Seven Habits of Effective Supply Chain Managers Skeptical : Supply Chain Managers always look for the risks

involved in every st rategy, plan or move. Being skeptical doesn t mean that they are averse to risk ta king but simply prepare themselves for any eventuality and have a backup or miti gation plan in place. The ability & habit of generating what-if scenarios help the m to minimize exposure to operational and financial risks. What-if my most critical supplier close down shop? What-if there is a strike at the port? What-if the commodity prices shoot up beyond expectation? It may sound crazy to expect a person to always imagine negative events all the time. But it is always better to foresee them than to be surprised by them. Eye for Details: Supply Chain Managers don t go by perceptions or the superficial analysis. They are the one who change perceptions by presenting in depth and unb iased analysis. They are aware that the devil lies in details and they don t let t he devil catch them by surprise. However there is a difference between having an eye for details and getting lost in details. A superficial Supply Chain Manager will try to solve the problem of increasing b acklog of customer orders by increasing safety stocks. Whereas the effective sup ply chain manager will get into root cause of the problem e.g. forecast reliabil ity or production reliability and attack the right cause. Observant: Supply Chain Managers are astute and inquisitive observers. They are not dependant only on reports and excel analysis to take decisions. They keep an eye on softer aspects, qualitative and informal information to blend it with th e quantitative data. Supply Chain Managers regularly visit the markets and customers they serve. They observe the market reality and ask questions to their customers about demand tr ends or competition etc. Whereas a superficial manager will always be satisfied with the sales forecast received from Sales or Marketing. Supply Chain Managers are aware of the IR sensitivity in their factories. They use it in making a deci sion on changing production schedules up or down. Technology Friendly : Supply Chain Managers are comfortable with technical devel opments in the area of Supply Chain. They don t have to be technology wiz kids the mselves but they continuously update themselves and evaluate the technology in t heir area. I have seen many Supply Chain Managers scoffing at a technical or IT tools as a fad. They always believe that technology means more cost to company. As a result they continue to use obsolete and unproductive methods. On the other hand the companies with great supply chains are the ones who adopte d new technology at an early stage. Dell is one such but not the only example. U nilever, P&G, Toyota adopted technology in supply chain and gained market shares . Challenge the Obvious: Supply Chain Managers always look for continuous improvem ents by challenging what might seem to be given. They don t take anything for gran ted. I remember a Purchasing Manager of a big multinational company facing a problem of frequent rejections of material from a supplier. All steps starting from call ing the supplier to factory to sending the technical teams to his manufacturing

facility didn t seem to work. The whole focus was on and around the supplier. One day, he questioned his own factory if they were measuring the quality parame ters correctly. He had to face the fury of everyone right from the Factory Manag er to the Quality Manager. The company s quality procedures were taken for granted and assumed to be the perfect. However, he wasn t perturbed and decided to observ e the testing in the laboratory himself. He noticed that operator was drawing nu mber of samples at one go and there was a time lag between drawing the samples a nd testing. The material that was supposed to be kept at low temperature, crosse d the threshold and gave different results in the testing. They changed the proc edure to drawing & testing samples one by one and everything was fine. Supply Chain managers don t believe that there are any holy cows. Team Player: This is one habit without which no Supply Chain Manager can hope to survive. I have seen many Supply Chain managers becoming victim of their own po litics. All supply chain processes require involvement of cross functional teams and making them agree for the business cause is the most challenging task. Supply Chain anchors the balance between demand and supply, cost and service. Ta king sides or pleasing one section can be dangerous for supply chain performance . Also not involving a section of relevant people in a process may lead to a bia sed view of situation and wrong decision making. Whether it is demand planning, supply planning or customer service strategy, you cannot do without cross functi onal team involvement. Flexible: Supply Chain Managers cannot afford to hold to a point of view. As the business and external conditions change, they need to adapt themselves to the c hange. They change their strategy and review their processes to align with the b usiness. They are flexible enough to allow elbow room for any unforeseen deviati ons that may happen in the chain. Some of the statements like the ones below are not accepted any more: The demand forecast is frozen and I will not allow any change until next month This order may be urgent but I will not ship it unless there is a full container load One reason most of the commercial or business managers hate supply chain people is for their lack of flexibility. In the garb adherence to processes. the supply chain people may overlook the business needs. The flexibility has to be built i nto the processes and performance management. The attitude has to change from why it can t be done to this is how it can be done . We must appreciate the fact that Sup ply Chain is a mean to a business goal and not an end by itself.