The 2021 Supply Chain Agenda

Exec VP Dave Sievers talks with Supply Chain Practice Leader Bob Allen and Principal Josh Nelson about the results from our 2021 Supply Chain Key Issues Research, which detailed how the pandemic made supply chain a top priority for most companies. The research found that integrated business planning was a key to enable companies to pivot quickly when the pandemic hit. The panelists also detail how companies in an array of industries, including fresh food, computers, and fashion, adapted to supply chain challenges during 2020, and discuss lessons learned, progress in digital transformation, recommendations for 2021, and more.

Show Notes

In this episode, guests Bob Allen (Principal & Supply Chain Practice Leader) and Josh Nelson (Associate Principal of Strategy & Transformation) join in to discuss the Hackett Group’s annual 2020 Key Issues Study. Looking at the challenges of the previous year, and focusing towards the landscape of upcoming challenges, supply chain process has become the number one key issue across the client base—a first ever for this.

Listen in as they talk about the systemic shifts in demand that have caused this new challenge.  They identify companies who have taken advantage of the shift with innovative planning to balance the product availability issues and demand surges that took-off in 2020. By looking at both established players and new players—from Tyson Foods to HelloFresh—they see how a variety of companies took advantage of the shifting landscape. A fusion of process improvement through cycle time production, investing talent, and enablement with technology led to the greatest successes.

Dave carries on this episode by working through the different key issues the survey identified in the current market. They see how technology plays a crucial role in analyzing information faster and allowing for integration with other departments. From the issue of cost reduction, to analytical capabilities in modeling and performing measurements, these three experts discuss the various factors that have created the current terrain. They take a look at the changes to channels of market and product mixes that have quickly outdated some processes and called for a redistribution of resources—both capital and people. While productive cost reduction opportunities exist across the supply chain, most of them focus on procurement to capture synergies. Learn about supply risk, supplier base, distribution, and transportation that serve to optimize company advancements.

Dave guides the discussion to see how rear-facing analytics are transitioning to more mature models of forward-looking projections to offer better decisions and quicker replies to keep up with industry. Fashion consumer companies and the food industry both serve as models who have utilized these predictive analytics and re-designed networks.

Do you need to be concerned about the new competitors who can come up the technology curve faster? Why are Cloud-based solution applications utilized even with their limited customization? Should commercialization and commercial support be a higher priority of concern for companies? These experts answer these questions and many more.

In wrapping up the episode, Dave asks for “stage counsel” from Bob and Josh. They encourage the listeners to look at old ways of conducting business and question whether they are the correct way to do so. Don’t miss the digital roadmap, accelerated capabilities, and the opportunity for digital transformation!

Timestamps:

00:30 – Introduction to podcast

00:56 – Introduction to this episode and the guests

1:30 – The Hackett Group’s Key issues survey

2:03- Key Issue #1 of sales and operations planning discussed

2:55 – The defining factor for success in 2020

3:40 – Key Issue #4 product availability issues identified

6:44 – Lessons learned from 2020

8:20 – Key Issue #2 cost reduction analyzed

11:10 – Key Issues #3&7 concerning analytics and modeling advancements

14:05 – How analytics are transforming company capabilities

15:15 – Key Issue #5 modernizing supply chain application platforms looked at

18:00 – The pressure of new competitors

18:21 – Cloud-based solutions

21:50 – Key Issue #9 improved commercialization

24:20 – A look at lessons from the fresh food industry

27:55 – Stage counsel, final thoughts