The art of a Chief Supply Chain Officer

Filed in archive Point of view on October 15, 2005

There are many fads, new concepts, cures and solutions in the area of supply chain management for a variety of problems and every day we hear about something new. Most of them promise better performance in supply chains. But an important point here is, what works in a company may not work in another one.

Every company has to find right solution for its problems itself and there is no one size- fits all thing in the area. So personally, I don't think that general solutions available help companies to be pioneer and achieve competitive advantage. They may help companies to improve their performances but it will be marginal.

In addition to the point that there is difference between one company's supply chain with another, I can add that there are also differences between one company's different supply chains and this is a point which is neglected in many cases.

Different supply chains within the company need different strategies and different solutions. The challenge here is that in reality, it's not that easy to separate these supply chains and they interact with each other in a very complex way. The art of a Chief Supply Chain Officer is to determine which type of strategy is suitable for each chain and how to leverage the power of new technologies to implement that strategies.