As a follow-up to his 2006 book, Living Supply Chains, Dynamic Supply Chains stresses the need for a radically different business model as a result of the Global Financial Crisis, and presents ‘dynamic alignment’ as that model. The book emphasizes how supply chains are about more than warehouses, transport and technology, but about who really drive dynamic supply chains.

According to Gattorna, “The primary focus is on re-interpreting customers’ differing expectations, and using this insight as the frame-of-reference to design the internal cultural capability to respond in the most appropriate ways. The ultimate aim is to eliminate over-servicing and reward those customers currently being under-serviced.”

Four generic supply chain types are identified and described in detail, on both the demand- and supply–sides. On the supply-side, the aim is to reconnect suppliers to enterprise chains rather than operating with separate procurement strategies, unconnected to the front-end. New ways of segmenting suppliers are suggested, which are quite different to conventional methods.

Gattorna identifies and describes a limited number of ‘hybrid’ supply chain configurations that he demonstrates with real examples, and in the process de-mystifies much of the complexity that has built up in contemporary supply chains.

The book promises to:

• Goes beyond logistics, operations and procurement to include the real drivers of dynamic supply chains – the people who run them
• Includes the impact of the recession with chapters covering: creating appropriately aligned strategies; new and efficient organization designs; and the ‘forgotten half of the equation’, supply-side supply chains
• Shows you how the whole leadership team can drive the activity necessary to create a truly customer-focused business
• Includes diagnostic tools to help you assess how aligned your business and supply chains are with your markets and customers

Reader Review

“Most books on supply chain tend to be too academic and most often provide unexciting reading once you get past the basic theory. This book is different in both its premise (different types of supply chains shaped by different types of customer behavior) and the real-life examples that support Gattorna’s theories. And where other tomes on the topic emphasize the role of process and technology in the supply chain, Gattorna places equal emphasis on the human element that makes the difference between success and failure.”

About the author

John Gattorna has worked in and around corporate logistics networks and  supply chains for over two decades.  In the 1980’s, disenchanted with the lack of predictive power in the logistics theories and practices of the day, he set out to find a new business model that would better inform the design and operation of enterprise supply chains.

Based in Sydney, Australia, Gattorna teaches at several universities around the world, speaks regularly at international conferences, and advises boards and the C-suite of several multi-national companies on how to apply alignment principles to their businesses.

View a video detailing highlights of the study below.

Chambers of Commerce, councils and retailers are reporting reduced revenues and an increase in people trying products in stores but then buying on-line from outside the region.

Liam O’Duibher is the convenor of an entrepreneurial workshop next month that wants to develop the idea. He says the region’s retailers could join forces to reduce reliance on in-store shopping. “Their little grey cells are ticking over,” Mr O’Duibher said.

“They’re looking at ‘How can we build something where we may be able to aggregate a number of local providers’ and seeing if we could set up some pack and send style operation that you could have a number of stakeholders involved in.”

Click here to read the story.

Dematic won for the design and rollout of radio frequency (RF) and mobility equipment, as well as its work on Kmart’s new sorter systems.

Core Solutions won for the development and delivery of software services to manage Kmart’s product sourcing and delivery operations.

Kmart general manager – information technology, David Keil, presented Dematic’s award to the firm’s general manager – real time logistics, Nathan Taylor. Greg Hacket accepted the award on behalf of Core Solutions.

Core Solutions software services were implemented to replace Kmart’s previous data management methods for product sourcing and delivery.

Before 2009, Kmart Australia had relied on a series of spreadsheets, combined with email, phone calls, and shared documents to manage this aspect of the business.

However, these earlier methods of storing, updating and sharing information needed to be more accurate and efficient.

By January 2010, Kmart Australia had started using Core Solutions to manage its product life cycle management (PLM), global sourcing for finished goods, costing and quotes acceptance, product quality and audit controls, compliance management, electronic document management, suppliers, traceability, quote requests and order management.

Core Solutions implemented the system in keeping with Kmart’s preference for Software as a Service (Saas) delivered over the Cloud. This came with managed services from Core Solutions running on an IBM infrastructure.

To read the full article, click here.

“CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration  and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation,” McDonald said. “Effective leaders use technology, which includes IT, to strengthen the customer  experience and eliminate costly internal distortions. They are using technology to ‘amplify’ the enterprise.”

Business Intelligence Wins Budget

As McDonald sees it, business strategies call for a combination of growth and operational efficiency  — and effective leaders see customers as the key factor in both of these strategic components, with the customer experience their focal point in reconciling potentially conflicting goals.

“Present economic conditions may tempt CIOs to force IT back into cost-cutting mode, but senior executives expect technology — and this includes IT — to address the tough challenges by amplifying enterprise strategies and operations,” McDonald said.

One areas CIOs may not cut costs is in the areas of analytics/business intelligence, mobility, cloud  and social technologies. In fact, BI and analytics was the top-ranked technology for 2012, Gartner reports, as CIOs are combining analytics with other technologies to create new capabilities. For example, analytics plus supply chain for process management and improvement, analytics plus mobility for field sales and operations, and analytics plus social networking for customer engagement and acquisition.

“BI has importance to line management and that’s who has the budget. So if you can deliver a service that is important to line management you are pretty much assured of getting funding,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “You can justify BI. It’s one of those technologies that line management really likes because it adds value.”

Read the full story here.

In this video, Professor Martin Christopher focuses on the major supply chain challenges that face managers in these uncertain and turbulent times. As Emeritus Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield School of Management in the UK, he is widely recognised as a leader in his field. He delves into three main areas of vital strategic importance: 1. Why supply chain management has become so critical today; 2. The major challenges over the next decade which will impact the supply chain; 3. How Marketing and Logistics are closely connected to business success.

View the video below.

View the video below.

The report predicts that, over the next decade, supplier production will be brought into line with predicted and actual demands from consumers, rather than based on the forecasting models used today. Future products will be shipped to collaborative warehouses in which multiple manufacturers store their products. Competing firms will then collaborate to collect and deliver the goods. They will be driven by demand for carbon-efficient distribution and limited supply chain capacity.

“The trends highlighted in the report underline the need for even more collaboration among all parties in the value chain as we move through these challenging times. We should treat this as an opportunity to urgently act through putting in practice new plans and strategies that better suit the changing needs of our consumers,” said Nigel Bagley, Director for Industry Affairs, Unilever, and Co-Chairman of 2020 Future Value Chain.

The study identified 10 trends impacting this change over the next ten years

1. Increased urbanization and the rise of megacities will impact the size of stores, logistics and the supply chain, and distribution infrastructures.
2. An aging population will have economic and political consequences related to the amount of money spent on necessities like food and drink, and the type of delivery services, store formats and locations
offered to older consumers.
3. The increasing spread of wealth will lead to a growing middle class in developing regions, impacting consumption and availability of food items and providing a source of growth for manufacturers and retailers.
4. The increased impact of consumer technology adoption will be reflected not only in consumers’
own behavior but also in their ability to influence the buying behavior of other consumers as the use of social and digital media continues to spread.
5. An increase in consumer service demands will define new service models, offered via the Internet,
that move beyond selling individual products and will bring different types of “solutions” to consumers and shoppers.
6. The increased importance of health and well being will have significant ramifications as sales of healthful products and services are expected to nearly quadruple in the coming five years.
7. Growing consumer concern about sustainability will lead consumers to look to governments and companies to play a major role in combating climate change.
8. Shifting economic power to countries like China and India will cause trade areas to evolve and a new generation of globally competitive companies from these developing markets to emerge.
9. Scarcity of Natural Resources like energy, water and food will become a growing issue as demand is projected to outstrip easily available supplies over the next decade, resulting in increasing production costs.
10. Increased regulatory pressure will be seen particularly for hot-button areas like the environment, sustainability and food safety.
11. Rapid adoption of supply chain technology capabilities will enable a more synchronized value chain with greater visibility and traceability.
12. The impact of next-generation information technologies like cloud computing will lead to a new way to deal, jointly, with business and technology in the consumer goods industry.

The report draws on insights from 200 executives from some of the world’s leading retailers, consumer goods manufacturers, academics, third party providers and industry organizations. The report examines the changing trends that will have the greatest impact on the industry over the next decade, outlines a number of strategic objectives being put in place as consumer product manufacturers and retailers build strategies for the next 10 years, and provides examples of tactics that can help the industry achieve these objectives.

Based on a survey of executives at retailers, the report points at trends and suggests actions that companies should at for 2012.

So what issues and areas should retailers be looking at?

According to the report, a top one is talent. A lot of executive positions have been shuffled over the past year and in the U.K. at least, Marks & Spencer stood out as a winner by picking up key execs from companies such as Dixons, Tesco and New Look.

Another issue to look at is property. With online retail growing so rapidly, companies are rapidly having to rethink about how many bricks and mortar stores to open. By no means are the physical stores going away, but the trends seem to indicate that significantly fewer stores will be the market of the future and many retailers are a long way from there.

Pricing is another topic that retailers need to think about. While omnichannel retailing refers to giving customers the same experience in every channel, this doesn’t seem to apply to price. The trends indicate retailers are pricing their channels differently. Obviously online is cheaper, with the trend moving towards lower overall prices.

Read the full summary of this report here.

“Sustainable, savvy, and stylish could best describe the business moves made by certain retailers now winding down the year in stellar fashion,” says Style Inc.

The Five companies are:

• Inditex (Zara)
• Amazon
• J-Crew
• Burberry
• Topshop

The theme across all these retailers seems to innovation in retail strategy with a firm grip on e-commerce and multi-channel retailing. Also, all these retailers were able to bring the right products to market quickly and expand successfully into new markets. They were also able to manage returns and customer satisfaction.

Read the full article from Forbes here.