Stuck building a future state supply chain? Try using Value Stream Mapping to build engagement and alignment first.
When I was a supply chain manager it was sometimes difficult to articulate to my colleagues that long standing supply chain challenges were the result of poor upstream processes and historical decisions. Sometimes it felt like I was banging my head against the wall trying to explain why our service was below where it needed to be or why we could not change our distribution model overnight. Building an efficient and customer centric supply chain needs everyone in the business to work together and align on the future state and to understand their role. Without the right level of buy in and understanding from all users many future state supply chain roadmaps often fail to get off the ground.
A great tool and methodology to build engagement and alignment on what the issues are and how they can be fixed is Value Stream Mapping. When done with the right people from all parts of the business, it is a great way to map out how a process works now. Having a common understanding of the current state process builds engagement and alignment on identifying a better way. Using this engaged team to then co-design the ideal future state gives you the basis for a roadmap and set of initiatives to deliver improvements.
Recently we have been doing some work with Silver Fern Farms to look at an end to end process which has highlighted the value in bringing together a cross functional group of people to agree what the current state process is and what the opportunities are. We had people from across the business who for the first time appreciated the complexity of some of the process steps and the issues caused by what they do, or don’t do! As well as building a great level of understanding the team are motivated and aligned to design the future state and roadmap of activity to deliver it.
“Great to flesh out the entire process from farm to plate and all the involvement from the various parts of the business in delivering this, all too often we take this process for granted and just expect it to happen (because it does), huge respect to our highly experienced team and the mountains they move at times to keep the process flowing” Livestock Rep
“I found the value stream mapping experience incredibly valuable as the deep knowledge and insights of the SFF team were surfaced and considered through the structured approach ably led by the LMAC team. The experience left me with the possibility of progressing with incremental improvements or the opportunity for a radical rethink with a much more ambitious outcome the objective.” Chief Transformation officer
“This process would be great to capture and educate others across the business so we all appreciate the flow, and what required at the different levels and stages of delivery.” Livestock team
Are you ready to discuss your current and future state supply chain needs contact us.