|
November 1999 Volume 1.06
Supply
chain and customer measures
by Rodger Gallagher
Partnering with Measures
The earlier article on, "Working with your suppliers to add
value" (Issue 1.05) covered the steps needed to launch a Supplier
Value Added project. These types of project build a supplier partnership
with a performance management system which can be used to manage
and improve supplier relationships. One key finding from a Supplier
Value Added project often relates to the need for exchange of ordering,
delivery, and product performance information between suppliers
and customers. When the partners begin to exchange this type of
data they often find a disconnect between what the supplier and
the customer are saying.
Many manufacturing and distribution businesses have established
supply chain metrics to allow efficient management of procurement,
manufacturing, and distribution processes. The aim of this type
of metric is to ensure that a company's internal processes are operating
efficiently, delivering high quality products when they have been
promised. Isn't this the same as what any customer wants? In the
USA the purchasing department at Home Depot stores have a big sign
saying, "If you want to do more business with us, then deliver
the whole order on time." But Home Depot has another unwritten
requirement that when they order any volume of a product the supplier
must accept the order. As the Home Depot only deal with two suppliers
in any region for each type of product, each of these suppliers
must have the capability to accept the required volume of orders.
The disconnect
When measuring how a supply chain is working compared to its design
throughput capability, it is good practice to exclude unaccepted
and unconfirmed customer orders. Unconfirmed orders are similar
to passengers on an airline's wait list. With supply chain metrics
we are interested in how well the flight handled the passengers
sitting in the seats in the aircraft, or how well the process itself
operates. But when selecting process metrics that mirror customer
needs, we are interested in the customer's overall experience, rather
than their experience on just one order we agreed to accept from
them. So here we see how the disconnect arises. Customers consider
their total experiences when they decide to give a company their
business. They remember the times when a business didn't accept
an order, as the item was out of stock. Customers don't just form
their opinions on the times when their order was accepted, or whether
there was a seat available on the flight they wanted.
Supply chain metrics are designed to allow for the performance measurement
and management of supply chains. To manage performance from the
customers' perspective, a complementary set of metrics is required
that reflects the customers' needs and wants.
COAST
 Yes,
it does rain in Sydney. I have been spoilt by fantastic sunny weather
on all previous visits to Sydney so it came as quite a shock to
find that it does rain here. We are looking for a spot for an early
dinner before our appointment with Cyrano de Bergerac at the Wharf
Theatre later that evening. On the roof terrace of Cockle Bay Wharf
we find the Coast restaurant. I guess at one time there were cockles
and a coast here, but it hard to imagine that in this redeveloped
inner harbour area. The maitre d' tells us that the restaurant will
open in 15 minutes. But given the inclement weather he lets us in
out of the rain provided we don't mind the last few minutes of vacuum
cleaning. His service is good but the service provided by the waiter
is even better. The restaurant overlooks Darling Harbour - a suitable
backdrop for this superb restaurant. We are spoilt, having this
restaurant all to ourselves.
The waiter returns to take our order. Today's reef fish special
is Red Emperor. As this is one of my favourites I just have to order
it. We select a bottle of Soave Classico Superiore to complement.
It's off-dry style and gentle fruity aroma with a hint of grapefruit
go well with the delicate fish, and the freshly baked wholemeal
roll.
At last a few other diners arrive at their tables and the restaurant
is no longer just ours. We finish our meal with a Cappuccino. As
it begins to get busy with the arrival of the Saturday night crowd,
we leave for our date with Cyrano.
(It seems that one day soon Coast hope to have a web site at www.coastrestaurant.com.au
In the mean time you can phone them at +61 (2) 9267 6711.)
The Mission for Your Customers
Continues...
9.0 Establish and Manage Results Database
This article looks at building a database to allow extraction
and reporting of Customer Value Added (CVA) data.
It is only possible to measure CVA with market research from time
to time. But to build rapid gains in CVA, management and improvement
decisions must be made between each survey. The way this is done
is to develop a set of internal customer metrics that mirror the
customer needs being tracked by the CVA surveys. The best way of
testing and establishing for a causal link is to store the CVA results
and the internal metrics in a common data warehouse. This type of
data storage facility makes it straightforward to check for trends
when several waves of CVA data exist.
The first step in building a results database is to determine the
output information requirements of business units and marketing
teams. Once this has been done, a check can be made against the
available inputs. Often critical internal customer service data
cannot be supplied from a company's information systems. In this
case substitute measures will be needed until preferred metrics
are available. A very useful addition to a results database is the
full text of any verbatim comments collected in the CVA research.
This then allows the comments to be sorted by the ratings or demographic
questions. This provides an individual customer perspective on each
purchase criteria.
The actual software used to hold the data can be as simple as MS
Excel, special analysis software such as SAS or SPSS, or it could
be a large corporate database accessed by special data mining tools.
The Customer Value Manager software developed by Vogel And Vogel
Inc. is designed specifically for holding several waves of CVA data
across multiple markets. CVA reporting tools provide reports as
Value Profiles, Value Trees, and Value Maps from the waves of data
in Customer Value Manager's database.
Other more general software such as Esprit can be set up to allow
non-expert users to look at pre-set views and combinations of data.
Choice of the right software for a particular business depends on
the needs of the users, their expertise, and the available data.
It is important to choose wisely to ensure that access to essential
information is readily available.
Watch the next CVM Update for further ideas on Implementing
the Customer Value Added Process.
Previous Step
8.0...
Next Step 10.0...
Regards,
Rodger Gallagher
|
