The Strive to Perfect Perfection Through SCM

In today’s day and age, competition is fierce amongst almost all industries. Whether the product is as simple as a pen or as complex as a college decision, nearly every market is saturated with numerous choices and alternatives. In order to have your company survive in our current economic environment, your company must somehow differentiate its product or service to beat out the competition. Many companies are turning to technology as a way to stay ahead of the competition, especially through systems, such SCM or supply chain management. The auto industry was actually an innovator in implementing the use of supply chain management into their business. Many auto companies use the Tier 1 supply system to increase their probability of perfecting their orders. The best Tier 1 suppliers usually perfect their order nearly 99% of the time, however in such a competitive industry, sometimes 99% is not enough. A score of 90% perfection on orders would seem excellent many other industries, however in the auto industry, 90% is a failing grade. In order to perfect their search for perfection, many companies have chosen to implement large supply chain management systems. The companies that are operating at this high level have already nearly perfected process excellence and have shifted their attention to minimizing costs through supply chain management. The auto industry has broken their processes down into separate supply chain management systems. They have one that strictly deal with the suppliers of design supply chain management and another that deal with customer supply chain management in order to better perfect every bit of the entire process in the auto industry. These companies fully understand the true usage of supply chain management. They understand that companies are about the people first and technology second. Technology should enable the people to work more effectively and efficiently and not the other way around. Technology alone can not build perfection in an industry. It must be a team effort to merge the processes, people and supply chain management in order to achieve true perfection and therefore surpass the competition. I strongly agree with the attitude of this article for I believe investing too much faith and time in technology by itself will inevitably led to our own demise. Technology although helpful, can distance us from our humanity and therefore I believe it is causing us to rescind all the progress we have made as a society of people and only advance in technology. I often fear that businesses will invest too much in advancing in technology and jump into implementing the newest and greatest without fully considering the consequences. With technology improving faster than our minds can comprehend it, how are we able to keep a hold on this technology and make sure it does not get out of control. I believe the auto industry has gotten it right by realizing that technology alone will not improve a business. People are first. It is how the properly trained people use the improved supply chain management systems that can improve a business. In order to fully reach perfection, both elements must be striving to reach perfection not only in each one’s own realm but also together.

Gould, Larry, ed. "Automotive Supply Chain Management: As Good As It Gets?" Automative Design and Production. Gardner Publications Inc., 8 Oct. 2008. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .