Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite
supplychainstrategy
A Newsletter from Harvard Business School Publishing and The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
Article Reprint No. P0504C
Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite by Loren Gary
119
For a complete list of Harvard Business School Publishing newsletters: http://newsletters.harvardbusinessonline.org
For reprint and subscription information for Supply Chain Strategy: Call 800-988-0866 or 617-783-7500 http://www.supplychainstrategy.org
For customized and quantity orders of reprints: Call 617-783-7626 Fax 617-783-7658 For permission to copy or republish: Call 617-783-7587
120
O P E R AT I O N S
Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite
With supply chain management’s growing importance to corporate strategy, supply chain executives must make sure they are following the metrics that will tell company leadership what it needs to know
B Y L O R E N G A RY
A
Four dimensions, three levels of metrics S COMPANIES HAVE SHIFTED from integrated, vertical Which tactical measures are most important to a company business models to horizontal models that rely will vary according to the particular industry and the commuch more heavily on outside vendors and supplipany’s plan for using its supply chain to achieve competiers, making sure that the entire supply chain is strategitive differentiation. cally aligned has become a preeminent concern for “Metrics should be the tools you use to accomplish speexecutives. Getting everyone working in concert is difficific objectives,” says Andrew Pateman, a manager at the cult enough when you’re just trying to do it inside the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative in Lincoln, Mass. That’s four walls of a single organization. But trying to pinpoint why it’s important for supply chain the source of a performance managers to know what the breakdown or making decisions answers to the big strategic quesabout the tradeoffs between, say, tions are before they settle on any inventory levels and customer How do you
A Newsletter from Harvard Business School Publishing and The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
Article Reprint No. P0504C
Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite by Loren Gary
119
For a complete list of Harvard Business School Publishing newsletters: http://newsletters.harvardbusinessonline.org
For reprint and subscription information for Supply Chain Strategy: Call 800-988-0866 or 617-783-7500 http://www.supplychainstrategy.org
For customized and quantity orders of reprints: Call 617-783-7626 Fax 617-783-7658 For permission to copy or republish: Call 617-783-7587
120
O P E R AT I O N S
Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite
With supply chain management’s growing importance to corporate strategy, supply chain executives must make sure they are following the metrics that will tell company leadership what it needs to know
B Y L O R E N G A RY
A
Four dimensions, three levels of metrics S COMPANIES HAVE SHIFTED from integrated, vertical Which tactical measures are most important to a company business models to horizontal models that rely will vary according to the particular industry and the commuch more heavily on outside vendors and supplipany’s plan for using its supply chain to achieve competiers, making sure that the entire supply chain is strategitive differentiation. cally aligned has become a preeminent concern for “Metrics should be the tools you use to accomplish speexecutives. Getting everyone working in concert is difficific objectives,” says Andrew Pateman, a manager at the cult enough when you’re just trying to do it inside the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative in Lincoln, Mass. That’s four walls of a single organization. But trying to pinpoint why it’s important for supply chain the source of a performance managers to know what the breakdown or making decisions answers to the big strategic quesabout the tradeoffs between, say, tions are before they settle on any inventory levels and customer How do you