Strategic Supply Chain Management - Supply Chain Online

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FOREWORD
Another “early adopter” of supply chain management as a discipline
was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It contracted with
PRTM in 1991 to launch the first of what became a series of “integrated
supply chain performance” benchmarking studies sponsored by IBM,
DEC, Xerox, Lotus Development Corporation, and NCR. To ensure that
this study did not simply become a compendium of functional metrics,
PRTM sought to create a new set of truly cross-functional supply chain
metrics. It is remarkable to reflect that it was just 13 years ago that
the activity-based definition of total supply chain management cost was
first designed and the now-widespread metric of cash-to-cash cycle time
was created.
With a process definition (plan/source/make/deliver) and with performance
benchmarks available, PRTM was able to introduce a new
approach to managing global operations—an approach that yielded tangible
benefits but required much change at companies.
Industry’s early adopters, together with sponsors and participants in
the early benchmarking studies by PRTM, came together with us and three
leading academic institutions (MIT, Stanford University, and Pennsylvania
State University) in June 1994 to form the Supply-Chain Consortium. Its
aim was to promote the success of supply chain integration and implementation
efforts across industries. The consortium had four objectives for
the first phase of its work:
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To establish a common baseline definition of the supply chain
To define a common set of critical supply chain performance
metrics
To adopt a framework for consideration, presentation, and application
of supply chain metrics
To promote sharing of supply chain best practices and implementation
approaches
PRTM’s leadership of this body resulted in creation of the metrics
that would define the new Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model
(SCOR) developed two years later and now adopted widely by industry
through the Supply-Chain Council.
While most of this pioneering work was being done in the United
States, January 1992 was the scheduled date for the dismantling of trade
barriers (which included product specifications, mobility of labor, and
border delays) between member states of the European Economic Community.
This dateline encouraged many companies to look at the opportunities
to create integrated European manufacturing and distribution operations