THE ROADMAP BEGINS WITH PLAYER CONSOLIDATION

Collaboration as a business technique, particularly one to help a firm and its
business allies progress into advanced supply chain management, has been
widely discussed, with very mixed reviews, not all of which match the advantages
described in the preceding case. While we acknowledge the difficulties
in getting companies to truly cooperate with one another, we have found a small
number of firms that have been able to achieve good results by working with
a very limited number of very trusted business associates to reach higher performance.
Michael Bauer, Director of CSC Lean Enterprise, has been very
helpful in this research, and we will use much of his expertise as we outline
how leaders accomplish the task.
The first step in that process is to discover why collaboration breaks down
and to prepare a methodology that will work. We find that most of the problems
occur because processes are often duplicated across an enterprise system, and
the players refuse to leverage the best techniques, tools, and systems, preferring
instead to support their own system, even when it is less effective for network
purposes. At other times, the traditional linkages rely too much on technology,
especially commercial off-the-shelf software and not co-developed enabling
systems, oriented around BPMS and the particular needs of the network.
With an understanding of the need to conquer these essentially cultural
inhibitions and to use collaboration effectively, the next move is to consolidate
the critical processes, regardless of the number, into a single enterprise process,
leveraging the best player at each step


As the interacting increases, they begin exchanging data on such things as new
design introductions and how substitute materials can be used. In the transact
level, the allies are conducting business in a fundamental but collaborative
manner, including order entry and fulfillment, expediting to meet demands, and
reporting on exceptions and returns.
In the fourth level, which is now being considered, the partners work on
delivering, to the targeted customers and consumers, making the key players a
part of the overall business effort. Now the provision of services includes joint
diagnostics, review of reports, collaborative design and engineering, and joint
inventory management. Visibility into the end-to-end systems becomes an
essential element in this latter part of the effort. In the highest level, a community
effort has appeared, and the players fully utilize their co-developed business
and operating model to cross-company interactions and to personalize the solutions
being brought to the targeted customers/consumers.
Figure 6.8 presents a small list of the companies that have successfully made
their way through the progression, with the help of trusted allies, and the results
that were achieved. Although these cases are mostly involved with early types
of collaborative effort (the design and introduction of new products and services),
the magnitude of the improvements stands to illustrate what can be
accomplished when firms bring their best and brightest together to enhance
what they do together.