Response from: Randy Littleson    (01/02/07 7:23pm)

I see key trends like increasing customer expectations (which is resulting in lower brand loyalty, more demand volatility, etc.), more global competition, shorter product lifecycles, global supply chains, etc. requiring Response Management solutions.

Gone are the days where there was enough fat in the system to manage responsiveness through expediting, inventory buffers, excess capacity and so on. And, today's response solutions don't work--it is too slow and too expensive to have your people relying on ad hoc spreadsheets, email, phone calls and flights to resolve all of the unexpected problems that "just happen" every single day (as one customer told me, "we build a good plan, then the phone rings...").

Response Management solutions empower people throughout the supply chain to respond quickly to change by providing them visibility and tools to determine the appropriate course corrections to make immediately.

Traditionally the market has focused on planning and execution. All of these systems were designed to run the business like clockwork. But, increasingly, it's how you deal with the fact that the business isn't running like clockwork that distinguishes whether or not you are a leader or not.

Response Management is a different set of problems than the traditional planning and execution systems were designed for, so a disruptive technology is going to be the way to radically change the way supply chains respond to change.

Response from: Ehsan    (01/04/07 9:02am)

You're right Randy and I'm totally on your side in this. Speaking of disruptive technologies, which technologies in the back office are facilitating this? are they different from technologies which are currently in practice? ...What do you think?
I will write another column on this topic in the weekend.