A company’s success often depends on how well it has integrated and standardized its supply chain. After all, supply chain management is the process of how a product is made and distributed. Whether it’s a physical product, a service, or even a piece of software, a strong supply chain is critical. Identifying where there are gaps, inefficiencies, and areas of opportunity within your organization’s supply chain is the first step in achieving operational excellence.
In this article, we will discuss the challenges that affect today’s supply chain projects and how we partner with our clients to create the best future supply chains.
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Working in Today’s Supply Chains
Across all industries, supply chain challenges remain the same – raw materials shortages, backlog management, transportation/delivery delays, supplier management, misuse of data, and lack of partners’ communication, coordination, and collaboration.
During the COVID-19 global pandemic, many supply chains took a dramatic hit. Manufacturing sites were forced to close, adhere to a smaller workforce, accept lead time increases of +8 to 12 months, and adjust to more expensive and longer transportation lanes. Stock shortages were apparent and supply chains were struggling across most industries.
As we move away from crisis management due to the pandemic, it’s important to learn from the damaging effects it caused and focus on how to create less vulnerable supply chains for tomorrow. This is where CORTAC Group can provide operational support. As project management experts, we provide structure, organization, and methodologies that drive project success and on-time delivery.
For example, CORTAC was brought on to help a Fortune 100 client who experienced a major bottleneck in their large-scale satellite supply chain. We were able to assess, restructure and create a plan to enable visibility and collaboration across their organization. Thus, our client’s on-time order rate jumped from 54% to 90% post-implementation.
Our approach is always to partner with clients and allow them to focus on strategic tasks and be experts in their line of work. At the same time, we tackle projects that have either failed or for too long remained in the pipeline without proper execution. Together, we help organize and deliver projects that fit the needs of their supply chain strategy with the intent of passing them on to you for sustainable operational use.
Setting up a Supply Chain PMO
One of the ways an organization can oversee and optimize its supply network is to set up a PMO specialized for these activities. A PMO is an organizational structure used to standardize the portfolio, program, or project-related governance processes and facilitate sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques. A Supply Chain PMO serves the same purpose, but it specializes in managing an organization’s supply network/activities/etc.
The key benefits of a Supply Chain PMO include:
- Structured governance with improved transparency and communication.
- Well-organized data to keep projects on track and report on the status.
- Relevant tools for reporting and managing shared resources.
- Strategy with a customer focus.
- People and cultural sensitivity.
- Clear processes.
- Improved overall project success rate through alignment with the business strategy.
The major components of a Supply Chain PMO are Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Logistics Management, Supplier Performance Management, Procurement Management, and Master Scheduling Management.
To set up a successful Supply Chain PMO it’s important to assess the current state of the company’s supply chain and analyze what works and what doesn’t. If something does not work, why? What projects have been in the pipeline? What resources have been allocated, and are they meeting the project plan and budget?
Partners in Supply Chain Project Management
Project Management expertise is important for developing and improving supply chain management capabilities. However, it is by partnering with our clients, who are the experts in their own supply network, that we provide value. We rely heavily on the client’s expert judgment to identify areas of opportunity in their supply chain. As project managers focused on people, processes, and tools, we act as a co-pilot to drive innovation and deliver desired targets.
With a portfolio of projects across industries like aerospace, technology, energy, and pharmaceuticals we have seen and studied many diverse types of supply chains. For instance, to reduce manufacturing time, product-to-market time, and create a safer, more consistent, and more efficient process, a pharmaceutical client launched into a Manufacturing 4.0 environment.
Proper scheduling, governance, an agile framework, and digital dashboards were the strengths that we were able to provide the client. With alignment and effective communication from all global stakeholders along with a detailed project plan that accounted for change control, the client was able to implement the desired changes into Manufacturing 4.0 by the end of 2021 and has a roadmap for total transformation by 2025.
Take the Next Step
Our 15 years of experience specializing in project management consulting allows us to continuously refine our own approach to fully understand client needs. We continue evolving to meet customer demands, increase speed to market and focus on quality, supply chain needs transformation. It can be overwhelming to set up a PMO that meets your needs; reach out to CORTAC Group to jump start your plan.
About CORTAC Group
CORTAC Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of MI-GSO|PCUBED. MI-GSO|PCUBED Group, with 3000 employees in over 15 countries, pursues its development and strategy as the leader and pioneer in PMO and PPM consulting. Since the early 90s, MI-GSO|PCUBED has provided best-in-class services to R&D, IT and transformation projects.