involved in EBSCP, see the sidebar “Invest in talent to make
EBSCP a success.”)
Despite significant improvements over the last couple of
decades, many manufacturing firms consider activities such
as in-plant logistics and warehousing as a necessary evil.
MBT’s logistics task-force team took a contrary point of
view and decided to pay closer attention to activities to bring
about increased profitability and business success. 1, 2, 3
The logistics team found that the plant was facing such
problems as material shortages, excessive inventory, and
high transportation costs. Previous attempts to solve them
had not been entirely successful, and sometimes the outcomes of those attempts were not what managers had
expected. Clearly more information was needed.
Recognizing that practitioners and researchers around the
world have confronted similar issues, the team decided to
adopt an “evidence-based” approach, making use of published research findings to help it address those problems.
Since then, Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş. has implemented
several supply chain practices that the logistics team developed while consulting research findings, case studies, and
other published best practices. (The notes throughout this
article refer to the published information sources that provided some of the ideas we incorporated into our solutions.) The following are just two examples of how we
applied evidence-based supply chain practices to achieve
significant cost and efficiency improvements that we might
not have been able to achieve otherwise.
1. MATCHING MATERIAL FLOW WITH PRODUCTION
One area where the logistics team applied EBSCP was in
adapting the assembly parts warehouse and in-plant mate-rial-flow operations to the increased rate of production. As
part of that effort, the team set out to devise a new process
in the warehouse, since the existing process limited how
quickly the warehouse could perform such tasks as picking,
INVEST IN TALENT TO MAKE EBSCP A SUCCESS
Getting the full benefit from evidence-based supply chain
practices (EBSCP) takes more than simply reading academic and other literature, or sharing information with peers. It
also requires having the right people on staff—supply chain
and logistics professionals who have the knowledge, skills,
and abilities that are necessary to understand, develop, and
carry out complex ideas.
The supply chain discipline calls for quick decision making. This allows supply chains to become lean and agile.
When employees have to get approval from their superiors
for every little deviation from the norm, the company loses
flexibility. By employing the right supply chain talent, managers will not have to think twice before delegating responsibility to subordinates who have the skills to make the best
decisions. Furthermore, companies need individuals who
are proficient in converting intangible supply chain concepts to tangible cost and profit figures. That way they can
induce the right supply chain alignment for the organization
by speaking the chief executive officer’s language, eventually leading to lower total costs and higher profitability.
The logistics team members who made the implementa-
tions described in this article and many others possible for
Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş. (MBT) were selected from among
the company’s existing employees. Since MBT had done a
good job of attracting, continuously educating, and encour-
aging talent as well as of providing individuals with the nec-
essary tools, management did not have to look elsewhere
for team members.
