Three Key Principles to Achieving Logistics and Supply Chain Success

Today’s logistics and supply chain leaders are constantly implementing strategies to manage their daily challenges to ensure their businesses succeed.  We believe there are three core principles that must be adhered to in order to ensure that success is in fact achieved, and here they are:

• Constant and Never Ending Improvement – Unlike creating a work of art, to be successful in business a company can never be “finished” with their logistics and supply chain improvement processes.  It is a constant work in progress. There must be ongoing and creative initiatives to continually seek out and implement improvements throughout the logistics and supply chain areas of the business.  Improve today and continue improving tomorrow and every day thereafter. It is never a one and done process.

If attitude dictates altitude then all members of the logistics and supply chain teams must truly buy into the process to achieve success.  They must feel it and do what is necessary to not only achieve success today, but more importantly, to work towards continually improving every aspect of their operations.  

• Create a Plan with Capable Teams to Implement Those Plans – Having a plan of action will always make teams work harder and help them stay focused on their core missions and competencies.  There must also be total cooperation and buy in collectively from all teams. Teams must also learn to work collaboratively. Remember, it’s all about the “Yes.”  Yes, we can be successful if we make this operational change; yes, we can be successful if we implement these new business strategies; yes, we can be successful if we on-board this new 3PL business partner or implement this new software application.  

Teams must be relentless in their goal in achieving success by building high performance teams and encouraging everyone on those teams to be the best at what they do.

• Continually Challenge the Status Quo – By challenging the status quo, logistics and supply chain teams will ensure they are in fact the “best they can be.”  Logistics and supply chain teams must continually strive to be creative, persistent, entrepreneurial, and always profit minded.  They must focus on key business drivers and never forget that they are in fact in the sales game; selling to their customers, continually selling to management and selling to each member of the various teams.

The logistics and supply chain teams must not be afraid to take risks, they must be willing to positively communicate ideas; they must not be afraid to challenge one another and, they must become change agents so they can create an amazing future for the business.      

We’re sure there are additional principles to achieving business success in the areas of logistics and supply chain management and we’d love to hear about your team’s experiences.