In the current environment, these imperatives have been heightened and amplified. Moreover, companies need to achieve these goals while dealing with an unprecedented range of issues that are impacting the operation and effectiveness of their supply chains. The most obvious factor is that supply chains are now more global than ever before. As well as having activities and production facilities more widely dispersed around the world, companies are also finding that emerging markets — formerly regarded primarily as lower-cost production centres — are rapidly becoming major centres of consumption.
At the same time, customers in all markets are becoming more demanding, requiring faster and more responsive service and delivery at lower cost. In combination, these factors are driving an upsurge in complexity across all supply chain functional areas, including procurement/sourcing, inventory management, manufacturing, planning, transportation, warehousing and customer service. A further key trend is rapid ageing of the supply chain workforce. With a high proportion of supply chain staff nearing retirement, operations are facing the loss of a valuable wealth of expertise and experience. A related challenge is the difficulty of recruiting new top talent into supply chain roles. As they face up to these challenges, supply chain and procurement professionals are under intense pressure to deliver value. Companies know that just a small percentage improvement in supply chain efficiency — and especially in procurement and inventory management — will have a major impact on their bottom line. So the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of supply chains are all under greater scrutiny than ever before.