Seven Habits of Effective Supply Chain Managers

1. Skeptical : Supply Chain Managers always look for the risks involved in every strategy, plan or move. Being skeptical doesn’t mean that they are averse to risk taking but simply prepare themselves for any eventuality and have a backup or mitigation plan in place. The ability & habit of generating “what-if” scenarios help them to minimize exposure to operational and financial risks.
   
   “What-if my most critical supplier close down shop?”
   
   “What-if there is a strike at the port?”
   
   “What-if the commodity prices shoot up beyond expectation?”
   
   It may sound crazy to expect a person to always imagine negative events all the time. But it is always better to foresee them than to be surprised by them.

   
   
2. Eye for Details: Supply Chain Managers don’t go by perceptions or the superficial analysis. They are the one who change perceptions by presenting in depth and unbiased analysis. They are aware that the devil lies in details and they don’t let the devil catch them by surprise. However there is a difference between having an eye for details and getting lost in details.
   
   A superficial Supply Chain Manager will try to solve the problem of increasing backlog of customer orders by increasing safety stocks. Whereas the effective supply chain manager will get into root cause of the problem e.g. forecast reliability or production reliability and attack the right cause.
   

3. Observant: Supply Chain Managers are astute and inquisitive observers. They are not dependant only on reports and excel analysis to take decisions. They keep an eye on softer aspects, qualitative and informal information to blend it with the quantitative data.
   
   Supply Chain Managers regularly visit the markets and customers they serve. They observe the market reality and ask questions to their customers about demand trends or competition etc. Whereas a superficial manager will always be satisfied with the sales forecast received from Sales or Marketing. Supply Chain Managers are aware of the IR sensitivity in their factories. They use it in making a decision on changing production schedules up or down.

4. Technology Friendly : Supply Chain Managers are comfortable with technical developments in the area of Supply Chain. They don’t have to be technology wiz kids themselves but they continuously update themselves and evaluate the technology in their area.
   
   I have seen many Supply Chain Managers scoffing at a technical or IT tools as a fad. They always believe that technology means more cost to company. As a result they continue to use obsolete and unproductive methods.
   
   On the other hand the companies with great supply chains are the ones who adopted new technology at an early stage. Dell is one such but not the only example. Unilever, P&G, Toyota adopted technology in supply chain and gained market shares.

5. Challenge the Obvious: Supply Chain Managers always look for continuous improvements by challenging what might seem to be given. They don’t take anything for granted.
   
   I remember a Purchasing Manager of a big multinational company facing a problem of frequent rejections of material from a supplier. All steps starting from calling the supplier to factory to sending the technical teams to his manufacturing facility didn’t seem to work. The whole focus was on and around the supplier.
   
   One day, he questioned his own factory if they were measuring the quality parameters correctly. He had to face the fury of everyone right from the Factory Manager to the Quality Manager. The company’s quality procedures were taken for granted and assumed to be the perfect. However, he wasn’t perturbed and decided to observe the testing in the laboratory himself. He noticed that operator was drawing number of samples at one go and there was a time lag between drawing the samples and testing. The material that was supposed to be kept at low temperature, crossed the threshold and gave different results in the testing. They changed the procedure to drawing & testing samples one by one and everything was fine.
   
   Supply Chain managers don’t believe that there are any holy cows.

6. Team Player: This is one habit without which no Supply Chain Manager can hope to survive. I have seen many Supply Chain managers becoming victim of their own politics. All supply chain processes require involvement of cross functional teams and making them agree for the “business cause” is the most challenging task.
   
   Supply Chain anchors the balance between demand and supply, cost and service. Taking sides or pleasing one section can be dangerous for supply chain performance. Also not involving a section of relevant people in a process may lead to a biased view of situation and wrong decision making. Whether it is demand planning, supply planning or customer service strategy, you cannot do without cross functional team involvement.

7. Flexible: Supply Chain Managers cannot afford to hold to a point of view. As the business and external conditions change, they need to adapt themselves to the change. They change their strategy and review their processes to align with the business. They are flexible enough to allow elbow room for any unforeseen deviations that may happen in the chain.
   
   Some of the statements like the ones below are not accepted any more:
   
   “ The demand forecast is frozen and I will not allow any change until next month”
   
   “ This order may be urgent but I will not ship it unless there is a full container load”
   
   One reason most of the commercial or business managers hate supply chain people is for their lack of flexibility. In the garb adherence to processes. the supply chain people may overlook the business needs. The flexibility has to be built into the processes and performance management. The attitude has to change from “why it can’t be done” to “this is how it can be done”. We must appreciate the fact that Supply Chain is a mean to a business goal and not an end by itself.