People Changes And Challenges; Fleeing The Comfort Zone

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

A MHL piece gets some things right - and some things wrong.  A commentator claims that the SCM term has been with us for only twenty years.  Actually, the term has been published for over thirty-five years, and in common usage for over thirty.  Our use of the term dates to the early '80's.

The writer defines  a flow of the processes, all chasing the same goals.  The complexities of sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing, inventory control, shipping, processing, and order processing help make the activities understandable, and create harmony where chaos had previously reigned.

In theory, SC visibility lets everyone see what goes on throughout the chain.  But, too often, the game begins with cost-cutting, and ends with an end-to-end chain improvement.

A CEO's great challenge is knowing when to leverage people's intelligence.

Achieving visibility is an exercise in  teaching people what's what. Typically, a CEO leads the effort.  But, the obstacles are high.  People's tolerance for change is low, teams have a tendency to go rogue, and resistance is the order of the day.

CEO's almost never order change.  It is not until folks leave their comfort zones that they are free to pursue visibility - and see how the enterprise can perform at a higher level.

It's up to you; it's up to your CEO.  It's a new possibility.