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by Cynthia Kalina-Kaminsky, Ph.D., CEO
Tariff wars have begun.
While tariffs and retaliatory actions may bring delight to some, for your supply chains, they are in the realm of everlasting migraines.
What can you do when there is no time to plan, no understanding of where tariffs may be applied next, and customers who still expect you to be on time, prices to remain stable, and changes to be made and complied with?
You want agility, but how do you get it for the long-term?
You need agility to be baked into your supply chain’s daily capacity, not always a last minute, head smacking anomaly of late nights and overtime.
One answer is to get really, really good and fast at simulating your supply chain through the use of a digital twin and your global realities.
But even if you have the talent to be able to create a digital twin,
Or the cash to hire someone to create it for you,
Do you truly know how each of your supply chains really works to make those expenditures of time and money worth it? Are your supply chains standardized so they can be compared? Mapped so simulations provide you with working options? Data and metrics available for use?
You want real options that will work for you. No use getting answers to segment the supply chain to adjust a priori, or at least as quickly as possible, for risk of tariffs, port blockages, skill shortages, climate disasters if your input is suspect. If you can't trust the input, you can't trust the answers.
And using AI at this point in time will usually just give you insight into what everyone else is saying they are doing. But will it work for you and your supply chains in your unique business?
Maybe, but often not.
So, what should you do? Try to wait it out?
Nope.
Remember: Crises create opportunities. Innovation comes from having constraints.
But you can’t be innovative if you don’t know exactly what you have and how each piece will respond to change. Since our supply chains are highly integrated, each change affects the entire supply chain, our partner activities, and our customers perception of our ability to perform.
Believe it or not, standardization of processes and metrics does allow you to have more innovation and flexibility to create performance enhancing change because you know what happens where and can monitor how change effects the supply chain.
Plus, a common language gets you to results faster (less time spent negotiating definitions and what a metric means).
A framework with this standardization of processes and metrics along with a common language will shorten your team’s time to understanding problems and will deepen your team’s abilities to create solid, differentiating change that fits into your supply chains without damaging its parts.
You are able to ship today while you fix today.
However, this capability is dependent on using a proven framework. SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference model) is that framework..
Your best simulation work is useless if you don’t have the correct model inserted.
You create those with SCOR.
Your best crisis innovation is useless if you can’t measure it and agree throughout the business what exactly must be adjusted.
You get alignment and transparency with SCOR.
Your best skill development will be frustrating if it is not targeted to the areas that need change.
Your skill development work is prioritized by the strategic plan, critical risk, and monitored using SCOR metrics.
You have great people and they already have critical knowledge required to make SCOR work.
Let them take the last step to getting your needed supply chain alignment, agility, and risk beating innovation.
Cynthia Kalina-Kaminsky is a Master SCOR instructor and draws international attendees from supply chain management professionals on up through major company CSCOs. Join us to learn from the best discussions in supply chain this March.
Supply Chain Mavens brings solid supply chain knowledge to your company. With backgrounds in planning, materials management, manufacturing, Lean, value engineering, and global sourcing experience into every training. Supply Chain Mavens has trained thousands of supply chain professionals in both the ASCM certification and custom supply chain curriculums including SCOR workshops.