TABLE OF CONTENTS With hundreds of formal supply chain collaborations taking place (Wal-Mart recently announced that 1,200 of its vendors are on CPFR programs), many companies have discovered lessons learned that were expected as well as unexpected. Supply chain collaboration programs open the door for change. If yours is a company that has been stuck in the struggle of "we have always done it that way" or "our trading partners will never change," here is the opportunity to change that, at an acceptable pace and level that are best suited for you and your trading partners. You can learn by actually doing something about it instead of just studying it. Below are some real-world case examples of companies we have worked with and some of their lessons learned. We have purposely protected the names of the companies, but trust us, these are real companies with real issues.
Conflict typically arouses a lot of emotions. However, in many cases, these emotions are justified as we have rewarded and supported this behavior for years. We tend to get emotional when we believe we are doing our job correctly and someone does not like the results. This causes the conflict. We, as well as others, have found that implementing supply chain collaboration causes change or requires making some adjustments to how we have run the business in the past. Roles, behaviors, and performance metrics must be modified, along with the associated incentives to support the collaborative transformation that takes a look at not only...
