9th Annual Global Supply Chain Survey

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the March-April 2012 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

March-April 2012

New research from the Aberdeen Group under-scores the importance of spend analysis. The findings, however, also show a gap between those companies struggling to implement a spend analysis program and the best in class. Aberdeen’s Constantine Limberakis relates the lessons learned from these leaders that can move you up the competency ladder.

Browse this issue archive.

Already a subscriber? Access full edition now.

Need Help?

Contact customer service

847-559-7581   More options

Not a subscriber? Start your magazine subscription.

This year’s survey focused on the progress being made across three capabilities that are essential to supply chain success today —visibility, analytics, and flexibility. As in past surveys, clear levels of competency emerged among the respondents. We’ve termed them the leaders, followers, and laggards. And it’s not surprising that the leaders’ superior performance in these key areas translates directly to competitive advantage.

Supply chain managers are key contributors to stabilizing the abrupt economic changes. They do this by aggressively managing costs and crafting a flexible supply chain to retain market share through increasing customer service. In this year’s Global Survey of Supply Chain Progress1 we see a continuing role of supply chain managers as the economy rebounds. This ninth annual survey explored three factors that we believe will be critical to companies’ abilities to capitalize on growth opportunities: these factors are visibility, analytics, and flexibility.

The survey results do indeed show that supply chain leaders are building systems and developing partnerships that give them greater depth of visibility into a wider set of factors. Equally important, however, these leaders know what to do with the vast amounts of information that their visibility systems provide. First, they possess the analytical capabilities to make sense of the information. Second, they possess the flexibility needed to respond to new needs and opportunities uncovered by their analytical tools. Combining these areas of expertise creates a formidable and responsive supply chain. Our data show that firms who are taking these initiatives are outperforming their rivals in many dimensions, including both growth and profit.

This complete article is available to subscribers only. Click on Log In Now at the top of this article for full access. Or, Start your PLUS+ subscription for instant access.

Not ready to subscribe, but need this article?
Buy the complete article now. Only $20.00. Instant PDF Download.
Access the complete issue of Supply Chain Management Review magazine featuring
this article including every word, chart and table exactly as it appeared in the magazine.

SC
MR