To transition a business into the higher levels of the supply chain evolution, and
into the realm of advanced supply chain management (ASCM), firms must
accept two necessities as they overcome the typical barriers created between
levels 2 and 3 of the maturity model. First, there is the general unwillingness
to share valuable information outside of the four walls representing the internal
organization. This unwillingness is first seen in level 1 companies, between
departments and business units, and becomes one of the first barriers to overcome.
Most companies welcome useful insights from external constituents, but
stalwartly resist sharing information they believe gives them an edge in an
industry or market. The solution here is to establish what can or cannot be
shared through collaborative efforts early in the discussion and then to demonstrate
the value of the sharing in terms of increased, documented benefits for
both parties. Typically, some form of pilot operation or sharing effort is necessary
with a particular business unit and selected external allies, to establish
those parameters.
Second, there is the need to link many legacy systems and disparate software
together in a manner that facilitates rapid exchange of the knowledge
considered pertinent to the extended enterprise processing. That means the
parties to the collaboration effort must decide exactly how to connect the
constituents into a meaningful communication network without being stopped
by difficulties with the age or type of database system holding the needed
information. In this case, the secret is to establish a simple methodology for
accessing portions or components of the different databases and extracting
information that facilitates the creation of a better network response to actual
market or customer needs. Business process management (BPM) becomes the
key to success in both areas, as it introduces the possibility of easily sharing
pertinent knowledge that helps all supply chain constituents and overcoming
the problem of dealing with many different systems. This sharing can be done
while protecting the security of the vital information, on a real-time basis
across organizations of virtually any size in any business, building future viability
in a collaborative manner.
Before we continue with our discussion of how a company and its business
allies can make the most progress with the supply chain maturity model in
conjunction with the SCOR� format, we need to establish the value of BPM
in facilitating the required reengineering of the process steps that makes viable
progress feasible. In this chapter, we consider the growing complexity of business
networks and the value opportunities presented through the ability to easily
enter into disparate information systems and extract the vital knowledge so
necessary for higher level business interactions and attainment of level 3 and
above positions. The basic concepts surrounding BPM were presented in an
earlier book, The Networked Supply Chain (Poirier et al., 2004), and we offer
that text as reference. In this book, we will summarize the important tenets and
go further to cover the new technologies that form the backbone of BPM
systems and explain how they open up opportunities for business users to take
back ownership of supply chain processing and reap the greatest benefits from
ASCM.
We will explain that the impediment to business progress in this area is not
people but technology, and the ability to continuously reengineer critical processes
in real time, without major information technology (IT) rework, gives
the users a significant advantage. These new approaches have an entry fee,
however. They require a fundamental rethinking of the role of the supporting
IT architecture and driving systems. The good news is that the changes bring
business benefits in the form of reduced costs and greater flexibility in the
delivery systems � a real win-win condition. To begin this explanation, we
must understand the complexity being faced in today�s business environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment