Combined Inventory and Network Strategy Optimization
Competitive advantage
As businesses become more global it is increasingly important for them to use their supply chains as a means of creating competitive advantage. Those supply chains that are able to manage the complexity and control the risk inherent in the new global economy will be the ones most capable of maximising the benefits on offer.
New supply chain drivers
Supply chain managers need to be able to deal with greater levels of complexity, not only in terms of extended networks, but also in inventory.
Dealing with factors such as:
- Longer lead times and uncertain supply
- Bigger production runs and supply constraints
- Different modes of transport
- Ever changing global cost drivers (fuel prices, inflation, exchange rates and taxation)
can make the understanding of and working with supply chains difficult. Having these drivers change over time adds additional layers of difficulty to the problem.
Supply chain managers who rely on traditional simplistic methods to manage their supply chains and do not embrace this complexity will give up the opportunity for benefit, and risk losing ground to their competitors.