Strategic Supply Chain Management - Supply Chain Online

134 Strategic Supply Chain Management
trying to do is distinguish the process of supply chain from the organization
that operates many of the processes.” Ressner’s group sits inside a
broader organization called Supply Chain and Technology Solutions
(SCTS), headed by David Johns. The reason for the differentiation
“We’ve been trying to help our company see that the supply chain is a
business process that touches everybody in the company. SCTS focuses on
the processes, by operating them, deploying technology that supports
them, or encouraging process innovation and enhancements.”
OC has recognized the value in combining
the technology and supply chain
process function in one organization. Johns
explains the rationale: “We wanted to leverage
the resources we have across the enterprise,
do things faster, and improve the
service we can provide.” The company also
wanted to be more flexible in its response to
customers. Because OC had had a “do
everything for everybody” mentality a
decade ago, company costs were too high,
and, as Johns says, “We weren’t really able
to grow, because we didn’t have a consistent,
coherent strategy.”
“In those earlier days, we did understand that ‘simple, common, and
OC has recognized
the value in
combining the
technology and
supply chain process
functions in one
organization.
global’ were key operating principles—and they remain so today—but
now we understand that flexibility is the key competitive advantage,”
Johns says. He contrasts this customer-facing perspective with OC’s historical
focus on manufacturing efficiencies: “Our philosophy as a 60-yearold
manufacturer was long product run times. And that strategy had all
sorts of implications. But today, with a focus on flexibility, we’re looking
at market-driven lead times for product delivery and our ability to quickly
respond to big changes in demand.”
THE VISION THING
In order to ensure that it could respond more flexibly to customer demand,
OC conducted an end-to-end supply chain assessment using PRTM’s
“stages of process maturity model for supply chain excellence” as a reference
point (see Chapter 6 and Appendix B). OC found that it was at early
stage 2 of functional excellence in process maturity yet aspired to achieve
solid stage 3 status, designated “enterprise integration.” The company