IDC 2013 Supply Chain Predictions

Last night I sat through the archived broadcast of the 2013 supply chain predictions for manufacturers from IDC.  While it is a little bit of "mom, Country and apple pie" I do think it was a very good presentation as it summarized almost all the key supply chain challenges in one spot.  I would not say this was a "2013" prediction but rather a good primer on what supply chains always have to deal with and what should be in your playbook.  Some years one will be prioritized over another (for example they believe responsiveness and service will override cost in the year ahead) but overall these are the items you are always reviewing as you develop both tactical and strategic plans.

Here are the top 10 as they see it:

1. Resiliency becomes a priority for end users looking to master massive multidimensionality. 
• Prioritize flexibility, visibility and agility
• Mastering this will require you to deal with massive amounts of data. 
2. On the supply side of your supply chain, recognizing inherent cost of long lead times, end users will look at global networks through the lens of both regional and country level sourcing. 
• Finally companies will quantify the effect of long lead times. 
• Trade offs will be made - Most effective sourcing will take over from "low cost" sourcing as companies build tools to quantify the true costs of these activities [ this bullet is my commentary].
3. On the demand side of supply chain, recognizing the need for better service levels and mass customization, end users look again to postponement techniques and data analytics to drive more effective customer insights and smarter fulfillment. 
4. End user IT organizations must support a more productive supply chain ecosystem.
5. Service excellence becomes a strategic priority. 
6. Supply chains optimize omnichannel customer service and cost by enabling trustworthy, efficient and effective supply chains (TEE). 
• The consumer will demand value and trustworthiness (right product, right time, right place, right value).
7. End user supply chains focus efforts to improve collaboration both upstream with suppliers and downstream with customers to better compete in a faster world. 
• Sales and operations planning (S&OP) collaboration will be critical [ my commentary]
• Technology to bind business partners together and to facilitate the flow of information [ my commentary] will also be critical.
8. The modern supply chain gets smarter
• Integration
• Optimization
• Embedded analytics
9. Supply chains invest in technologies that enable visibility, virtualization, and visualization
10. The 'Big Data' era draws dawns for supply chain organizations (what prediction would be complete without mentioning "big data" - my comment)

Those are the 10 and most will say this is what I do all the time as we always are trying to figure out the perfect mix of all of these things.  I would agree.  However, it was very helpful to get it all in one spot and perhaps use a maturity model to rate your supply chain - where are you on each of these dimensions and how important is that dimension to your organization.  

Once you draw that out graphically you can then socialize it in your company and begin drawing out what your 3 - 5 year strategy will look like along with what tactics you may use next year.