This report is the second report in a two-part series. The first report published in May 2012 and represents the Supply Chain Executives’ voice and perspectives on supply chain excellence. This report is a companion report reflecting the views of consulting partners working on supply chain across multiple industries. In this report, we contrast the two views while sharing insights from the Consultants’ Aggregate Voice on supply chain excellence.

1. Consultants’ Voice
Views from Over Thirty Consulting Companies
on Supply Chain Excellence
8/21/2012
By Lora Cecere
Founder and CEO
Supply Chain Insights LLC

2. Contents
Research 2
Disclosure 2
Research Methodology and Overview 2
Executive Overview 3
State of Supply Chains 4
The Results 4
Conclusion 9
Methodology 10
About Supply Chain Insights LLC 12
About Lora Cecere 12
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3. Research
This independent research was 100% funded by Supply Chain Insights and is published using
the principle of Open Content research.
It is intended for you to read, share, and use. When you use it, all we ask for in return is
attribution. We publish under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
Creative Commons License and Supply Chain Insights’ citation policy.
Disclosure
Your trust is important to us. As such, we are open and transparent about our financial
relationships and our research processes.
Research Methodology and Overview
This report is the second report in a two-part series. The first report published in May 2012 and
represents the Supply Chain Executives’ voice and perspectives on supply chain excellence.
This report is a companion report reflecting the views of consulting partners working on supply
chain across multiple industries. In this report, we contrast the two views while sharing insights
from the Consultants’ Aggregate Voice on supply chain excellence.
The methodologies for the two quantitative studies are shown at the end of this report.
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4. Executive Overview
For consultants trying to drive supply chain excellence, there is no substitute for Line of
Business leadership. As shown in Figure 1, the overarching concern by consultants
implementing supply chain management projects is the lack of understanding of supply chain
fundamentals by executive leadership teams.
This gap has many symptoms and takes many flavors. One characteristic is for the leadership
team to have the desire to have systems without the willingness to invest in the systems and
people to fix the problem. Another is the gap in understanding of the future impact and potential
of new technology trends. In Figure 1, we share the open-ended responses from the supply
chain consultants.
Figure 1 Supply Chain Consultants’ Challenges and Goals
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5. State of Supply Chains
For the purposes of this report, a supply chain consultant is a person that spends time working
with third-party supply chain teams, often in the industries of retail, manufacturing and
distribution, to improve supply chain processes. This often includes the implementation of
technology. In this report, we share insights from a recent quantitative study completed in July
2012 with input from over 30 different consulting companies. We contrast this data obtained
from the consultants to input gathered in a separate, but related, study fielded in March-April
2012 with responses from over 60 supply chain leaders.
The Results
Overall, supply chain consultants and line of business leaders have general alignment on supply
chain maturity, business trends and future outlooks. As to be expected, the consultants are
further ahead in their thinking. In the study there are slight differences in four areas:
• Consultants Focus on Enablers While Supply Chain Line of Business Leaders
Focus on Outcomes. Consultants implementing supply chain technologies are
more excited about the technology enablers of Software as a Service (SaaS), Big
Data Supply Chains and Business Analytics, while the Supply Chain Leaders are
more excited about the potential outcomes to drive improvements in Demand
Sensing and S&OP. The understanding of how these technology shifts can impact
supply chain processes is much clearer in the minds of Consultants than Supply
Chain Leaders in Line of Business leadership roles.
• Consultants Believe Their Clients Have a Greater Satisfaction with Supply
Chain Execution Systems and a Lower Satisfaction Rate with Supply Chain
Planning. Consistent with the prior Supply Chain Insights study on technology
satisfaction, the supply chain execution systems of warehouse management and
transportation planning have a higher satisfaction rate among Line of Business Users
than the systems of demand planning and Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP).
Consultants’ clients have a lower satisfaction level with planning applications than
supply chain execution systems. Demand planning and demand shaping
technologies are both rated the lowest in current satisfaction and the most important
for future year deployments.
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6. Figure 2 Consultants’ Clients’ Satisfaction Rates with Current IT Systems
• The Gaps in Supply Chain Centers of Excellence Are Smaller for the
Consultants, but the Focus Is on Technology. In the survey, 86% of Consultants
surveyed are working with a client that has a supply chain center of excellence. The
gaps in current and desired states are shown in Figure 3A. When these gaps are
contrasted with Line of Business Leaders in Figure 3B we see that the views of the
Consultants tend to be more technology-driven concerns while the views by the Line
of Business Leaders are more focused on business outcomes. Note the difference in
perspective on key elements like leading an effective S&OP process.
The process evolution for S&OP is over thirty-years old. As the role of the supply
chain shifts in driving business strategy, the goal of the S&OP process changes and
the implementation of the processes become more strategic with a focus on the End-
to-End supply chain. This is both an opportunity and an issue. Supply chains are
more strategic and S&OP processes are more important, but the confusion on the
execution of the practices is high requiring a retooling of both Consultants and Line-
of-Business Leaders.
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7. Figure 3(a) Consultants’ View of Performance vs. Importance of Supply Chain Center of Excellence
Figure 3(b) Line of Business Leaders Perspective on Supply Chain Centers of Excellence Gaps:
Importance and Performance
• Consultants Have a More Mature View of Supply Chain Excellence. There is
general agreement on the definition of the supply chain organization. Both
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8. groups are in violent agreement that supply chain planning, inventory
management and distribution should have direct-line reporting relationships. In
general, Supply Chain Consultants believe that the definitions of the supply chain
organization should be wider than they are today.
Figure 4 Contrast of Views of Reporting Relationships
Embedded in the design of both surveys was a supply chain maturity model shown in Figure 5.
The basis of this model is that while companies start and must continue their focus on vertical
process reliability within source, make and deliver processes, and after delivering reliable
process excellence in these vertical silos, the company can then begin to connect the end-to-
end supply chain (E2E) through the building of horizontal connectors. The efficient and reliable
supply chain goals shown in Figure 5 are characteristic of the implementation of the SCOR
reference model. The Resilient phase is consistent with the implementation of Supply Chain
Risk Management principles along with Integrated Business Planning (IBP), while the Adapt
Phase is characteristic of the Demand-driven Value Network. The last, and most mature phase,
is defined as the Market-driven Value Network. (These concepts are defined in the Supply
Chain Insights report Building Market-driven Value Networks. These concepts are additive: each
phase building on the concepts of the prior.)
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9. Figure 5 Supply Chain Maturity Model
While many of the Line of Business Leaders focus on more traditional definitions of the efficient
and reliable supply chains, the Consultants’ definitions are more mature. As shown in Figure 6,
Supply Chain Consultants have a better understanding that the organization must first achieve
this level of reliability and then shift their focus to building strong horizontal processes to
improve supply chain resiliency and responsiveness.
Figure 6 Contrast of the Definitions of Supply Chain Excellence
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10. Conclusion
The building of the supply chain of the future is dependent on an ecosystem of consulting and
technology partners. While companies have implemented over 150 systems, there is only a high
satisfaction rate with supply chain execution systems. The implementation of planning and the
definitions of supply chain excellence are still a barrier for improved supply chain performance.
While the Consultants see the advance of new technologies as the next frontier, the Line of
Business Leaders are more focused on process improvement. They need to go hand-in-hand
with a clear definition of a multi-year roadmap.
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11. Methodology
Consultants answering this survey had an average 17 years of experience in supply chain management.
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12. The areas of focus vary, with an emphasis on traditional supply chain projects. There is more
focus on the front of the supply chain—demand management and Sales and Operations
planning—than the more supply-centric processes.
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13. About Supply Chain Insights LLC
Supply Chain Insights LLC (SCI) is a research and advisory firm focused on reinventing the
analyst model. The services of the company are designed to help supply chain teams improve
value-based outcomes through research-based Advisory Services, a Dedicated Supply Chain
Community and Web-based Training. Formed in February 2012, the company is focused on
helping technology providers and users of technologies improve value in their supply chain
practices.
About Lora Cecere
Lora Cecere (twitter ID @lcecere) is the Founder of Supply Chain Insights
LLC and the author of popular enterprise software blog Supply Chain
Shaman currently read by 4500 supply chain professionals. Her book,
Bricks Matter, publishes in December 2012.
With over eight years as a research analyst with AMR Research,
Altimeter Group, Gartner Group and now as a Founder of Supply Chain
Insights, Lora understands supply chain. She has worked with over 600
companies on their supply chain strategy and speaks at over 50
conferences a year on the evolution of supply chain processes and technologies. Her research
is designed for the early adopter seeking first mover advantage.
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