08 SCS:VIEWPOINT
SOURCING
The China
syndrome
It might be an uphill struggle, but there
are opportunities; you have to be
prepared, smart – and agile.
JEFF SCREETON
With the ascendancy of China, both economically
and culturally, will the tables be turned and
Western culture no longer be the benchmark in
the new world order? We know of course that
China is soaking up a good proportion of the
manufacturing capacity and India is snapping up
British companies like it's going out of fashion. But
what next?
My personal view is that while most will see
these changes as a threat they also present a
huge opportunity to think differently, act
differently and compete on better terms; the
biggest, and most challenging, caveat for many
people of course is that they must be willing to
adapt to change, step outside their comfort
zones and be willing to explore new avenues and
ways of doing things with and within their
supply chains.
British goods are still admired and sought after
in India and China. Although these are huge
markets that our manufacturing base can take
advantage of at any time, the opportunities will
only grow if British management is willing to think
and act smarter – which brings me back to my
opening statement.
There is no question that there will eventually
TECHNOLOGY
Paper tigers in
the supply chain
Supply chain mobility
means removing the
paper chain.
RIKKE HELMS
While industries such as manufacturing, energy
and finance have been the earliest adopters of
mobile technology, in their efforts to try and
glean additional efficiencies from field service
forces, deployment issues and technological
limitations have typically hampered uptake across
other sectors. However, times are changing, and a
raft of new customisable mobile applications are
now making an impact within a wide variety of
businesses, and at numerous different stages of
the supply chain, in particular.
Perhaps the key to this is the fact that
increased industry competition and general
awareness have made customers more adept
than ever before at migrating their business to
the supplier that best meets their demands –
whether it be the lowest price or highest
standard of service. The onus is now squarely on
businesses to examine their supply chains and
identify any processes that could be streamlined
to reduce costs and overall timeframes,
ultimately with a view to passing on these
benefits to the customer.
Furthermore, these workers in many cases form
the main customer-facing part of an organisation,
and it’s crucial that such customer contact
experiences are made as satisfying as possible.
Having the right staff is one key factor; but
providing these employees with the best possible
tools in which to do their jobs is just as vital.
Through the use of mobile applications,
delivered to a wide variety of handheld devices
ranging from mobile phones to PDAs and
BlackBerries, field workers are now able to
SEPTEMBER 2008 SUPPLY CHAIN STANDARD
www.supplychainstandard.com
perform processes such as invoicing, ordering
stock and sending or receiving job updates and
cancellations electronically, as opposed to the
manual methods previously adopted.
It’s about following the paper chain – wherever
paperwork is currently required, a mobile
application can theoretically be deployed in its
place. Considering the amount of supply chain
tasks that, for the majority of organisations, will
currently involve at least some time-consuming
paperwork, such as sourcing goods, deliveries or
even compliance with regulatory measures, this
represents potentially massive time and cost
savings. It also means greater efficiency from a
customer perspective, whether through speedier
product dispatching, more responsive customer
service (thanks to improved internal information
flow) or simply lower costs in general.
One of the major drawbacks to mobility
rollouts used to be the widespread upheaval and
disruption to workers for the duration of the
project. Fortunately, the industry has learnt from
its previous failings and the latest breed of
mobile applications are specifically designed with
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