SUSTAINABILITY
people are starting to understand those strategic directions and when possible the strategies of their customers , the ability to understand the anticipated value , I believe , has grown . Therefore , there ’ s a greater interest in people and companies talking about the value chain today than there has been in the past .”
So , businesses are more aware of where value can be extracted and how supply chains can be turned into value chains , but how is it done ? Obviously , the plethora of technological aids available to companies makes it easier to pinpoint where value can be created or extracted , but given that businesses in the same supply chain are sometimes competing for the same customer base , how can you engender the necessary level of trust for a value chain to function as it should ?
According to Snowden , it comes back to the ideals of being transparent and exhibiting best business practice wherever possible and , once again , knowing your customers . “ Excellent delivery in a mature business is enabled through transparency ,” Snowden says . “ Ensuring visibility of performance and improvement activity , along with a good , accurate , clear and relevant communication . One set of numbers , accurate data , sharing information and slinging strategy between supply points , or nodes , that would possibly , traditionally , be at arms-length from each other . What you need to try and to do is get this to be a much more open relationship , to enable that value to be understood and delivered .
“ I guess it all depends where you sit in the supply chain , to some extent . But say we ’ re a company in the middle of the supply chain , with the customers and the consumers at one end and our suppliers at the other – we ’ re the manufacturing warehouse , or logistics element . I would need a clear understanding of who my key customers are , their key requirements , and what they value from those requirements .
“ You need to have some real , open , collaborative dialogue with them . Not just vendor , managed inventory level of collaboration , but where we might be sharing strategies , where we have real trust between our organizations . Could I align my strategies of business to that customer direction ? That would be delivering better value .
68 June 2018