More and more companies today are realizing that if you can't measure it, then you can't improve it. But what is the best way to gauge supply chain performance? The Supply Chain Consortium has the solution with its new Strategic Assessment Dashboard, a tool that is quickly becoming the ultimate index in supply chain benchmarking and best practices. Using an updated user interface, the Dashboard allows Consortium members to compare operations to their entire industry, to specific segments of their industry, or to supply chains in other industries. For instance, an apparel retailer can now see how their distribution tactics compare to the retail industry as a whole, just to their specific clothing niche, or to the entire database across industries.

"Customization, flexibility and different function levels really make the Dashboard superior to other benchmarking tools in the marketplace" says Bruce Tompkins, facilitator of the Consortium. "It opens up an exciting new era in benchmarking and best practices."

The powerful new Dashboard provides key knowledge such as:
1. How do my operations perform in detail as compared to other groups of companies?
2. What are my organization's strengths and weaknesses as compared to industry segment peers and where are opportunities to close any gaps?
3. What specific metrics and processes are the best performing, top quartile companies using?
4. What are the multi-year trends for supply chain best practices in my particular industry or across all industries?

The 2007 Supply Chain Consortium was recently expanded to cover four major industries: retail, consumer products manufacturers, industrial/commercial manufacturers, and distributors/wholesalers.
Company specific data is safeguarded by the review facilitator, Tompkins Associates, and is not shared with other members or external entities, and individual responses are kept confidential.

As the Supply Chain Consortium evolved over its first three years we developed world class online tools for gathering data and analyzing best practices and performance metrics for member companies. However, these tools were primarily "bottom up" with a focus on specific processes and metrics. The missing part of the puzzle was the "top down" view of each supply chain. How am I doing overall and where are the gaps? The Strategic Assessment Dashboard fills this need. A few of its capabilities include:
1. Provides performance and capability scores using detail benchmark data.
2. Assesses opportunities based on the value of gaps and the difficulty in closing the gaps.
3. Supports drill downs from overall functions to specific metrics and processes.
4. Links summary scores in each function to the names of companies performing in the top quartile along with PeerNet contact information.
5. Highlights multi-year trends as each company's capabilities and best practices evolve.
http://www.tompkinsinc.com