Business at Benchmarking Success is booming, despite the fact that many supply chain leaders and managers, after hearing over and over that supply chain KPIs are really, really important, still fail to see what all the fuss is about.
So what is it that makes supply chain KPIs so special?…
Actually nothing at all, because supply chain KPIS are not special. Supply Chain KPIs are fundamental. To elaborate on that seemingly strange assertion, this post highlights two of the main purposes behind developing a set of supply chain KPIs to help you manage your organisation.
Know Which Way is Up
Supply chain KPIs provide you with a way to understand if the vital aspects of your operation are getting better, deteriorating, or just maintaining the status quo.
Without these indicators of performance, your company leadership has no way to understand which way supply chain performance is trending.
Analysis of corporate financial results will not tell you if your supply chain is supporting your business or weakening it, whereas a set of properly selected supply chain KPIs will enable you to see problems and address them before they have a detrimental impact on revenue and profits.
Drive the Right Behaviours
If gaining visibility into your supply chain is not reason enough to implement KPIs, there are a number of other benefits which make them indispensible as management aids.
For instance, when chosen carefully, supply chain KPIs can actually drive positive behavioural change. KPIs show you which aspects of supply chain performance must be improved. In order to change behaviour, you must set KPI improvement targets and train for the behaviour to meet those targets.
This is where the need for judicious KPI selection comes to the fore though, because it’s not only possible, but very easy to select metrics which promote the wrong behaviours.
That’s why it can pay to engage a company like Benchmarking Success to help you design and implement KPIs. Our consultants know how to develop KPIs in complementary sets, ensuring that supply chain functions are aligned towards shared goals and that targets encourage only positive workforce behaviour.
Are Supply Chain KPIs Special?
A properly designed KPI-suite will give you visibility into supply chain performance, and can be used to drive behaviors leading to improvement. As such, there’s actually nothing special about them.
In fact, supply chain KPIs should be viewed not as special at all, but as a fundamental best practice in business management.
Don’t keep your company in the dark over supply chain performance. Let our experience specialists help you develop KPIs with a purpose—not only to show you which way is up, but to actually help your business get there. Your journey into the light can begin right away—just contact the team at Benchmarking Success today.