Strategic Supply Chain Management - Supply Chain Online

138 Strategic Supply Chain Management
“We want to be our
customers’ best
supplier and our
suppliers’ best
customer,” says
David Johns.
our suppliers are as important to us as our
customers, so just as we want to be our customers’
best supplier, we want to be our suppliers’
best customer,” explains David Johns.
“We are trying to make our systems, our
processes, etc., as transparent as possible
with our suppliers and our customers, by
eliminating as many inefficiencies as possible
in our dealings and taking the costs out
of our shared supply chains.”
The company has established programs
and metrics for vendor relationship management and supplier
development. Although its sourcing organization is separate from the supply
chain solutions organization, the two departments leverage resources
in support of common goals. For example, both groups collaborated on
creating a portal structure that would facilitate interaction with vendors.
HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION
OC also has developed project review boards to help enforce the alignment
and integration of key business processes, such as customer operations,
materials management, sourcing, production, research and development,
IT, and logistics. Each has representation from the three functional areas of
technology, process, and operations to jointly assess and monitor IFO benefits,
working capital savings, return on net assets (RONA), supply chain
performance metrics, and overall allocation of people and capital resources
for approved initiatives. A new “stage gated” approach ensures that before
resources are assigned to specific projects, each has to pass a stringent test
for business value.
This is another one of the building blocks to OC’s “one company”
mantra these days. Currently in the process of coming out of a financial
restructuring process, it is reinventing its processes and internal organizations
to give customers the experience of a single company that is poised
for the increased competitiveness of the future.