Supply Chain Management Review – The Next Stage of Supply Chain Excellence.

This article does a fine job speaking to how Lean and Six Sigma are helping shape the future of Supply Chain.Six Sigma Companies included in the article: IBM, Dow, 3M, Textron, Lockheed Martin, GlaxoSmithKline and Delphi.

The authors, Gregory L. Schlegel and Richard C. Smith, have coined a new term they call “dynamic on-demand supply chain” (DODSC).

“DODSC depends on the integration of supply chain management, process-improvement frameworks like Six Sigma and lean, and on-demand technology.”

They believe this three-part integration is the key to staying ahead in supply chain management and suggest that an integrated approach to improve supply chain efficiency is better than stand alone programs.They cite two outside sources that agree:

“Companies that integrate SCOR, lean, and Six Sigma models see ten times the continuous-improvement benefits as those that undertake the programs individually.” Bob Parker and David O’Brien, “Building the House of Productivity,” AMR Report, Jan. 15, 2004

“According to consultants Advanced Integrated Technologies Group (AITG), companies that fail to fully integrate lean, Six Sigma, and SCOR methodologies will yield results that fall well short of their potential.”AITG

So there we have it.Integration of supply chain strategies with process improvement strategies such as Lean and Six Sigma, along with on-demand technology is the newest and potentially most effective approach to supply chain management in today’s competitive environment.