Everything old is new again: The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management


I get a lot of emails every day with tons of content. My job is to surf these topics and find the pearls of wisdom worth writing about and sharing. Today, I fell upon this article courtesy of Supply Chain 24/7. The material concepts are so relevant that at first I thought it had been published recently. Reading through, it turns out this was published over 20 years ago. To me, that means that we, as supply chain professionals, still have a ways to go in instilling these concepts into daily practice at the organizations where we work.


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The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management

Principle 1: Segment customers based on the ser­vice needs of distinct groups and adapt the supply chain to serve these segments profitably.
Principle 2: Customize the logistics network to the service requirements and profitability of customer segments.
Principle 3: Listen to market signals and align demand planning accordingly across the supply chain, ensuring consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation
Principle 4: Differentiate product closer to the customer and speed conversion across the supply chain
Principle 5: Manage sources of supply strategically to reduce the total cost of owning materials and services
Principle 6: Develop a supply chain-wide technology strategy that supports multiple levels of decision making and gives a clear view of the flow of products, services, and information
Principle 7: Adopt channel-spanning performance measures to gauge collective success in reaching the end-user effectively and efficiently

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About FarStar: FarStar is boutique consulting firm with a focus supply chain transformation, of which a key lever is Sales & Operations Planning. With team members located in Canada and the US, the company has extensive experience across a wide range of industries including aerospace, defence, high-tech/electronics, and industrial products in a variety of business environments, ranging from make-to-stock to engineer-to-order.

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