Access my space
Our members are recruitingTHE POST OF THE WEEK
The Supply Chain: More than 30 years of existence, and still unknown?
The term Supply Chain first appeared in the world in the mid-1980s. However, even though Supply Chain Departments have become widespread in our companies and are often represented on the Executive Committee, the term remains unknown, vague and little understood.
Is it the term 'supply chain' that is confusing? Perhaps it is.
When I tell people that I am joining the France Supply Chain team, they almost systematically answer me: "What is Supply Chain"? And this is true whatever the audience: families, young people, students, and more surprisingly, people working in companies, large or small.
Explaining the Supply Chain is a bit like asking an astro-physicist to explain the Big Bang...in simple words...Not easy!
In fact, either you don't know anything about the supply chain or you have your own definition.
For some companies, it represents the warehousing and transport functions, i.e. traditional logistics.
For others, it also includes production and purchasing.
Some still put quality and design, i.e. the product development phase, in the mix.
Not forgetting the necessary customer relations, order management and after-sales service.
What makes things complex is that, in addition to the scope, the notion of time plays a major role in the supply chain.
Some of the activities are strategic, long term, such as building a network of warehouses or factories, based on future distribution areas.
Other activities are tactical, medium-term, and enable the means to be implemented to meet forecast demand to be steered. A good example is the management of stock levels over a year, based on sales forecasts.
Finally, many activities are purely the execution of daily tasks: loading and unloading lorries, picking up products in the warehouse, monitoring and controlling a production line, etc.
To make matters worse, our physical and information flows have become increasingly complicated over the past thirty years as trade has become more global and international.
Supply Chain is no longer possible without sophisticated IT tools and there is often a confusion between process and tools. The number of incomprehensible buzzwords is increasing day after day. Consultants regularly use this confusion to propose technical miracle solutions...
An IT tool is nothing without the men and women who use it, who work together and collaborate to achieve a common goal: to serve the end customer as well as possible!
People are at the heart of everything, especially in the supply chain, where there are hundreds of jobs to coordinate. This is the word of someone who has been involved in many international projects in this field for over 30 years...
Finally, new concepts, innovations and crises frequently appear. I am of course thinking of the war in Ukraine, which is disrupting flows in many areas of activity. I am also thinking of COVID, which made us realise that producing close to our consumption areas was actually quite logical and would allow a certain resilience in our supply chains.
And of course, I will end with the necessary revolution that we must carry out in our companies and personal activities in terms of social, societal and environmental impacts.
There is a great deal of work to be done to explain what Supply Chain really is and what it is becoming. More effort is needed to simplify and clarify concepts, to remove confusion in the minds of people, companies and governments, and to demonstrate the huge transformational leverage it represents for a more sustainable world.
France Supply intends to take the lead in this mission. We are delighted and enthusiastic to be part of it with all our members.
HIGHLIGHTS
A new association in Haute-Savoie
A new association is born: Alpes Supply Chain. Created in Haute-Savoie, this group of professionals has been in gestation for more than 2 years. Its will would be to " create a local ecosystem to boost the synergies between actors who do not know each other sometimes and who would have however interests to mutualize their efforts ". For the department alone where it was born, Alpes Supply Chain has counted more than 1300 industrial companies and 600 carriers/logisticians. Its best assets: proximity to Switzerland, the Décolletage Valley, Mountain Tourism, the Sports Industry and proximity to Lyon on the Paris-Marseille axis. In order to achieve its objectives, very operational missions have been defined. First of all, the association would like the members' network to be formed around face-to-face events such as visits to factories, platforms, transporters and transport infrastructures. In the same perspective of meetings, training courses will be organised to help members progress in their own companies and at their Alpes Supply Chain Commissionnaire de Transport Maritime et Aérien Gestion des Achats & des Productivités pour Professionnels level. The very first training courses are expected to provide skills in crisis management in the supply chain, stress management in fluctuating environments and strategic planning for industrial SMEs. As such, as of June 2022, future members will be able to express their interest in this adventure which will officially begin in September 2022. To date, a small part of the programme concocted by Alpes Supply Chain is already available on the website www.alpes-supplychain.com. In the medium term, Alpes Supply Chain hopes to attract the attention of institutions so that they become stakeholders of the association and participate in the collective projects that the members will have chosen to carry out to reduce the societal and environmental impact of their activity.
NOT TO BE MISSED
Latest LAB Digital and Technology events
Digitalisation of transport and Blockchain will be the last two webinars before the summer break.
Events
Find all the events around the Supply Chain.
