Dear Supply Chain Managers, Knowing Where to Start is Half the Battle
Starting with a high level view of the supply chain can help business leaders, supply chain professionals, and customer easily determining the urgency, cost impacts, and players involved.
SUPPLY CHAIN NAVIGATION MODELHIGH LEVEL PHASES
David J. Gable
8/1/20242 min read
Introduction
All too often people will panic when supply chain problems set in. The team will get frustrated or confused or even angry at the fact that problem has occurred and needs to be fixed. In the moment these emotions might be warranted, but in the period following the emotional reaction we need to quickly find a way to identify where to focus out effort so as to maximize our impact to fix the issue. The Juncture Point approach is to identify in which bucket of our high level supply chain process the problem is in and then start to resolve the problem there.
Similar to other high level processes, such as the SCOR model from ASCM, the Juncture Point Supply Chain Navigation Model is designed as a heuristic to help professionals and customers more effectively and efficiently navigate the supply chain to resolve issues or simply conduct operations.
Supply Chain Navigation Model
The Juncture Point Supply Chain Navigation Model starts with three high level phases: Plan, Execute, React. For purposes of this post, we encourage professionals and customers to start at these high level phases. Ask yourself is the situation occurring during planning, execution, or reaction? Knowing this from the outset will assist in determining a few key things.
Urgency. Generally speaking, urgency increases as you move from Plan to Execution to Reaction. As a plan is being developed, we typically have time to make adjustments with minimal urgency or impact. This changes as we move into execution where there timing is more crucial. Urgency increases even more as we move into reaction where delays are most likely occurring.
Cost. Similarly speaking, costs will accrue or increase as we move from planning through to reaction, since the execution and reaction phases likely involve a delay or stop in operations. Time is money, so any delay will result in some form of monetary impact.
Players. This may not seem important, but it is critical. Knowing with is involved and/or responsible can make a big difference in clearing up the situation and returning the supply chain to good working order, and in a timely manner.
Conclusion
All that being said, it is a good for business leaders, supply chain professional, and customers to quickly determine in what phase of the supply chain the situation is currently taking place. The Juncture Point high level phases are Plan, Execute, and React. Knowing if the situation is in the Planning, Execution, or Reaction phase will undoubtedly help assess the urgency of the situation, potential cost ramifications, and which players are involved.