How to evaluate the supply chain management level of enterprises

Tagore once said, “it’s easy to talk if you don’t want to speak the complete truth.” Therefore, it is a very prudent thing to evaluate others or enterprises. Of course, this also applies to the topic we are discussing today: evaluating the level of enterprise supply chain management. The development of any thing has its objective laws and characteristics of environmental factors, which ultimately forms today’s model or appearance. Therefore, the current supply chain management level of enterprises is the result of yesterday’s continuous accumulation. How to evaluate the supply chain management level of an enterprise objectively, fairly and fairly? First of all, we must have an objective and fair ruler.

Generally, according to the objective law of the development of enterprise supply chain management and the wisdom of experts, and according to the level of development and maturity, we can roughly divide the level of enterprise supply chain management into five levels: primitive, primary, integrated, collaborative and intelligent, as shown in the figure below.

In order to evaluate an enterprise’s supply chain management level objectively, we should not only know the enterprise’s own supply chain management, but also understand the corresponding characteristics of the five levels? Next, Xiaobian will take you to have a look and understand the standards of different levels, so as to evaluate the supply chain management level of enterprises more accurately.

In fact, after a round of understanding, Xiaobian always feels that the most primary stage is similar to the primitive era of our human development. Simple barter does not involve the division of functions temporarily. This kind of supply chain management mode exists in the restaurants, canteens, husband and wife stores we see everyday.

Next, we start from the primary level higher than the original level. What’s more advanced than the original level of enterprise supply chain management is that with a specialized division of functions, that’s enough? Of course, it’s not enough. Is there still some confusion in the division of work, the lack of effective communication and the division of work? Although advanced is still primary, that’s why. However, this is still the most common form of enterprise supply chain management,

The next higher level of management is called integration. From the functional division of primary supply chain, Department isolation to integrated supply chain, the most significant change is the formation of an effective collaboration mechanism within the enterprise, which relies on cross department processes. Planning, purchasing, production, delivery and return are called the five processes of supply chain. This is a little more advanced. Division of labor, coordination, and flow are all starting to produce collaborative operation internally, but it is still far from perfect.

More and more perfect enterprise supply chain management mode will take you into the collaborative supply chain. The higher level of this stage than the integration level lies in not only the smooth internal collaboration, but also the establishment of an effective collaboration mechanism between the enterprise and the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, which can make the real logistics, information flow, capital flow and the three flows flow smoothly in the supply chain. However, this level has relatively low requirements for technology and leadership, otherwise it is difficult to maintain.

Finally, it should be the most perfect supply chain management level of the enterprise now. Based on the collaborative supply chain management mode, integrating new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, robot, UAV, Internet of things, VR / AR and blockchain, and having the management around the three major objectives of visualization, perception and adjustment, is the intelligent supply chain management.

As for the level of enterprise supply chain management, some experts jokingly call it a clear goal to fight and upgrade. Finally, Xiaobian suggests that you should not easily evaluate the level of supply chain management of an enterprise, even if you understand the above five points thoroughly, unless you really understand it. Not every enterprise can grow into a master of global supply chain, but it doesn’t mean that they are always in the primary stage. The most reasonable time to be the best of themselves is enough. For a more comprehensive understanding, consult your acloudear sap partner.

This article "How to evaluate the supply chain management level of enterprises" by AcloudEAR. We focus on business applications such as cloud ERP.

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