So you think you've anticipated every possible disaster in your supply chain risk-management plan? How about snakes and alligators in your clean rooms?
Every start-up faces the moment when growth demands a more complex organization. But how does a company stay agile, innovative and non-bureaucratic while making that transition? Alex Pierroutsakos, vice president of supply chain and analytics with Stellium, Inc., offers some advice.
Applying leverage in negotiations results in a zero-sum outcome where one side wins and the other side loses. This typically means that the winner ends up with somewhat more than 50 percent of their hoped-for result and the loser gets somewhat less than 50 percent since, just as in sports competitions where the potential results are win-lose, lose-win and tie, the use of leverage doesn't allow for combined outcomes above 100 percent. Zero-sum outcomes not only create a relational imbalance, they create hard feelings. People who lose in one negotiation often do their best to turn the tables the next time such that they win - and you lose.
Automotive suppliers are under mounting pressure to satisfy two conflicting customer demands: to cut costs and to open more factories in fast-growing emerging markets so that they can be closer to their customers' production plants. Striking the right balance between cost and proximity in global manufacturing networks will be one of the industry's greatest challenges, according to a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), conducted in partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. The report is titled The Proximity Paradox: Balancing Auto Suppliers' Manufacturing Networks.
Analyst Insight: Collaboration is widely identified by supply chain analysts as a critical trend for supply chain execution. But it is one thing to "say" collaboration and quite another thing to get it right and garner real results from your efforts. For the best results, think of collaboration and integration together. And don't be afraid to contract for collaboration. - Kate Vitasek is a faculty member of the University of Tennessee's Graduate Center for Executive Education.
Analyst Insight: Companies today face a wide range of security risks to their supply chains as well as to their sources of supply. In order to overcome vulnerabilities, they should have a deep understanding of their internal and external supply chains, and be able to quantify the likelihood and impact of security threats. – Glen Goldbach, Director, and Kelvin Harris, Director, PwC's Advisory Practice