s eight rights with you, bringing them all together into a single framework that defines what I truly believe is the long-sought-after enterprise-wide Perfect Order. In each independent article, I’ll include Dr. Marien’s description of the “customer right” and then delve into what I believe are the nuances that need to be considered. At the end, ideally this is a business model that retail vendors can work on applying to their companies. But retailers, there are also lessons to be learned here and applied for you, because you are the leaders who are directing your vendors, so take note. It is, after all, about getting goods into the hands of the consumer, perfectly, and that’s something that vendors and retailers can both agree is a shared and common commitment for each and every order.

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