Strategic Supply Chain Management - Supply Chain Online

CHAPTER 2 Core Discipline 2: Develop an End-to-End Process Architecture 73
may not be able to execute all your “to be” requirements in the near term
and will need to develop a roadmap to move progressively toward your target
configuration (see Chapter 6).
One of our clients, an international aerospace company, was struggling
to manage a complex web of relationships among its own sales,
logistics, and manufacturing operations; several key subcontractors; and a
major customer, an aircraft manufacturer. The company was a prime contractor
in a commercial aircraft program. Ensuring on-time delivery of its
subsystem to the customer’s final assembly and testing facility required
coordinating material, information, and financial flows with subcontractors
located on three continents.
Supplier deliveries for the commercial jet program were increasingly
late. And when the aircraft manufacturer asked to reschedule orders, the
company had to contact its suppliers before providing a confirmation
date—a process that took several weeks. Because of these problems, the
company was struggling to maintain its credibility with a key account. It
used the SCOR model to gain a greater understanding of the underlying
problems.
The project team used the SCOR model to map order management,
procurement, physical distribution, supply chain planning, and financial
flows at the company, as well as all key interfaces with subcontractors.
Each activity was associated with a SCOR level 2 process category. For
the first time, the company had clear visibility of the subsystem’s supply
chain as a whole and was able to see which activities were performed by
the company, the customer, and subcontractors. In addition, the use of
standard process category definitions meant that each constituent was
using the same definition for the processes for the first time.
Opportunities to simplify the supply chain were quickly apparent.
For example, major subassemblies moved through multiple internal warehouses
before being made available for final assembly. This caused significant
delay yet added no additional value to the product. The level 2
process map showed the reason for this. All products were routed to a
regional consolidation platform. Once they entered the platform, there
was an official transfer of ownership from internal manufacturing to the
aircraft program. The team realized that a change in process and supporting
information systems would allow some product to be shipped directly
to the final preparation point near the customer’s assembly line, eliminating
several weeks in the delivery cycle.
Interestingly, the visibility created by the SCOR process map also
forced the company to rethink some long-held beliefs about what was