The past year has seen some major challenges for supply chain professionals. Economic uncertainty, natural disasters, and the never ending quest to improve performance. But such pressures can also result in the development of innovative ways of doing things and open up new opportunities.
And innovative thinking is one of the qualities that the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards are designed to highlight.
Last year the judges were impressed by one company’s innovative approach to understanding and reacting to customer requirements across a complex market, transforming its supply chain. That company was BASF – and it was the overall award winner for 2011.
Now we are looking for great examples of supply chain practice for the 2012 awards. Perhaps this will be your year.
The judges look for five common characteristics of high performing supply chains – the five core disciplines:
* Does your supply chain help to deliver competitive advantage to your company – or is it a cost of doing business?
* Are your processes and systems streamlined and integrated across the end-to-end supply chain – or are they complex and fragmented?
* Is the supply chain organisation structured and staffed for success – or is it an admin function staffed with the dead weights?
* Have you built a collaborative operating model with a clear understanding of your core competencies – or are you a jack of all trades and a master of none?
* Have you a clear understanding of how to measure success and is the organisation incentivised to deliver it – or do you measure everything and do nothing with it?
I hope you will consider entering. You can find all the details of the awards on the web site: www.supplychainexcellenceawards.com
