SCLAA NEWSLETTER JULY-AUGUST 2014
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ARE WE REALLY GAME PLAYING?
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n the previous issue of this Straight Talk Column I discussed the necessity to explore and discover real Game Changers in Supply Chains. The search for ‘Next Practice’ (that is, beyond known ‘Best Practice’) remains as a consuming passion for me. It occurs to me now that ‘Game Playing’, rather than Game Changing, may indeed be the most prevalent behaviour in business. Pretence is fatal for Supply Chains. The essential enablers for Supply Chains include real collaborative and sharing relationships together with utilisation of technologies to develop and deliver appropriate information as required for participants along the Chain. I frequently observe Game Playing and pretence behaviours aimed at gaining advantage over a declared partner. Openness is a crucial attribute in forming value-generating partnerships. Mc Kinsey’s Alex Niemeyer recently discerned that companies often look for single, miraculous cures to their Supply Chain Problems. He noted,
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I think a general trend is that executives look for silver bullets—and quite frankly, Supply Chain is a lot about hard work.
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The International Journal of Operations and Production Management reported on an extensive three year study of Supply Chains in Europe. Amongst other things they concluded that, “Supply Chain Management is at best still emergent in terms of both theory and practice. Few participants were able, or even seriously aspired, to extend their reach across the Supply Chain in the manner prescribed in much modern theory”. Operations Management Journal suggested “Opportunities for unethical behaviour are enormous and temptations are high”. Seems to me despite thirty years of experimenting and developing Supply Chain practice we are still struggling to courageously adopt and pursue the real value generation aims of Supply Chain, and the essential collaborative and sharing relationships. Our personal and corporate behaviour and principles are the key issues. Deliberately duping partners is damaging but it is even more destructive to delude ourselves. Hard work, openness, integrity, inspiration, and compassion are almost certainly the characteristics of well-adjusted and value generating supply chain participants. How do your supply chain behaviours and principles stand up to Best or Next Practice standards? Some years ago I attended a Conference in Chicago (or maybe San Antonio or Orlando or Anaheim...I am getting a little bit forgetful as I gracefully age). Anyway the Conference theme was ‘Vision, Visibility, and Velocity -Three keys of Supply Chain Management’. I liked those three V’s but thought they did not appropriately cover the keys.
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On returning to Australia I debated what other V’s might be added to effectively cover the field. In company with the Victorian Supply Chain Roundtable we came up with two others: Value and Volatility. With the passing of time all five V’s still have real relevance but as I see it Volatility is an issue that has progressively increased in importance as we struggle to deal with it at all levels of commerce. Technology advances and globalisation have exacerbated the problem. The Global Financial Crises aftermath, coupled with rapidly changing consumer behaviour and the impact of emerging economies on manufacturing are added complications. Demand Management is often impacted by the whims and notions of people interpreting the relevant data. Their behaviour is a critical factor in collecting and interpreting data and then making decisions. Flexibility and agility are desired components in Supply Chains and Demand but many practitioners battle to adjust their behaviour to allow those components to flourish and deliver benefits. My strong belief is that the ‘Who’ in Supply Chains is much more important than the ‘What’ or ‘How’. People are certainly the primary element. Developing behaviours aimed at facilitating the critical sharing partnerships and, or, appropriate relationships, both inside and outside the organisation, must be seen as a mandatory precursor. Steve Simpson, author and champion of the “Unwritten Ground Rules” concept, emphasises that written policies and rules don’t necessarily create the intended productive environments. People will adopt the Unwritten Ground Rules and organisations must recognise and nurture the knowledge and attitudes of the people. In my Supply Chain World people, behaviours, and principles (ethics, integrity and value sharing) are crucial success factors for individuals, organisations and Supply Chains. The Queensland Supply Chain & Logistics Conference, of which the SCLAA are one of the host bodies, scheduled for early September 2014, will provide a real platform for us to explore and discover together the opportunities and elements of Next Practice supply chains. People and behaviours loom as vital issues.
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These are the days when it takes all you have got just to keep up with the losers.
e: secretary@sclaa.com.au
Robert Orben
David Doherty OAM Founder and Explorer Supply Chain and Logistics Observatory SCALO davdoh1@optusnet.com.au
w: www.sclaa.com.au
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