36 DC VELOCITY JULY 2015 www.dcvelocity.com
t
h
ou
g
ht
l
e
a
de
r s Q What advice would you give a young professional who’s just starting out in the business?
A Do the right things, and the right things happen. If you ask people who know me, they’d say I just cast a
net of goodwill and see what gets caught in it. I’m the only
so-called “vendor” to win the Council of Supply Chain
Management Professionals’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the podium, other people were saying, “No, I’m a shipper, I’m a carrier, I’m a consultant.” Well, how about we all
treat each other right and see what happens? Logistics is a
network, and if networks aren’t equitable, sooner or later
something breaks.
Q What skills or characteristics do you look for when you go to add someone to your team?
A Number one: Whether they’re able to bring out the best in other people. You can tell me what you did
all day long, but tell me how you made that [idiot] brilliant. Number two: Whether people follow them to a new
company when they leave, because no one works for a d---twice. Number three: Whether you’re the type of person
that attracts new talent. And the least important part is
metrics; you can have the best metrics in the world but it
doesn’t mean anything if people aren’t going to work for
you because you’re a d---.
Jim Harlan understands supply chain man-
agement from the ground up. Harlan, who
is Eastman Chemical Co.’s vice president,
Global Supply Chain, began his career as a
chemical engineer, earned an M.B.A. degree,
and since 1978 has served the company in a
variety of technical and management posi-
tions within engineering, manufacturing,
and maintenance, spanning nine countries
and four continents. He says his decades of
experience building and providing opera-
tions support services for many of Eastman’s global assets
as well as leading across diverse technologies, cultures, and
organizations made the transition to supply chain “very
natural.”
Today, Harlan has global responsibility for supply plan-
ning, inventory management, customer service, and logis-
tics for all of Eastman’s business segments.
Q Eastman has manufacturing operations in 15 coun- tries and customers in over 100 countries. How do you
keep an eye on such a far-flung supply chain?
A We define our organizational strategy as regional exe- cution of center-led global strategies. We have global
supply chain “business leads” aligned with each business
segment. Each supply chain business lead is responsible
for translating business requirements to the supply chain
organization and is accountable to the business leaders to
drive supply chain results. We also have regional supply
chain leaders to ensure regional execution is efficient and
effective.
QEastman’s Integrated Global Supply Chain (IGSC) structure encompasses procurement, logistics, and
supply chain execution. How are those functions integrated, and what’s the benefit of that approach?
A While I have responsibility for logistics and supply chain execution, I have a counterpart vice president
responsible for global procurement. Together, we align our
organizations and essentially operate as one
corporate division. … The material flow and
order fulfillment processes cross all IGSC
functions. In order to optimize the overall
flow of information and materials, integra-
tion of these functions is critical.
We operate with one set of performance
commitments and improvement initiatives
for the integrated organization. … Common
objectives, goals, initiatives, and measures
enable optimization of the corporation rather than suboptimization of a function, region, or business.
… The ultimate goal is to be a reliable supplier to our
customers and create value for Eastman. The integrated approach to supply chain management enables us to
accomplish this mission.
Q What is the purpose of Eastman’s IGSC “Center of Excellence”?
A The Center of Excellence (CoE) is responsible for esearch and development that drives innovation
throughout the supply chain. [CoE’s dedicated resources]
drive process improvement, ensure compliance of our
processes, and provide process support to our execution
groups. In addition, Eastman has outlined a growth strategy that includes expanding our portfolio through acquisitions. … Center of Excellence resources lead and execute
the integration process.
Our improvement efforts are almost always enabled by
technology. CoE ensures that [our Information Technology
organization] is aligned with the Integrated Global Supply
Chain in delivering the technology solutions that are
needed to meet our objectives. Examples of improvement
initiatives led and executed by our CoE group include the
continued development and maturation of our corporate
S&OP (sales and operations planning) process; development of optimization models; development and implementation of an enhanced order management process,
including the increased utilization of electronic capabilities
James L. Harlan II
