The Inovis Blog

We’ve all seen the episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel attempt to work at a chocolate factory. The two aren’t working up to par and before long chocolates are flying, their mouths are stuffed and chaos has ensued. Apply this scenario to your own supply chain. The chocolates are your goods and Lucy and Ethel are the glitches in your chain. You expect that they’re doing their jobs correctly but they’re creating a lot of problems and will cost you money if you don’t identify them and throw them out ASAP. Lucy’s work at the chocolate factory shows us the top three reasons why visibility is so important.

1.) BUSINESS ANALYSIS: Visibility is the puzzle piece that has been missing from effective electronic commerce solutions and is the key to the bigger picture. Rather than just identifying where the glitches are, visibility is an effective tool for business analysts to make more intelligent decisions on how to manage their trading partner community based on the data they’ve been given. After the Lucy and Ethel fiasco, the CEO can identify the source of trouble, what exactly went wrong and based on his findings decide, “From here on out, I will never hire another feisty redheaded homemaker that’s married to a band leader again!” Well, that’s pretty specific… but you get the picture!

2.) ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE: Had the factory executives hired Inovis to oversee their supply chain transactions, the moment Lucy was spotted walking through the door, they would have heard, “Have you seen any other episodes? Lucy is nothing but trouble.” Our notification would have made them aware of the problem before it ever even occurred, allowing them to be proactive rather than reactive.

3.) SCORECARDS: Once Lucy and Ethel have gone home for the day, a whole shift’s worth of chocolate has been eaten, shoved down a shirt or thrown on the floor. Something must be done! Lucy and Ethel are set to go back to the staffing agency that sent them to the factory today, and if nobody says anything, Lucy and Ethel will be wreaking havoc in another assembly line in just hours! No worries. Lucy and Ethel will be forced to find another skill thanks to scorecarding. When the disaster duo receives the worst possible score, they’ll know wrapping chocolates is not in their future. Scorecards are great for making business interaction wildly more successful, which leads us to our next blog post…

More information on VISIBILITY:

http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/research_briefs/4341-RB-supply-chain-visibility.asp?rss=y,

http://conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2007/08/threats_to_your_supply_chain.html,

http://management-tools.blogspot.com/2007/04/7-principles-of-supply-chain-management.html,

http://logisticsmanagementandsupplychainmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/the-emerging-supply-chain-management-profession/,

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49e0ea6d010009l6.html