Appliance Deployment Featured Article

Recently, the appliance deployment pros at NEI (News - Alert) outlined what they see as three trends aimed at achieving the goal of companies to “lead on cost, customer service and product innovation,” using a blended customer-focused supply chain management strategy.

NEI officials reviewed the “2011 Trends and Issues in Logistics and Transportation Study” released at the CSCMP conference in Philadelphia, isolating what they say are three key trends to move towards an competitive advantage for firms.

First are segmented supply chains. Firms responding to the survey cited above had “an average of more than three unique supply chains,” NEI officials say, which of course raises the question: “Okay, why? What’s the point?” The most common answer was to try to be “all things to all people.” NEI officials observed that maybe various supply chains enable a company to focus on different strategies in different segments:“one supply chain may focus on cost leadership while another is aimed at customer service.”

Next are shortened and more complex product life cycles. The “shortened” part is good; the “more complex” part is where a bit of explanation is needed. We all want to rapidly develop and introduce products without jeopardizing existing products, as the study noted, adding that some companies try to do this by sharing common operations, components or materials between product lines. Yes, this can shorten product development by overlapping product lifecycles and keeping costs down.

Lastly is the customer as a stakeholder in the S&OP process. More and more companies today, NEI officials note, are involving key customers in the sales and operations planning process. What are the benefits of this? “More accurate forecasts of customer demands” for one, since “better information leads to better decisions,” NEI officials observed.

It’s just common sense, actually, that increased customer involvement leads to improved product lifecycle management, enhanced product marketing, and greater inventory management , as long as customers don’t start micromanaging the process. In essence, it’s a balance. You want more customer involvement in the ways that will cut down on returns and complaints, and then you want them to go home while you actually produce it for them.

“By creating segmented supply chains, adapting products to more efficiently utilize existing supply chains, and involving key customers in the S&OP process, firms are increasingly applying customer-focused supply chain management strategies to gain a key competitive advantage,” NEI officials conclude., OEMs interested in learning how all of this can work for their application integration and deployment should contact NEI for more information.

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