Best Practices, LLC, a research, consulting and publishing firm recently published results of a benchmark study about best practices in supply chain performance.

The top three findings from this benchmark study are:

Several companies have perceived 100% performance at a number of key measures, including on-time delivery, and fill rate. Performance to these measures, however, sometimes comes at a penalty, since some measures can be contradictory, if not mutually exclusive. For example, a high fill rate can be achieved by having a poor (i.e., high) inventory days on-hand measure. Several companies in the study, however, have optimized their systems to achieve excellent performance across the board.

Recent supply chain management trends include increasingly powerful private trading networks, increased transparency in measuring and monitoring the value chain performance, and outsourcing of non-core activities. The report examines the use of reverse auctions for procuring commodities as well as trends in increased transparency of the chain. The use of Third Party Logistics and Fourth Party Logistics companies is also investigated.

Cost management techniques, along with performance improvement initiatives, have revolutionized the entire supply chain management process. The study details more than 45 winning practices identified through partner interviews and background research on the latest keys to supply chain success.