OOBE

I am spending a lot of time in the hospital this week. I am not the patient; my wife is. For us, this has been a common occurrence as my wife has been a chronic kidney stone former for the last 34 years and has endured numerous procedures and multiple surgeries in order to effectively deal with more than 520 kidney stones over that period of time. I know that number sounds totally ludicrous… but it is factual. Just ask the two urologists that have provided the majority of her care since all of this began.

My editorial comment here is really not about kidney stones, however, but it is about the phenomena that we know as the “supply chain” that exists within almost all product or service delivery models today. Take the health care industry as an example. Susan and I have witnessed at close range huge changes in the health care system since 1975. What struck me this week as I/we have dealt with the myriad of doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, pharmacists, lab assistants, orderlies, transport personnel, anesthetists,  anesthesiologists, appointment clerks, etc. is the uncanny similarities that exist between our current health care system and the global manufacturing supply chain that all product sourcing companies must manage today.

I grew up in the textile industry. My Dad retired from a Fortune 500 textile company in 1993. I still remember the days of vertical integration in the textile industry when… and this is somewhat of an oversimplification… cotton bales came in the doors at one end of the building, and finished shirts and pants went out the other end. All the material and labor resources needed to convert raw material to finished product existed under that one roof. I also remember when we all had one primary doctor that knew us well and took care of us up until the point that we needed some sort of specialized surgery. If we were admitted to a hospital, one doctor primarily attended to our care, and we generally had one nurse per shift that watched our vital signs, administered medication and treatment, and saw that we were comfortable… if such a thing is possible in a hospital.

It’s a lot more complicated than that, these days. My wife and I have generally received very good health care for her special situation, and I attribute that to the fact that we have accepted the complexities of the system and have 1), assumed full responsibility to get to know each role/person involved in her care and 2), directly interact with each role/person to ensure that all parties are doing what needs to be done. I am sure I have irritated many health care professionals over the years by pointing out needs and errors, but you cannot believe how many times we have discovered orders that were not communicated, allergy notations that disappeared, medical history with gross errors… even wrong medications hung on her gurney ready to be fed into her veins. In short, the perspective that we have adopted that has saved us to this point is… “The person primarily responsible for the quality of my health care is not my doctor or the health care system,… it is me. I am responsible for the quality of my health care.”

The real winner in all of this is me (really, my wife) because we have accepted the responsibility of managing, and many times coordinating… our health care. This same reality is true today relative to the realization and commercialization of consumer and commercial products. When it comes to manufacturing, we live in the age of vertical dis-integration. It takes a myriad of players from product conceptualization, design engineering, manufacturing engineering, raw material and component acquisition/conversion/production, assembly, packaging, marketing, logistics, distribution, etc. to get a finished product to market these days. No longer do we control the manufacturing process or are many of us able to walk out on the plant floor and make adjustments when adjustments need to be made. The real winners among those of us who are in the business of bringing manufactured product to market these days are those individuals and firms that can plan, assemble, and manage a world-class supply chain. The steps to accomplish such include the identification and selection of what is most likely a disparate group of resources required to produce a product to exacting standards… the creation and deployment of well-defined information and material flow processes among all the supply chain participants… and the daily execution of these processes across all nodes of the supply chain in a way that achieves maximum efficiency and cost-effectiveness… all the while looking for ways to improve the process every day. Competitive pressures have removed the old adage of “Speed… quality… cost… pick any two”. Today, even with all the complexities of a supply-chain based manufacturing environment, the only way to attain and sustain market leadership is to be the low-cost provider, the highest quality supplier, and offer the shortest lead time… not 2 out of 3… all 3.

The responsibility for sustained success as a product supplier does not rest upon the shoulders of our supply base or supply chain participants… it resides with us. There is an old saying… you can delegate authority… but you can never delegate responsibility. Regardless of who might screw up deep in the bowels of our supply chain, the only individuals held responsible when delivery dates are missed, product quality is poor, and prices are too high, are those individuals who work for the company whose brand is on the product.

Supply chain planning and management is a science. You can’t “wing it”. We must take advantage of the training and tools available to us today that will help us excel in this new environment and regain a position of global product leadership. As I heard Vince Dooley say one time, “If it’s to be… it’s up to me.”
I like to win. Let’s take responsibility for seeing that we do.