How well do you know your supply chain?

As part of the UK-Centric Supply Chains programme, we have developed a quick diagnostic tool to help companies gain valuable insights into how well they know their supply chain and help them to quickly identify performance issues. 

 

We conduct our diagnostic with middle and top management executives during face-to-face meetings, workshops and online webinars. A total of 126 participants have completed our diagnostic from a variety of industries. Figure 1 demonstrates the organisations’ primary industry with the majority being in the automotive, industrial products, consumer products/packaged goods and retail and wholesale industries. 

 

 

Our findings show that the majority of participants have a sufficient understanding of their supply chain and the complexities involved, more specifically: 

 

Indeed, the importance of understanding and assessing the supply chain is not a new idea and supply chain professionals have been talking about the critical role of the supply chain in any industry/sector for many years. So, it comes as no surprise that middle and top management executives are well aware of their supply chains. 

 

But, when it comes to: 

 

 

more than 50% of participants are not prepared or ready to quickly respond to supply chain problems or crises (Figure 3). 

 

In the wake of major disasters and crises, supply chain experts are stressing the need for companies to be more resilient to respond to disruptive events and better prepared for the next ones coming their way. And of course, understanding and assessing the supply chain, gaining visibility, developing mitigation plans and processes, are not of a limited duration. Instead, these are processes that require continuity, recurrency and long-term commitment. 

 

 

At UK-Centric Supply Chains, we understand the challenges of getting the supply chains ready to meet the various requirements and at the same time be resilient enough to quickly respond to disruptive events. 

 

We have developed, and we undertake with our clients a Supply Chain Readiness Level (SCRL) tool to help them assess their supply chain maturity and define their readiness level. Following the SCRL assessment, we provide personalised diagnostic reports and sets of recommendations for improving the supply chain capabilities with the potential for cost and risk reduction.