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11.3.2 Supply chain performance measures

Customer value is greatly dependent on supply chain performance. We can think of the simple case of on time delivery of an order and a customer's satisfaction (or value attachment) for the conformance. The failure to conform definitely will erode the value. It is therefore conceptually possible to see that the performance or management of a supply chain is directly linked with the value which a customer attaches to the 'product' of the firm. Value in this way can be seen to be determined by service attributes such as on time delivery or cost. Whichever is the case, the value is determined by the performance of the entire supply chain.

These observations highlight how difficult the measurement of supply chain performance is. Supply chain activities extend over multiple organisational and functional frontiers. Apart from that, the complex nature of supply chain activities and the multitude of factors affecting supply chain performance make the concept of measuring supply chain performance daunting.

Firms keen on improving supply chain performance have developed many 'metrics' to measure their performance. The 'metrics' used can be based on financial, accounting or operational features. The management traditionally selects particular 'metrics' depending on the management's perspective of the key 'measurements' for improved business performance.

The following reading discusses supply chain performance metrics in detail and should form the basis of your understanding of this topic.

Reading 11.3

Hausman, W (2000, 14 December) Supply chain performance metrics, Paper for publication in The Practice of Supply Chain Management, C Billington, T Harrison, H Lee & J Neale (Eds.), Kluwer, forthcoming, accessed at http://www.move3d.de/download/performance_metrics.pdf. [14 pages]

Activity 11.3

Read 11.4 and discuss the importance of selecting appropriate metrics for measuring supply chain performance? Identify the relationship between metrics and customer value with regard to specific supply chain types?

SCOR. The SCOR model has been developed by the Supply Chain Council with an aim to develop standard metrics for supply chain management. The idea is to promote standard measures which allow best operational practices to be identified and used for benchmarking. There are four levels of supply chain metrics which would enable a supply chain to be broken down for extensive analysis.

Figure 11.2 Illustrative performance levels based on the Supply Chain Council's top level SCOR model. (adapted from Lapide 2000)

 

Figure 11.2 Illustrative performance levels based on the Supply Chain Council's top level SCOR model. (adapted from Lapide 2000)

Your text contains details of level 1 metrics, but the SCOR model in its entirety is quite complex. It is possible, however, to have a better look at SCOR and what it aims to achieve through a visit to the Supply Chain Council website.

Activity 11.4

Visit http://www.supply-chain.org See the SCOR 5.0 overview for detailed description of SCOR.

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