Forward, March! Have you 'optimized' excess inventory and lowered costs in your supply chain? Great. But that's only the first step. Get ready to rally the troops for supply chain versus supply chain.(Supply Chain Strategies)

Industry Week, July, 2004 by Teresko, John

SIMPLIFY, COLLABORATE, ADAPT. Those steps to supply-chain optimization seem so natural and easy in the context of Dell, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart. Yet why is supply-chain optimization still the exception rather than the rule?

Why the optimization lag when common knowledge signals that competition today is supply chain versus supply chain? It's not that executives fear change; rather the issue is recognizing the magnitude of change--constant change--that success now requires, notes Boston-based Bob Ferrari, director of supply chain business development for software provider SAP AG.

The difficulty lies in the two primary change agents that threaten traditional modes of competition and business conduct, explains consultant David A. Taylor, author...