Supply Chain Technology – What is Working, What is Not, and Where We are Going Executive Seminar September, 2005

Supply Chain Technology Foundation questions for the supply chain technology discussion … Do you have the technology infrastructure in place to efficiently manage your supply chain? Are you fully utilizing the technology you have now? Largest gap? What do you see as your top technology priority?

Enterprise Level Systems Usage Use of Supply Chain Applications Operations applications are more pervasive than management or measurement tools.

How Are SCEM Systems Being Used?

Status Gathering Technology 26% of status updates are based on fax and phone calls. Web portals have caught up to EDI as a collection tool.

Status Accuracy and Timeliness While EDI is an established technology, there are issues with accuracy and timeliness.

Status Accuracy and Timeliness - Compliance Most compliance programs have not been effective in improving performance.

RFID Is Still Getting The “Buzz” Where will tags be applied? Justification for RF ID Tags

RFID – Where will tags be read?

How Are TMS’ Being Used? The focus of TMS applications is on domestic operations. Why are TMS’ not being used in international operations? Limited capabilities? Limited benefits?

Tools to Measure Performance Is the infrastructure in place to measure performance?

What Is the Savings Potential? Many enterprises have limited supply chain technology infrastructure, but the savings potential seems significant.

Technology Investment Priorities

Technology Investment Trends The wish list is changing. Why?

Technology Investment Criteria Return on investment does not lead the list for evaluating technology investments.

Technology Investment Returns While financial returns are not the most important investment criteria, what returns are being estimated or achieved?

Technology Investment Audits Are post implementation audits typical for technology investments?

Supply Chain Technology – Learning’s Applications to manage the supply chain have not yet been implemented by many companies. The priorities for filling the gaps are changing with process measurement tools moving up the list. Even where new applications have been installed, full implementation and business process change are still challenges. Integration is often an issue -- between applications and between supply chain segments (e.g. international supply chain and distribution centers to stores) EDI is still the foundation for visibility, but timeliness and accuracy are issues. The Internet and web portals (most hosted by 3rd parties) are playing a greater role in data collection, while faxes and phones are still used. RFID “feels” like the right thing to do, but most implementations are still in the future. Bar coding is the entrenched solution.

Questions?