The Supply-Chain Council (SCC), an international, not-for-profit trade association of companies from multiple industries and responsible for all development, maintenance, enhancement and distribution of the Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR®) model, has released the latest version of the Model - SCOR Version 8.0, now available to members of the Council in both Microsoft Word and HTML. SCOR Version 8.0 represents major rehosting of the Model, but there are no changes to the Level 1, 2, or 3 Processes from Version 7.0.

Metrics

There is an additional Level 1 metric - Return on Working Capital - in the Assets Attribute category. The definition and other detailed information regarding this metric are included in the Metrics Appendix. Many metrics in SCOR 8.0 have been significantly streamlined. Level 2 processes now only include Level 1 metrics and a Cost metric has been added for every single process in the model. Version 7.0 similarly saw the addition of a Cycle Time metric for every process. This allows the easy "roll up" of cost and cycle time metrics to the Level 1 metrics. A completely new Metrics Appendix is included to demonstrate metrics "roll up" and hierarchy.

Best Practices

The Best Practices Appendix has also been reworked to make it a more clean and consistent reference. Changes to some of the definitions throughout the Model have been updated and some process affiliations are changed. Best Practices no longer contain the "Feature" column, as this was a "hangover" from when the Model used to list affiliated software features, now not maintained by the Council. This column has been replaced by a definition where it has been identified.

Inputs and Outputs

New in the Glossary are the Inputs/Outputs and their definitions. These were not defined or listed for reference in any previous versions of SCOR. This piece of the SCOR 8.0 development was facilitated by a team working to use the ISA 95 standard in conjunction with SCOR. The definitions they added were included to also satisfy their use of both SCOR and ISA 95.

Deliverables

Prompted by the first time re-hosting of the SCOR model into a BPM native format, the workflow diagrams are very different than the previously published Microsoft Word graphics. They now also include "deliverables" - the items that are moving from one process to another, or into and out of the process. As a result of these complex workflows and the rehosting in software rather than maintenance in Microsoft Word, the type is very small in the workflow graphics. They are also available as HTML files on the www.supply-chain.org members' website with a zoom feature so that they can be enlarged for easy reading.

SCOR Database

For the next version of SCOR (most likely 8.1), the database output from this BPM will be released as a vendor-neutral format. The suppliers working with SCC on this project will help determine how this will be released and made available. A software licensing program is also being developed for future releases of SCOR in electronic format.

The Supply-Chain Council is a global, not-for-profit trade association open to all types of organizations. It sponsors and supports educational programs including conferences, retreats, benchmarking studies, and development of the SCOR-model. The Council is dedicated to improving the supply chain efficiency of its practitioner members.

SCOR is a process reference model that allows companies to transform their supply chains by mapping their supply chain processes, determining where weak links exist, employing best practices, and measuring performance against industry benchmarks. Consisting of several increasingly detailed layers, SCOR allows companies to examine their supply chain processes and their relationships between partners, suppliers and customers. Companies using SCOR have seen dramatic ROI and savings due to increased supply chain efficiency.

For more information on the Supply-Chain Council, its members and activities, please call +1.202.962.0440: +1.202.962.3939 (fax) or e-mail at info@supply-chain.org. Please visit the SCC website at www.supply-chain.org.