Building the Right Supply Chain Performance Skills
Few business concepts have evolved more quickly than supply chain management.
Fifteen years ago, even the term "supply chain" was new, having recently evolved
from "business logistics" or "integrated logistics." At that time, supply chain
technology consisted largely of stand alone materials resource planning (MRP)
and warehouse management systems (WMS), and perhaps some basic decision tools
for truck or pallet loading and logistics network planning.
Today, e-procurement, collaborative forecasting/planning, and product lifecycle management are just a few of the tools in a comprehensive supply chain technology arsenal. MRP and WMS still are key players, but their scope, functionality, and value are far broader. Even ERP systems are not the unruly behemoths that they were five or six years ago. The same is true for the business environments in which supply chains operate: Globalization, rampant mergers and acquisitions, and electronically linked partnerships and third-party relationships are only some of the phenomena to radically alter the science of supply chain management.
What Hasn't Changed?
Perhaps the only thing that has barely changed is how companies and individuals become proficient in supply chain execution and optimization: how they learn. In this area, academic approaches still prevail — approaches rooted in the teaching of concepts, but tied only loosely to the generation of real improvements in supply chain performance. Even e-learning — an important step in the right direction — doesn't fully address supply chain management's acute need for better ways to help people perform.
Is this really a problem? Responses to a pair of recent supply chain surveys say yes. In one research effort, Accenture asked 126 senior executives from companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion to identify which challenges have impacted their organizations most severely. The most frequent responses were "difficulty driving pilot programs across functions or divisions," "inability to rationalize and leverage across multiple, ongoing projects," and "lack of required skills, or inability to dedicate required skills." All three of these speak mainly to concerns about employee performance, not to the limitations of technology. Survey recipients also were asked to rank the importance of various capabilities needed to successfully make supply chain improvements. Here, the most frequently cited answer was "world-class programs to build and maintain the right skills in your employees."
In a survey of supply chain procurement practices in Europe, another tight correlation was drawn between top-performing companies and the application of human resources and organizational best practices. For example, procurement performance leaders (top performing companies) were seen by respondents as far more likely to provide training based on individual competencies and skills gaps (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Todays supply chains encompass a broad range of skill sets, skill
levels, and technologies. Narrow or unilateral approaches to learning cannot
sufficiently address the many diverse needs and contexts.
Source: The Accenture Supply Chain Academy
The bottom line is that new technologies, increased business complexity, and greater connectivity across companies and geographies have increased the need for different and more varied supply chain skills. It also is clear that current approaches to training and skills enhancement haven't kept pace. Instead, those approaches focus too heavily on technology operation, even though the larger need is to help people perform the new or radically altered jobs that technology implementations have created. Traditional approaches also place too much emphasis on the ability and perspective of a single instructor, and too little emphasis on how to meet corporate standards while maximizing the value of each individual. Lastly, when a major technology implementation is perceived as becoming too expensive, the first things jettisoned tend to be change management and learning programs — which often are the main links between that implementation and improved supply chain performance.
A New Learning Paradigm
Clearly a migration is needed from teaching large groups of people at set times to an individualized, foundationally based approach that connects learning to business benefits and business objectives. Here are the key principles of a new learning model — the foundation of Accenture's Supply Chain Academy — that addresses this burgeoning need:
- On demand: In today's optimal learning environment, skills-enhancement
opportunities must be available when the recipient requires them — "just
in time" rather than "just in case." This is a matter of format as well as
timing. It acknowledges that different media are right for different people
and that everyone learns at his or her own unique pace.
- Flexible: A better approach should hone in on specific skillsets,
rather than making learners accept what they don't need in order to get what
they do need. Like the on-demand characteristic, this speaks to each learner's
specific skills, capabilities, and capacity to learn. And, because it implies
customization, prioritization, and even regionalization, flexibility is rarely
attainable in a typical classroom environment.
- Expert-oriented (utilizing the best of the best): The optimal learning
paradigm draws knowledge from everywhere; it is an expert-based model rather
than an institution-based model. Obviously, no one establishment has all the
world's experts. But with today's communication technologies, the right expertise
can potentially be aligned with each learner's requirements and that person's
unique learning characteristics — regardless of location.
- Skills- and performance-based: As noted earlier, there is an acute
need for learning programs focused on helping people perform better —
a focus on applying capabilities rather than just absorbing concepts and principals.
A modern learning model links training to job performance requirements and
establishes a clear connection to broader business benefit.
- Community oriented: Traditional learning concepts emphasize the imparting of knowledge by instructors to students. A more modern, relevant approach will emphasize "learning linkages" — helping people interact with peers to exchange best practices; connect with technical, functional, and theoretical experts; and build — and participate in — a community of supply chain thought leaders.
What It Takes
Not surprisingly, traditional classroom environments are not suited to many of the above criteria. And although technology is a key component, supply chain education in the 21st century must be far broader than "e-learning." Most valuable, in fact, is a "blended learning" approach: assembling, customizing, and deploying all the learning mechanisms needed to create a focused learning experience. These mechanisms include:
- E-enabled training: E-learning modules delivered in bite size chunks
via the Internet, and designed to build specific skills and knowledge.
- E-enabled knowledge: News feeds, articles, technical documents, and
industry/functional research made available on demand from a variety of sources.
Those sources could be industry analysts, process and technology experts,
academics, and members of the trade or business press.
- E-enabled distance learning: Programs such as regularly scheduled
Webcasts, video conferences, and audio conferences. These events acknowledge
the always-important need for interchange. Yet they avoid the expense and
inconvenience often associated with classroom environments.
- E-enabled collaboration: Live online text chat and discussion forums
that provide interactive, peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
- Executive forums: One- or two-day executive seminars (live and in-person)
focused on thought-leadership topics. Speakers (one or several) might be academics,
industry experts, consultants, or industry and functional leaders. Since face-to-face
situations are expensive and logistically tricky, the key is to focus on subjects
that are not well imparted by other means. Examples could be motivational
seminars, hands-on training that requires expensive equipment, or situations
in which roundtable discourse is particularly valuable.
- Team-based simulation: Solving supply chain problems via computer
simulation. This sort of team-based exercise gives people the chance to demonstrate
and expand their supply chain expertise using real-world applications.
- Customized programs and workshops: Interaction-centered opportunities focused on needs that are addressed less effectively in a distance-learning environment. Classroom training no longer is the whole story. But it remains a valuable part of a comprehensive learning experience (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: In the new learning environment, skill building is ubiquitous and
ongoing. It also draws from a wide range of sources that are accessed at different
times according to changing needs.
Source: The Accenture Supply Chain Academy
Thinking Ahead
It has always been human nature to think of new products, new approaches, and new ideas as replacements rather than enhancements. In recent years, for example, many companies have let e-learning replace, rather than supplement, classroom learning.
The new paradigm described in this paper has been developed by Accenture as part of its Supply Chain Academy continuous learning program. It is a good example of how companies can migrate from teaching things to improving employee performance through continuous learning. Today and tomorrow, the most effective learning environments will bring scope, breadth, and value to traditional training approaches. They will complement classroom training with individualized skills enhancement. They will extend the value of technical instruction via application-focused computer simulation. And they will increase the impact of texts and technical documentation by providing access to new information resources, peer-to-peer communities, and a wider range of experts.
Consider also that virtually every company has a unique destination (the business mission) and that most have custom-designed the path (the strategy) they're taking to reach that destination. It therefore follows that the right learning environment also should be a customized blend of leading-edge, skills-development approaches that complement the strategy. It's the most-logical response to a business climate that is changing the way people perform and the way companies succeed.
