Page 5 - Logistics News Sept/Oct 2017

Thought Leadership

6 ways quality can strengthen

supply chain profi tability

Gideon Roth

A spirit of collaboration and open communication is more essential to quality
success than other initiatives.

TO THRIVE in today’s competitive global business not mutually exclusive. Close to half of senior
environment, manufacturers must have a top-to- executives and quality professionals surveyed say
bottom quality-oriented approach that infuses their quality eff orts have increased profi tability.
innovative thinking into every part of the supply Forty-seven percent attribute profi tability growth
chain in order to deliver world-class performance to their continuous improvement eff orts. One in fi ve
through products, processes and people. credit signifi cant growth, exceeding 5% in the most
Some promising news, according to a recently recent year.
published report by Forbes InsighT and ASQ, is One of the biggest quality challenges supply
that senior executives and quality professionals chain leaders face, which is reinforced via this
see a direct connection between the success of report, is the need for more training skills and
their continuous improvement initiatives and the awareness to prepare the workforce to be able to
success of their organizations as a whole. see continuous improvement initiatives through.
The Forbes Insights/ASQ research surveyed Fifty-four percent cite future employee competence
1,869 executives and quality professionals as their most vexing, yet-to-be resolved problem.
from around the world and focused on the That’s aligned with the growing skills mismatch in
links between quality eff orts and corporate the supply chain industry. Businesses must accept
performance, as well as the evolving business value that they’ll be hiring people with basic, functional
of quality and its relationship to the supply chain. skills who must be trained up to the specifi c supply
Thirty-six percent of enterprises surveyed said that chain skills needed. Workers will have to be willing
they regard themselves as an established quality to learn new skills that are in demand.
organization, while 39% reported that they are still But hiring and training the right people aren’t
developing their quality programmes and 25% said enough. Both senior executives and quality
they are struggling to implement quality in their professionals voiced a concern in the report that
companies. a spirit of collaboration and open communication
For those organizations that do have is more essential to quality success than other
established quality programmes, more than half initiatives.
say their initiatives already encompass a range of
key corporate functions, including operations and How to Achieve Supply Chain Quality
supply chain management. So what action steps can supply chain leaders take
This focus on quality for the supply chain is to manage and succeed with quality in the coming
especially crucial when one recognizes that supply months?
chain management is often motivated to achieve 1 Incorporate performance excellence into
the least cost when identifying and qualifying new business cases. Promoting investment into
suppliers. Supply chain leaders are often rewarded quality initiatives may pay dividends many
for these cost-savings. But then extra costs are times over but executives are short on time and
incurred once the fi nal product is manufactured resistant to commit resources unless they can
and delivered and it is discovered that reworks are clearly see resulting value. Be sure to link your
required due to the focus on price and not quality. potential project to the overall organisational
According to the report, cost and quality are strategy. Depending on the project, you will want

12 September/October 2017 | Logistics News