Building a customer-driven supply chain

Customers are now connected, mobile, opinionated and informed. Serving these
new generation customers requires a supply chain driven by customer needs.
New products should reach the customer at the time they need it and before
their needs have changed.
Many companies are now struggling to adapt to this dynamic environment. The
root of this problem is that companies dont understand the customer-driven
buying behaviour. The challenge is to put in place the systems, processes and
organizational structure to tackle the root causes of inefficiencies in supply chain.

Barriers to building a customer-driven supply chain:

Understanding requirements of the customer and developing the

necessary infrastructure to fulfil it
Sensing the real-time changes to actual demand by identifying
patterns
Developing robust forecast without any uncertainties
Geographically scattered operations
Communicating and planning within functional silos and not at an
organization level

Key points that are necessary to build a customer-driven supply

chain:

Business-wide focus on customer experience

Metrics and technology enablers for data visibility across the supply
chain
Segmenting customers based on their needs and value proposition
Collaborating with customers to mitigate the risk of demand
fluctuation in the short term
Supply chain responsiveness
Improving internal processes through cross-functional collaboration
and aligning the operations of individual functional silos

Having spoken about these key points, the big question is can a supply
chain be customer-driven or is it just an unachievable ideal scenario?.
According to a research conducted by SAP, 71% of retailers in the world
are unable to create accurate forecasts, explain variances and analyse
root causes.
No, it is not impossible. There are companies across the world that have
been successful in developing a customer-driven supply chain. One such
famous success story is that of McCain Foods. The worlds largest
manufacturer of French fries has on-time delivery rates as high as 98%.

71% of retailers fail to predict demand accurately Sap research