TABLE OF CONTENTS Hopefully by now, after you have read most of this book, you are convinced that supply chain collaboration is a good strategy for you and your company to implement or that you should expand your current trading partner collaborations. Supply chain collaboration should be looked at not as a question of "Should we do it?" but instead "When should we do it?" To help you decide on the "when," we have created a Supply Chain Collaboration Readiness Checklist to help highlight potential issues, opportunities, and gaps that you may wish to address prior to embarking on a collaborative supply chain program.
As we have said many times, internal collaboration is often harder than external collaboration. We suggest that you get your own house in order, as much as possible, prior to implementing a supply chain collaboration program with your trading partners. With this in mind, it is also a balance. You do not need to live in a perfect "Class A" internal world prior to engaging in a trading partner collaborative relationship. The financial benefits are so great that we do not believe you can afford to wait too long.
We all know that if we waited for the "perfect world" to become reality, we would never move forward, as we would always find some reason or excuse for not implementing supply chain collaboration. You need to assess your own risks and balance these risks prior to moving forward. We also want to caution you not to take on...
