Source: Joris Leeman, Jan. 2013

1. Supply Chain costs are increasingly under pressure

. Gross margins are under pressure and costs are going up.

. Many supply chains become longer as companies are shifting their

  manufacturing/operational activities increasingly to low cost countries. Longer

  supply chains result very often in: more complexity, a higher need for

  visibility/transparancy and a higher SC-risk exposure. The overall need for on

  time delivery (OTD) and reliability increases.

2. Customer demand is increasingly fluctuating

. Demand is increasingly unpredictable; classic push-models are being questioned.

. Sales order volumes drop and frequency of sales orders goes up, as customers

  (B2B) do not want to sit on their stock and are optimizing their cash-to-cash

  (C2C) cycle.

· Is your company impacted by these trends?

· Do you know what level of responsiveness is required for your customers?

· Do you know at what cost levels you have to operate to meet the future gross

  margin goals?

· How much demand fluctuation do you have? Are your forecasts reliable?

· Do you have a lot of stock outs and/or do you have (too) high inventory levels?

· Do you have a 5 year strategic supply chain / logistics plan in place?

· Is your current DC network structure supporting your future requirements?

· Do you know your supplier performance? Do you know your SCM performance to

  your customers?

These are some of the questions a lot of companies are confronted with. The Institute

for BPM can help you to sort out the answers on these questions and mutually

create a SCM roadmap 2020.