Attaining strategic fit between your competitive strategy and having the ability across your supply chains to meet customer needs is the secret behind raising levels of efficiency in meeting customer needs. This is an area seldom considered critical in the structure of supply chains. 

The most important step is to achieve strategic fit between your supply chain and the needs of each market segment to be served. Undertanding their needs and the implied demand and supply uncertainty leads to an informed strategic sourcing program. This is followed by an honest assessment of whether your current supply chain structure is suitable to support these segments. Included in this process is gaining an understanding of your supply chain drivers and whether they will support your goals.

What about your teams? Do your teams have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to perform their roles, and are they fully utilised? Don’t think goals can be easily achieved without clearly defining the route to success.

Within this assessment one needs to be willing and able to provide the levels of responsiveness demanded by your customer base and this leads to ensuring your pull/push boundaries are well structured and managed.

This is a great way to ensure efficiency is build into your supply chain from the get-go!