Top strategic priorities for
supply chain management
Lowering costs and working capital levels
52%
46%
Restructuring to support growth
20%
29%
Increasing co-operation and transparency
across supply chain nodes
14%
26%
Canadian respondents
Top supply chain challenges
When asked what their biggest supply chain challenges
are, most manufacturers cite flexibility and responsiveness
(29%), lack of competitive cost structure (23%), and
supplier performance in terms of risk, reliability, and quality
(20%). Inadequate IT systems for supply chain visibility,
planning, and execution (9%) and a lack of information and
material visibility across the extended supply chain (2%)
are less of a concern, suggesting Canadian manufacturers
are happy with the supply chain data their IT systems are
providing.
At the same time, however, more than half (52%) have
either no visibility or limited visibility across their suppliers
and logistics partners, and a quarter don’t know how
much visibility of supply and capacity information they
have.
Supplier visibility
Global respondents
expansion as key ways to drive growth, they could benefit
from having greater strategic focus on their supply chain.
Many times, companies view the supply chain as a cost
centre, because traditionally they only see the physical
part of it, such as transportation, distribution, etc. Much
of the success and strategic capabilities in the supply
chain, however, now lie in the parts that really connect it
to the rest of the business, such as vendor management,
procurement, and customer analytics demand planning.
Having a clear focus on the supply chain also impacts
competitiveness. If a company has never addressed its
supply chain Y