achieving supply chain excellence · college of business when they complete the full program....

1Achieving Supply Chain Excellence

ACHIEVING SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE

Giving Leaders a Strategic ViewThe world’s leading supply chains find new ways to create value for customers while also driving bottom line improvements. These advantages come as managers develop deep understanding of interconnections and interdependencies that drive effectiveness across end-to-end supply chains.

Supply chains are evolving to serve more customers across more channels. Supply chain teams are signing up more suppliers to improve reach and resiliency. They also are installing new technologies to improve supply chain transparency and responsiveness. Driving success in these major initiatives requires leaders to gain a holistic view of the supply chain, develop strategic mindsets, collaborate across functions and modify processes to manage new information flows within and beyond the company.

Leveraging The Experts at Top-Ranked Penn State Smeal College of BusinessFaculty affiliated with Penn State’s Center for Supply Chain Research study influences and forces shaping today’s supply chains. They translate research into learning programs that empower leaders with critical knowledge and tools that are key to successful supply chain management.

Penn State’s supply chain curricula has been ranked #1 by global research and advisory firm Gartner since the inception of Gartner’s program to rate and rank supply chain education.

Driving Effectiveness Across The End-to-End Supply Chain

It truly opens people’s eyes up to what’s happening in the organization. As a result, people start making better decisions because they have a better idea of how the organization operates.

-Brad SorensonSenior Vice President, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Boston Scientific

CorpU and Penn State have worked in partnership to shape Penn State’s award-winning programs into powerful online experiences that produce measurable ROI, meet the needs of busy leaders, and deliver cost and timing benefits.

Why World-Leading Supply Chains Make This Program a Top PriorityCompanies who’ve had supply chain teams participate in the Penn State/CorpU program value these aspects of the program: • courses are customized to the unique needs of each

customer

• leaders identify millions of dollars in immediate improvement opportunities

• the experience taps into, and builds on, the collective experience and knowledge of each company’s own supply chain team,

• learning fits into the flow of leaders’ work so they don’t have to leave job locations

• leaders earn a certificate from the Penn State Smeal College of Business when they complete the full program



A Unique Way to Improve Supply Chain Leadership Skills CorpU worked with experts from the Penn State Smeal College of Business to convert their expertise into fast, fun and valuable virtual courses that we call SPRINTS. Sprints represent a Minimum Effective Dose for time-challenged teams to build new capabilities.

SPRINTS ARE: • Time effective: initiatives fit around leaders’ busy

schedules, no more than 2-3 hours of course materials per week

• Rigorously relevant: content is tailored to focus on each company’s unique supply chain objectives

• Business focused: discussions are engineered to help leaders apply concepts

• Scalable: cohorts of 20-50 work well. Larger cohorts are highly cost effective.

• Actionable Insights:: interventions drive business impact illustrated through analytics

Program Features Achieving Supply Chain Excellence consists of five 1-week Sprints developed by Penn State Smeal College of Business and CORP/U. The program of Sprints gives leaders an end-to-end perspective on operations and a common language to identify and discuss improvement opportunities. Leaders take the first steps to move beyond seeing the supply chain as a group of functional/ tactical activities in a linear chain to seeing it as a strategic entity operating within an ecosystem that includes customers, suppliers and partners.

SPRINT 1: Finding Opportunities in Your End-to-End Supply ChainFinding Opportunities in Your End-to-End Supply Chain reviews factors that are driving change across supply chains. Leaders learn why globalization, new technologies, omni channel strategies, sustainability and other factors are forcing supply chains to evolve. To manage this evolution, leaders must see the “big picture” of the end-to-end supply chain to find the next wave of performance improvements and competitive advantages. Leaders learn why higher levels of performance come through cross-functional processes that integrate work done by functional teams and favor performance of the entire supply chain over functional excellence.

Example Daily Agenda

WATCH READ ASSESS CASE STUDY DISCUSS APPLY



SPRINT 2: Improving Procurement PracticesProcurement organizations, once tasked to find the cheapest price of supplies and raw materials, have become a strategic force for developing strong relationships with networks of partners and suppliers. In Improving Procurement Practices, leaders learn why it’s important to set standards for selecting suppliers, create scorecards to monitor and manage supplier performance, and develop suppliers to strengthen their capabilities. The Sprint reveals new opportunities to create competitive advantages through the combined capabilities of the company and its suppliers.

SPRINT 3:Competitive Implications of Demand PlanningCompetitive Implications of Demand Planning gives leaders new appreciation of three key practices: forecasting, demand planning and inventory management, and how they impact millions or even billions of dollars in company funds. Leaders explore inventory management practices that can tie up or waste a company investment, and discuss ways to improve inventory practices. They discover why cross-functional processes like Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) are needed to rationalize multiple forecasts and align planning practices across multiple functions. Leaders also analyze the dramatic impacts of failures in these three key practices, such as the ramifications of being out of stock on even a single item.

SPRINT 4: Manufacturing as a Strategic VariableNew and exciting innovations within manufacturing create opportunities to:• Produce smaller batches and more varieties

of products to meet needs of unique customer segments

• More easily shift production capabilities to new locations to meet customer local demands faster

• Improve transparency into information and planning to better synchronize supply with demand for improved customer service

Manufacturing as a Strategic Variable helps leaders consider how all areas of supply chain can begin to seize opportunities borne of new capabilities and capacities in manufacturing. Leaders also discuss how they can work with manufacturing to build quality throughout an entire value chain to develop flawless products.

SPRINT 5: Critical Decisions in Logistics ManagementLogistics management is moving to front and center of supply chain leaders’ attention for these key reasons:• it provides the pathway through which companies

can reach new customers in new markets

• it represents a key touch point where customers expect excellence

• it consumes up to half the costs associated with a supply chains

• it is continually impacted by external factors like fuel costs and regulations

• it’s an area that is constantly improved and transformed through automation (technologies like Blockchain open a world of new possibilities)

In Critical Decisions in Logistics Management, Leaders dive into cost, design, and network concepts of transportation, warehousing and other distribution logistics, and consider tradeoffs the organization must make to develop efficient and effective distribution systems.

OPTIONAL SPRINT 6: Idea TournamentIdea Tournaments give leaders the opportunity to synthesize all ideas from Achieving Supply Chain Excellence into proposals to improve performance in their company’s supply chain. Idea Tournaments pose a specific improvement challenge and ask leaders to propose solutions, and characterize their proposed solution by defining their value and the ease with which they can be implemented. Proposed solutions are then circulated to all participants for rating and feedback. Through multiple rounds, ideas become more refined until the best ideas with the highest projected return and that are the easiest to implement, rise to the top and can be slotted for implementation. Cohorts of leaders have identified opportunities ranging from $58M to $240M.



Why CORP/U Sprints Achieve Measurable Business ImpactSupply Chain executives want confidence that investments in talent will yield measurable positive impact on business performance. Every aspect of the Penn State/CorpU supply chain program is designed to teach leaders practical, immediately actionable concepts they will use to improve supply chain performance. • Videotaped lectures, reading assignments, and

engineered discussions give leaders a strong grasp of new supply chain principles and how to apply them.

• Leaders learn in groups - bringing together cross-functional perspectives - to apply collective wisdom toward breakthrough performance improvements.

• Simulations safely check leaders’ understanding of new concepts before they apply them on the job.

• Case studies demonstrate ideas in practice, and offer suggestions about how to apply the same principles in a new context.

• Idea tournaments manage a process for leaders to propose, review, rank and plan action on solutions to tough challenges.

What Supply Chain Teams Can ExpectPenn State/CorpU supply chain programs demonstrate a dramatic improvement over traditional virtual learning. These program attributes contribute to both high completion rates (92%) and stellar Net Promoter Scores (+58):

• 30 minutes of Sprint activities each day for four days

• A 60-minute virtual Live Event with expert faculty who discuss takeaways and the cohorts’ application plans

• A faculty member and a coach who answer questions and provide day-to-day support to help leaders apply what they are learning.



About PSU Experts

STEVE TRACEYExecutive Director of the Center for Supply Chain Research™ and Penn State Executive Programs, and an instructor for the Supply

Chain and Information Systems Department within Smeal College of Business. Diverse

global background directing operations with full P&L responsibilities in more than 14

countries.

CHRIS NOREK, PH.D.Senior Partner, Chain Connectors, Inc. and Affiliated Faculty Member in Supply Chain

Management, Penn State University. Leads engagements in supply chain

strategy, include supply chain organizational structure, inventory strategy and

transportation strategy.

C. JOHN LANGLEY JR., PH.D.Clinical Professor of Supply Chain

Management in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University with

Worldwide recognition in Logistics, including Top 5 Logistics Leaders Award. Former president of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and a recipient of the Council’s Distinguished

Service Award Research.

CHRIS CRAIGHEAD, PH.D.Dove Professor, Haslam College of

Business at the University of Tennessee, and Affiliated Faculty in Supply Chain Management at Penn State University.

Primary research areas include strategic sourcing and supply chain disruptions, risk

and resilience.

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