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11.06.06
Fiscal Visibility In Supply Chain = Money Saved
 By
Michael Stolarczyk
The globalization of commerce has made sophisticated logistics technology not just a luxurious expense for the Global Fortune 500, but a necessity for companies of all sizes and in all industries.
A typical apparel company, for example, might source fabric from China, manufacture garments in Malaysia, send them to Italy for custom design work, then ship final products to a 3PL warehouse in the United States for delivery to major department stores around the country.
And it must do all this in time to get a hot fashion item on store shelves before A-listers move on to the next trend. Good luck coordinating this multi-party process with phone, fax, e-mail, and spreadsheets.
The need for advanced solutions may seem obvious, but a surprising number of companies still have a long way to go when it comes to global supply chain technology sophistication.
On average, large companies report their global supply chains are only 50 percent as automated as their domestic supply chains.
The interesting news continues -- only six percent qualify their global supply chains as highly automated, and a full 90 percent of all enterprises report their global supply chain technology is inadequate to provide timely information required for budget and cash-flow planning! This is the single most frustrating topic that I continue to harp on within BlogOnLog.
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Companies claim they want supply chain visibility, but what they really need is fiscal visibility within their supply chain!
How did companies fall so behind? Who fell asleep at the wheel -- supply chain managers? IT directors? Technology vendors? YES. YES. AND YES...but more important...their CEO and CFO are also asleep at the wheel!
The global supply chain has been relatively ignored because it was traditionally a small part of companies' businesses. Companies focused their technology efforts on domestic applications instead. Then the world changed -- business became globalized, and companies realized their IT systems are not set up to support that...nor are their fiscal models.
With international shipment volumes growing at a rapid clip, many companies have been caught off guard, and are now scrambling to plug the technology gap. Without automated systems or fiscal models to account for costs throughout the systems, and, in most cases, without additional staff, global supply chain managers face an uphill battle.
Click here to continue reading this article.
About the Author:
Michael Stolarczyk is currently Senior Director, of Business Development for Exel in their Westerville, Ohio General Office for the Americas. He is also on the Board of Advisors for West Virginia University’s School of Business.
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