The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
- Olympic Creed
I’ve been a huge Olympics junkie ever since the 1984 Los Angeles Games in my home state of California. I think maybe the Team USA site sums it up perfectly for me when talking about Olympic values and the Games:
Olympic values are inseparable from culture; the movement blends sport with culture to create a standard of competition, solidarity and fair play. It reaches its peak when the world’s athletes come together at the great sports festival, the Olympic Games.
On the Team USA website, there was a poll about which winter sport would scare you the most.
But what would the outcome be if we asked how many businesses have a supply chain management framework? Would the results be equally as frightening? How many organizations have implemented the five supply chain management processes?
The Supply-Chain Council introduced the Supply Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR) in 1996 to help manufacturing companies measure process improvements across supply chain organizations. The Supply-Chain Council’s fifty or so participating organizations (e.g. AT&T Wireless, Boeing, Coca-Cola, and Unilever) jointly developed the widely adopted SCOR model.
The SCOR model includes five key supply chain management processes: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return. The model focuses on driving several key performance attributes for supply chains, namely: reliability, flexibility, responsiveness, cost, and asset management. The SCOR model has been updated regularly and now supports a wider set of industries (e.g. retail, service providers) and trends (e.g. e-business, environmental sustainability).
Plan.
In the Olympics, planning is epitomized in the sport of Curling. As curlers push out of the hack to throw their stones, communication between the person throwing the stone and the sweepers is instantaneous and constant. But in this sport, you’re always looking ahead two or three throws. In the Women’s Curling match between the USA and Japan, you could see the teams continuously thinking ahead by planning strategically where their stones would be placed on the sheet.
Planning is the strategic portion of supply chain management wherein companies conduct demand and supply for their end product or service. A big piece of Supply Chain Management (SCM) planning is developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient, costs less, and delivers high-quality products and value to customers.
Source.
From millions of pins, to Roots berets for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, to the continuing trendy Polo Ralph Lauren couture for Team USA, Olympic swag is as important to business as the sports and athletes themselves. Any business is wise to choose their suppliers wisely and to manage stock levels, whether it’s physical stock or human capital, at appropriate levels.
Companies choose preferred suppliers to deliver the goods and services that they need to create their end products. Supply chain managers develop a set of pricing, delivery, and payment processes with suppliers, and create metrics for managing supplier performance. Sourcing also includes inventory management, just-in-time receiving, and electronic supplier payment authorization.
Make.
Each sport has a different process for qualifying for a national Olympic Team. Athletes in team sports tend to be chosen by the national coaching squad via their national reputation, national ranking or through results at previous competitions. Some team sports also have an Olympic tryout. Athletes in individual sports compete for a spot on the Olympic Team through qualifying tournaments or their national rankings.
Supply chain managers schedule and manage production, testing, packaging, and delivery preparation. This is the most metric-intensive portion of the supply chain—wherein companies are able to measure quality levels, production output, worker productivity, and production costs.
And if you’re not paying attention to the metrics and your plan, your mistake could be costly to you and your brand. Just ask disqualified Dutch speed skater, Sven Kramer’s coach, Gerard Kemkers.
Deliver.
You really don’t see this part of the Olympics on TV, but unless you’ve been to there in person you know about this. Coordinating the transportation schedules for athletes, media, spectators, and locals can be a logistic nightmare. The public is reminded to “travel smart”. Restaurants and retail outlets also need to balance just the right amount of stock and staff to have on hand so that they don’t have overstock or fall short of end product or service.
Many SCM insiders refer to this part as logistics, wherein companies coordinate the just-in-time receipt of orders from customers, manage a network of warehouses, pick carriers to take products to customers and set up an invoicing system to receive payments.
Return.
We’ve all seen return and exchange policies. In case you haven’t let me show you one from The Olympic Store:
The Olympic Store at www.vancouver2010.com will not accept any returns on orders placed on or after February 9, 2010, with the exception of defective merchandise. Exchanges will be issued on in-stock items only within 30 days of delivery.
Because return is often a problematic part of the supply chain for companies, supply chain planners have to create a responsive and flexible network for receiving back defective and excess products from their customers (i.e. reverse logistics management). Think of this as taking one step back in the supply chain. SCOR’s return process category also includes the customer service and support function.
Customer service and support plays a very important role for the consumer. This is true not only of products, but also of human capital. If a hiring manager experiences poor customer service from HR, they are less apt to work with the recruiter on future hiring projects. By following returns management best practices, businesses can achieve a returns process that addresses both the operational and customer retention issues associated with returns.
In the words of Seth Wescott, Gold Medalist in Men’s Snowboard Cross, “Pressure situations like this kick me into a different level of motivation.”
Are your supply chain management processes golden?
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Nice! Nice post…Thank you for sharing some good things!!