7 Steps for Supply Chain Strategy Planning and Execution

Supply Chain professionals often get carried away with a ton of information available while defining strategy. It could range from business demands, customer expectations, employee experience, cost pressures, partner engagement, etc. It is easy to miss the core objective of strategy resulting in unclear expectations, poor response, confusion within the team, and disengaged business leaders.

This article lists 7 key steps for effective Supply Chain Strategy Planning and Execution.

To begin with, focus on a minimum viable strategy instead of a comprehensive one. External market events, internal business priorities, and competitive landscape will force you to adapt and with minimum viable strategy, it will be faster.

Identify and engage key stakeholders early in the process. This should include teams who affect or influence Supply Chain Planning and execution. Work with individuals who bring a good mix of management and operational experience. Keep them engaged and informed at all the critical junctions.

Brainstorm and identify key strategic initiatives - business, customer, and people critical. Keep it between 5 to 10 max to ensure the required focus. Too less will not cover all key areas and too many will dilute the strategic aspect of the initiatives. This should be regularly reviewed and tracked by Top Management.

Assign clear ownership of strategic initiatives to the Leadership team. These should carry good weight in their objectives. Supply Chain Leaders should sponsor these initiatives and deliver.

Define the before and after scenario for each strategic initiative. Set success criteria - if met, the initiative is considered successful. Be realistic in terms of goals and timelines. Don't set yourself up for failure!

Cascade the plan not only to p down but also side by side. Be flexible in accommodating inputs from teams as long as it does not affect the fundamentals of the plan. It's fine! We cannot keep everyone happy in the process

Test a few critical scenarios just to get the confidence. It may reveal important things we might have missed earlier in the process. Try to adapt and improve the plan.