The hottest supply chain management has become a c

Supply chain management has become a competitive weapon for multinational enterprises

improve the supply chain to gain competitive advantage

in 1988, IBM's market revenue fell from $17billion to $8billion, almost collapsing! But today, IBM has not collapsed! The secret is to update and reform the supply chain

at that time, IBM developed 150 ERP systems and updated them by itself, from end-to-end to cross department and cross factory operations. As a result, the overall cost was reduced to 45%, and the customer satisfaction increased from 96% to 99%. I power system: the successful transformation was achieved by adopting special motor BM

IBM, which has tasted the benefits, has not stopped, and continues to make the enterprise move forward through the reform of optimizing the supply chain. Over the past three years, IBM has significantly improved productivity by reducing costs. But equally important, it improves the efficiency of the supply chain, thereby gaining a competitive advantage. IBM's gross profit margin rose steadily, and its share of important markets continued to grow. The sales team is more effective. IBM is more responsive to customers and more flexible to change. IBM is getting cash flow from its investment and sharing it with shareholders. Last year, IBM's return on investment increased to 29%

especially since 2002, IBM has achieved:

stable cost reduction at the rate of billions of dollars. In 2004, two thirds of the cost savings came from the service sector

inventory fell to the lowest level in 20 years

within a quarter, the response speed to the transfer of hardware demand has increased by 50%, and the order transformation has accelerated by 26%

improved processes and better asset management generated nearly $1billion in cash

the time spent by salespeople on administrative affairs decreased by 25%, so the time spent communicating with customers increased by 38%

enhanced operational flexibility and execution capabilities, enabling IBM to respond more quickly to changes in the business or market. For example, IBM successfully completed the transaction with Lenovo without losing customers. So far, it is the most complex transaction in IBM's history. Compared with Hitachi's divestiture of hard disk products, this IBM transaction took only half the time (the Hitachi transaction took 254 days, while Lenovo took only 143 days)

the status of supply chain has been raised to the CEO's strategic agenda

the successful transformation of IBM has made the supply chain begin to be valued, and its status is being raised to the strategic agenda (CEO level). Now, the world's top enterprises are upgrading the supply chain and its ability to affect business performance to the highest level, and senior executives are responsible for this process

now, supply chain transformation services is a large market of US $23.5 billion. This is only part of the business performance transformation ser vices market opportunity outlined by Sam Palmisano last year. This market opportunity exceeds the traditional IT market, and it develops faster

those enterprises that regard the supply chain as an actual business accessory (a cost that needs to be managed) will find themselves at a disadvantage. Companies hope to understand the role of supply chain in business from scratch, from a simple machine to cut costs, to become a source of innovation and growth, so as to usher in an era of on demand business

at the same time, a new market has been formed around the problem of transformation to some extent. In some cases, this new market operates the global supply chain, turning the world's businesses to a more on-demand business model

especially in the Asia Pacific region, this change is more noticeable. Enterprises in the Asia Pacific region operate in different markets, develop increasingly complex product portfolios and service portfolios, and strive to maintain their own growth. They pay more and more attention to their supply chain problems from the perspective of promoting growth. However, research shows that most CEOs in the Asia Pacific region believe that their companies are not agile enough to quickly identify and pursue new market opportunities

to solve this contradiction, these CEOs are looking for various ways to improve the operation performance of the existing supply chain. They invest $3trillion in the supply chain every year, and the growth rate is 10% every year

for example, in mature markets such as Japan, Australia and Singapore, enterprises are trying to inject new innovations into the supply chain to enhance their ability to compete and operate globally, grow locally and expand into new markets; On the other hand, Indian and Chinese enterprises are trying to customize specifications for all test data of some products that can test products more stably and accurately: manufacturing supply chains, channels and retail customers, so as to try to enhance the response speed

the cost, complexity and strategic importance of the supply chain have made enterprises increasingly aware of one thing: how (and whether it is necessary) to operate this essential part of the business. 51% of large enterprises regard supply chain as a kind of cost of business operation, rather than core competitiveness. Only 10% of companies said they had a well integrated supply chain. At the same time, 70% of the companies said they paid a considerable amount of tuition fees when integrating the supply chain

in Greater China, with the increasingly close integration of markets and business models in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, many enterprises are actively seeking standardized and systematic operation models. Many enterprises have strengthened their competitive advantages through supply chain transformation to cope with the pressure of globalization. At the same time, with the rapid growth of business, enterprises also need to invest a lot of human and material resources to manage local uncertainties, possible obstacles, potential risks and it infrastructure in enterprise expansion

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