How to Create an Agile Supply Chain

A supply chain can make or break any business. A backlog of only one crucial part can create havoc and generate significant economic loss. In a global economy, having an agile supply chain is more important than ever. It is an element of operations that continually should be evaluated.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Commit to flexibility and adaptability in regards to your supply chain. Convince those who will implement the necessary programs of its importance.
2. Identify the factors involved in past problems with your company's supply chain. Review your business's past history for its biggest problems. Imagine the worst case scenarios for future problems, including "black swan" circumstances.
3. Implement simple solutions for these problems. For example, find alternative means of transporting parts or product and establish means of accessing them. You also can continually split transportation contracts.
4. Design programs for those solutions that are not solved simply. Prioritize problems on the basis of which are most likely. Systematically move through these problems.
5. Address flexibility and adaptability while moving through the later stages of disaster-proofing your production. Begin by asking for input from all levels of production, even levels below that of managers.
6. Centralize responsibility for reviewing plans for change. Those with the responsibility should have a broad base of experience. Involve consulting firms if needed, but critically assess the skills of the consultants such that they fit into your team.
7. Integrate the newer theories of agile supply chains, specifically those that allow for greater coordination between customers and suppliers, where appropriate.

Tips & Warnings

• The reason that input should sought from all levels is that there are abundant examples of significant improvements in an industry that originated from "troops in the trenches." For example, the medication monitoring system now used in most hospitals originated with a suggestion from a Veteran's Hospital nurse who watched cars being checked in at a rental car company.
• Whenever there is a general introduction of new technology into business, theory abounds about how that technology should be used. It is crucial that change be founded in the firm principles of your business and how new technology should be used and not how new technology might be inappropriately fitted into production.
• Unless absolutely necessary, do not completely sacrifice production for a long period of time while implementing change.