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Home » supply chain master: a definition
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supply chain master: a definition

July 1, 2009
Mark B. Solomon
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What defines a supply chain ômaster"? According to consulting firm Accenture, itÆs the ability to take an end-to-end view of the supply chain, to integrate the supply chain into the companyÆs overall business strategy, to develop the proper metrics to correlate performance and expectations, and to be superior in two or three disciplines, or domains.

The survey, AccentureÆs ôHigh-Performance Supply Chainö study, was conducted across a field of 1,500 practitioners in more than 20 countries, the largest such survey Accenture has conducted in nearly six years. It was designed to offer a window into the qualities of a ôsupply chain ômasterö and the performance advantages that can be gained by achieving the distinction.

According to the survey, masters have a big-picture vision of their supply chain but focus their execution and investment in specific areas where they will stand apart from their competition. In the past, supply chain excellence had been driven by a ôone-size-fits-allö strategy, says Bill Read, a partner in AccentureÆs supply chain management practice. Today, the focus is on ôtargeted and more customized strategies,ö Read adds.

Another trait of the ômasters,ö says Read, is that they do not demonstrate a slavish devotion to an industryÆs best practices. What emerged from the survey, he says, is that ôbest practices for an industry may not be the best for you.ö

The survey examined mastery of six functions: sourcing and procurement, supply chain planning, fulfillment, manufacturing, innovation and product development, and service management. It found that masters of supply chain planning achieved 10 percent greater forecasting accuracy than their counterparts did; that service management masters attained 33 percent better turns on ôsparesö inventories, and that masters of sourcing and procurement delivered 2.5 times more value for every dollar they spent on procurement than companies that havenÆt achieved ômastersö status did.

Supply Chain Services
KEYWORDS Accenture
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Marksolomon
Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.

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