Claus Heinrich is a member of the executive board of SAP and he has hired Bob Betts to (help him) write a book on supply chain, for which the copyright is held by SAP. Knowing that, you are suspicious from the beginning. Is this going to be another consulting driven book that talks about how you can get to heaven if only you use the right systems and advice? And I have to say it starts better than that; the authors explain upfront that this book does not start with technology and that it is not going to be all about technology as the crucial enabler. In fact the authors state that in early efforts companies should not run to technology and might even need to de‐automate to fix some processes. Even though technology does come into play in the later chapters of the book, it is not a complete plug for SAP. The common problem with business books written by consultants is still there however: it offers a multi‐stage approach to reaching heaven, without much proof of the real life existence of proclaimed path and destiny.
The authors introduce the adaptive business network. It boils down to the realization that supply chains are networks of multiple players, agents and entities that have to be mutually adaptive and responsive to consumers in order to win. Nothing new there. The nice thing about the approach to building such a network offered is that it starts with common organizational processes and human interactions such as panic calls from sales to the warehouse, pushing orders from important customers up in the production queue and individuals working the red tape to try and meet an order. This is a risky situation because it is unsustainable responsiveness; it will be inconsistent over time, it is costly, creates lots of fire drills, etc. Hence companies need to build structural responsiveness across the entire supply chain. Yes indeed, fully agree.
But how do you do that? The authors talk about the need to share information, structure ordering and coordination processes and policies, fulfillment approaches and automation of parts of the exchange between supply chain players. (Yes, in order to capture full benefits you are advised to use supply chain automation in the end stages.) OK, but still, how do you do that? The authors offer a generic path that they describe very generally and they list lots of benefits that can be captured going through the approach (15 per cent inventory reduction here, increased sales there), but it does not necessarily help me plot my path or give me a solid business case. Or even a set of compelling real life examples (other than a few short blurbs). So is any of this real or helpful? It helps you think through some basic day‐to‐day glitches in the way of doing business (panic calls, etc.), which is helpful. It does not offer a lot of answers. The example of the radio shop in the car dealership is very similar to the Starbucks in a furniture store that was claimed to be problematic earlier in the book. The future picture of the adaptive network is not that new. The use of RFID tags for example, lots of companies trying that already. And the lesson on that one to date is that there are huge privacy issues causing pause for Benetton and Philips. Again, it is not the technology but human issues that are central to success. So, I guess I would say read chapter 6 on the common mistakes in pursuing responsiveness found in most organizations. And leave it at that.
