thoughtleaders
QWhat’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome during your time at Starbucks?
A Our customers expect the highest-quality products and customer service in the business. Developing a
last-mile distribution network in partnership with
providers who share our philosophy and passion for inno-
vation will always be an evolving journey. Along the way, we
have had times where a provider change was required, and
such a change always involves challenges. As we’ve navigat-
ed transitions with changing providers, we have historically
had little to no service impact. Overall, we have an excellent
track record for consistently delivering high-quality prod-
ucts on time so that they will be fresh for our customers. I
feel privileged to lead such a talented and passionate team.
Deb Parmé
SOME OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE SUPPLY
chain managers do not come up through
the ranks, but rather, arrive via a more
roundabout path. Such was the case with
Deb Parmé, who leads the Amway supply
chain team in North America. Parmé
joined Amway in 1990 as an internal auditor in the company’s accounting department. Her skills in project management
and operations soon led her to a variety of
other roles in the company, including
director of global special events and director of the Access
Business Group finance team, supporting all supply chain
financial activities.
Three years ago, she was asked to become Amway’s director of global transportation. This evolved into her taking on
responsibility for all of the company’s North American supply chain, which includes transportation and the oversight
of six distribution centers, two of which opened within the
past year. Parmé is also responsible for developing a long-range plan for global business process optimization and the
supporting technology roadmap.
A Supply chain is extremely fast-paced and ever-changing. Many people don’t
see the value of supply chain management
until something goes wrong. And so, I think
you need to find ways to continuously add
value in an area of an organization that is not
always seen as a value-adding activity. You
can do that in many ways. For me, it’s about
focusing on the end-customer experience.
QWhat’s the biggest supply chain chal- lenge you’ve faced at Amway?
A I would say it would be developing and implementing two distribution centers within basically 12 to 18
months from concept to go-live. It was a pretty huge undertaking for us, given that it was everything from identifying the
site to identifying the material handling equipment provider
and putting in all the systems, which were new to the company and moved us away from our previous legacy systems.
QYou didn’t come to supply chain management by the traditional route, as your background is in finance.
What led you to make that career switch?
A I came in with an accounting background, starting with internal auditing, but I soon realized that I
enjoyed operations. And I think that my knack or particular
skill set was always being able to drive change and to drive
efficiencies. I think they liked what they saw in my track
record of managing change and asked me if I’d be interested
in being the director of global transportation. A tremendous
amount of money is spent in our international shipping
operations and transportation to our affiliates, and I think
they were looking for someone who could understand the
financial and contractual pieces, but was also savvy enough
to say, “How can we redesign how we are shipping internationally and domestically to drive down our spend?”
QYou’ve stressed the importance of collaboration and team building at Amway. Can you talk about the
importance of relying on your team?
A Because of my background, I’m very open to identify- ing and looking at talent and giving people opportunities that may be outside of their education, background,
and previous-history boundaries. It’s really about empowering them and letting them lead, but being there to coach
them and teaching them to collaborate to get further, faster.
We’ve also worked really hard with the new team to break
down a lot of boundaries by being able to put transportation and distribution together.
QWhat advice would you give to somebody coming to supply chain management from a different area of
business?
QIn the time you’ve worked in this area, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
A One of the big things that I’ve picked up from some of my up-line leadership over the years—and something that really struck home during this major go-live—
was that you’ve got to have people, process, and execution.
You get the right people to the table with the right capabilities and attitudes. And then process is important. Try to be
realistic without being too comfortable when you’re setting
timelines, goals, and deadlines for projects.
