Take an in-depth look at how federal agencies are improving supply chain efficiency as a way to meet their missions -- and to respond to OMB mandates for increased transparency, reduced costs, and unified work efforts. This Insight explores best practices in supply chain management.
SAP INSIGHTIndustry Perspective
OPTIMIZING THE
SUPPLY CHAIN :BEST PRACTICES FOR BECOMING A BEST-RUN GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONTable of Contents
Executive Agenda 1
Continually Refine Operations to Match Your Mission 2
Recognize and Respond to Demand Signals 4
Create End-to-End Business Collaboration Processes 5
Focus on Innovation - Not Just Keeping Up with Technology 6
Measure, Audit, and Communicate About Performance 7
Ready, Set, Optimize 8
Appendix 9
About the Sources 11OPTIMIZING THE
SUPPLY CHAIN
BEST PRACTICES
FOR BECOMING A
BEST-RUN
GOVERNMENT
ORGANIZATION
by Dan Dorchinsky and Gary JohnstonForewordBest practices are driving the transformation of federal agencies, helping these organizations modernize and tackle tough operational and strategic challenges. Today 's best-run agencies are on the leading edge of this transformation, combining innovative techniques and technologies with proven approaches from the commercial sector. This paper is one document in a series that shows how best practices power this transformation; survey results and case studies demonstrate the benefits of deploying best practices and the obstacles organizations face in implementing them in the real world.EXECUTIVE AGENDA
Federal agencies are tasked with meeting specific service missions, such as providing disaster relief in hard-to-reach places, provisioning the military, resettling evacuees, or delivering supplies to medical personnel. Yet meeting their mission often requires agencies to support critical supply chain operations cost-effectively and efficiently. After all, the supply chain that delivers weaponry to the battlefield, airplane parts to the hangar, or clean water and medical supplies to disaster victims can affect the safety and well-being of those your agency serves. In some cases, supply chain efficiency can be a matter of life and death.
The U.S. federal government clearly recognizes the need for streamlined operations and greater accountability on the part of its public service agencies. The President's Management Agenda as well as mandates from the Office of Management and Budget demand that agencies increase process transparency, reduce costs, and unify work efforts across the government. For many agencies, optimizing supply chain operations is an important first step toward meeting these goals. By modernizing their supply chain operations, leading agencies have learned to wring substantial new value and efficiency from their supply networks. These "best-run" organizations find that optimizing supply chain operations even helps them meet their mission more effectively.
The key to optimizing the supply chain is to embrace proven best practices - those that can demonstrably increase your effectiveness, enhance the ability to anticipate and respond to demand, collaborate within the supply chain, use new technology to support innovation, and take the steps needed to improve performance continuously. Combined with the appropriate executive sponsorship, organizationalculture, and sophisticated business systems, these best practices offer the surest path to optimized supply chain operations.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
Federal Computer Week recently polled its U.S. federal government subscribers via an online survey entitled "Tech Survey: Supply Chain Management." The study, created by SAP, was designed to gain a better understanding of federal sector knowledge and acceptance of supply chain management principles.
The survey was composed of six questions about the deployment of supply chain management modernization efforts and related best practices that federal agencies have implemented (see Appendix). Of the 303 federal executives who responded:ƒ One-third were responsible for computer, communications, or network managementƒ One-third had purchasing power exceeding $1 millionƒ Almost half (45%) were in defense-related agencies; 55% were in other agencies
The total number of responses to all questions was greater than 100% because respondents were asked to check all that apply.
SAP Insight| 1This SAP Insight discusses the five primary best an emergency are the best practices needed for the practices used by leading federal agencies to agency to meet its goals.modernize and enhance their supply chain To achieve this best practice, you should co... [download for more]
