There is no doubt that social media is catching on within companies to facilitate all manners of collaboration within the company. Why not leverage social media technology to transform data into information, adding all the nuances and subtleties of meaning and intent? But if you are using social media to add the additional content, why not exchange the raw data using social media too?

While, using social media for supply chain collaboration is possible, it still does not go far enough for me. It most certainly helps to elevate data to information. But why not provide key suppliers, especially contract manufacturers, and customers limited access to your planning systems so they can participate directly in the decision process? You will have then elevated raw data exchange (EDI and transaction systems) to information exchange (social media) to true decision collaboration. This is possible today. (Don’t look to your ERP vendor for this technology. Their focus is inside out, not outside in.) Leave the final decision to the EDI messages and transaction systems, but the communication and collaboration required to reach a decision should be carried using internet technology. Decisions cycles are shortened dramatically in the examples where I have seen direct participation of key suppliers in the decision process. This is not nirvana. It is possible today. And a few innovative companies are taking advantage of this capability.

Supply Chain Management facilitates in movement and storage ofraw materials, work-in-process, inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to the point of consumption.

 

The main causes for companies to outsource this function is that it assists them to reduce costs, shorten cycle time, helps to decrease inventory, and also concentrate on core competencies, increase expertise and much more.

 

If supply chain management is outsourced to an effective logistic firm, it could help the company to reduce its work load. If the company decides not to outsource and manage everything on its own, then it could have problems in coordinating with the distribution network, which would include the raw material team, distributors, retailers etc at various levels.

 

Retail giant Wal-Mart, still limited by rules barring multi-brand foreign retailers in India, expects supply chain woes to make fast expansion in the country difficult, the chief of its Indian joint venture said.

India's USD 450 billion retail sector is largely closed to overseas firms, with those carrying multiple brands restricted to cash-and-carry, or wholesale, outlets like the ones Wal-Mart operates in India.

"The larger issue in our country is supply chain," Raj Jain, managing director and chief executive of the three-year-old Bharti Wal-Mart venture, told Reuters Insider television.

 

 

 

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), India’s largest coffee retail chain, is working on a new supply model to cut cost by assembling food at its outlets. As a part of the strategy, the Bangalore-headquartered coffee chain will invest in food handling, storage, assembling equipment and training of personnel across its 13 outlets.

 

Do you think this will help CCD cut costs?