Supply Chain Management and Operations Management are the key to success in any organization. Increasingly, companies are leaning up and reducing waste – in whatever area of operations. It has become central to success of businesses in India and the world.
Japanese corporate led the way. They found that organizations that were ‘Lean’ in every way were profitable. In fact, noticing this on his trips to Japanese corporates early on in his career had Steve Jobs hooked. He later brought that concept into Apple during his ‘second coming’ as CEO, he reduced the raw material stocking from two months to one month, contributing to a healthier bottom line.
“Logistics and supply chain encompasses all the value addition processes of an organizations for meeting a customer’s requirements, be it internal or external to an organization. Understanding customer needs, selection of right business partners – suppliers, transporters, storage, manufacturing, distributors, stockiest and retailers etc., developing and maintaining partner relationships, ensuring planning and flow of goods and services and associated flow of information is key to success of supply chain management,” A book, titled The Machine That Changed the World by Womack, Jones and Roos is used by many organizations. “It helps them understand the importance of Operations Management for achieving sustained value addition and becoming successful.”
The companies who achieve Supply Chain Management and Operations Management in every area of their organization are finding a lot of value in it. Over 22 Indian companies have been awarded the prestigious Deming Award by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). They meet changing customer needs through building flexible facilities, using modern project management methodologies, integrating these through lean and agile supply chains.