10 SCS:ROUND TABLE DEBATE DECEMBER 2008 SUPPLY CHAIN STANDARD
www.supplychainstandard.com
STRATEGY
A PERFECT ORDER
A customer’s vision of what constitutes the perfect order isn’t necessarily
the same as that of a supplier — but can these different views be
reconciled? SAM TULIP
One definition is the right product in the
right quantity from the right source to the
right destination in the right condition at
the right time with the right documentation for
the right cost. An awful lot of rights, and possibly
not an awful lot of profit.
Dave Food from Oracle, our sponsors for this
meeting, suggested that, while “the perfect order”
means getting things right, the customer’s vision
of what constitutes right isn’t necessarily the
same as that of a supplier or service provider. “It
isn’t just about the single deal – there are
MEET THE PANELISTS
MALORY DAVIES
EDITOR, SUPPLY
CHAIN STANDARD
“Customer expectations
are changing all the time.”
probably service elements, support, maintenance,
returns loops. There are pure make-to-order
environments, where we don’t want to accept
orders for things we can’t make within the
parameters; if we are making to stock, there are
judgements about service levels. There are
unexpected orders – who are those actually good
for? There may be a lot of ‘noise’ – consumer
expectations of what constitutes perfection,
driven by innovation or by promotions. And there
is the outsourcing element – who does what? If I
‘own’ the product, but I don’t make it, I don’t ship
DAVE FOOD
BUSINESS DEVELOP-
MENT DIRECTOR -
SUPPLY CHAIN
APPLICATIONS,
ORACLE
“The perfect order is
always going to be very
difficult to achieve, but
we’re getting closer than
ever.”
PETER HOUGH
SENIOR MANAGER,
BA
“People have paid serious
money for a ticket – they
expect us to get it right
every time: not just on
flights out of London but
on return flights from
distant places.”
it, and so on, who ‘owns’ the quality of delivery?
Have I got the ability, at the point of taking the
order, to be able to confirm what I can do, when,
and at what price?” So, he suggested, the perfect
order is always going to be very difficult to
achieve, “but we’re getting closer than ever”.
Peter Hough from BA (see panel for participant
details), explained the problems of providing
perfect in-flight services. “People have paid serious
money for a ticket – they expect us to get it right
every time: not just on flights out of London but on
return flights from distant places. And we have
multiple customers – we supply our catering
outsourcers with a lot of gear for them to
incorporate [so they are both customer and
supplier], there are our 14,000 cabin crew who have
to receive and use these supplies, and of course
there are the people who have bought the tickets.
And we not only have food and drink as a major
cost centre; we also have in-flight retailing (with its
own problems of controlling duty free stock, and
backhauling unsold stock) as a profit centre.”
Erleen Anderson from DHL Exel Supply Chain
suggested that in theory achieving the perfect
order is “so very simple – the perfect order is very
ERLEEN ANDERSON
DIRECTOR, HOME &
RETAIL, DHL EXEL
SUPPLY CHAIN
“The governing principles
must be to keep things
simple, don’t change
things, have everything
clearly labelled, and get
the data as accurate as
possible.”
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