Supply Chain Matters was pleased to have the opportunity to speak with David Malenfant, Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Alcon Labs, the new chair of the Board for the Supply Chain Council last week. In our part one posting, Dave shared his vision for the Council, the continuing mission, as well as some prospective changes that members can anticipate over the coming months.  In this part two posting, Dave goes on to share prospective changes in education delivery, some comments regarding upcoming programs, as well as Dave’s view of the role that blogs can play in the new world of supply chain management.

Q: What changes have you observed regarding how Council members want to receive education or became aware of new developments and needs in supply chain management?

As mentioned before, supply chain professionals are very busy people. One of the ongoing issues we have debated as a Council is whether to continue to schedule an annual North America or European annual conferences. We will continue to consult with our members relative to the best means for how they desire we deliver that education.   There are so many different supply chain conferences today, many of which overlap. If I had the time and budget, I could attend a supply chain conference every single week. We need to have one conference that differentiates the Council and provides much broader educational opportunities, perhaps in coordination with other professional organizations such as APICS or CSCMP.

The Council will also continue to provide alternative means to get education disseminated either through virtual conferences, monthly webcasts, or other web-based exchange forums. We have been building into the Council web site better means for promoting more awareness to these types of educational events, as well as reaching out more often to the Council membership.

Q: Can you comment on any upcoming programs and/or initiatives to which we can look forward?

At the chapter level, members should anticipate more on the ground activities related to thought leadership, education and training.  One of the things we have learned as an organization during these past months is that supply chain professionals are very, very busy.  We have heard feedback that members desire focused training and education either on the local level where travel can be managed, or virtually via webinars or virtual exchange among professionals.

The other concerning trend is that we are not attracting enough new people into the supply chain profession, people who have the passion for making supply chain their long-term career goal, along with the broad skills to be successful in this changed environment.  I’ve been in this profession for 37 years and we finally are beginning to see that supply chain is being recognized as an attractive profession. If we are really going to help prepare companies for future needs, we’ve got to continue to reach out and partner with educational, academic and other training communities to foster the concept of SCOR as a framework for integrating the various functional and management skills required to succeed in the new era of supply chain management.  We should stress the importance of the SCOR framework as the example of an integrated view of the skill disciplines required to prepare our future supply chain management professionals.  This is a strong passion of mine, and I trust for our membership. There is no better time than now for the Council to grasp and run with this passion in order to make supply chain the profession of choice, and ensure that we have the programs that are designed to do that.

Q: Will SCOR continue to have a global chapter presence?

Absolutely.  As an organization, we continue to reach out beyond just North America and we continue to do that  In South Africa we are doing an exceptional job of reach out, along with our partnership with APICS. In Europe we have had some success, but not as great as I would like to see for the Council. Latin America provides other needs and opportunities.  The global reach of the Supply Chain Council is great, and we now need to expand upon our programs to capitalize on that reach. 

In our ongoing membership programs, I would foresee our organization working more with multi-national companies and their supply chain executives who have supply chain activities residing across multiple global regions, where there remains a need for continuous training and development. That’s also why we have redesigned the Council website to make navigation far easier, allow multiple members of a particular company to have broad access to content, or share in web-based forums or peer exchange.

Q: A final question. I continue to observe by just the increased readership of this blog, that a perspective of end-to-end supply chain integrated process, as well as timely awareness of current supply chain developments and what this means, seems to be filling one educational void for supply chain professionals. What’s your view of the role of blogs within supply chain management?

That’s why your blog is so good, because it provides professionals, who don’t have the time to attend all of these many conferences, or who are on the road most of the time, a means to quickly check into current developments within supply chain, and what meaning they might have.  That’s really what I think it means.  We need open discussions among professionals within blogs, vs. Facebook or Twitter, where these professionals can understand what’s happening with current issues and how their peers are viewing or responding to these trends or events. I like the fact that your blog is posting a lot of current issues.

Dave, I appreciate the time as well as your perspectives, and best wishes on your new role as Board chair.

Background and Introduction

The Supply Chain Council (SCC ), which is sometimes referred to as SCOR, announced its new slate of Board members and Officers in early July to carry on leadership of the organization through 2012.  Supply Chain Matters was pleased to have the opportunity to interview with David Malenfant, Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Alcon Labs, the new chair of the Board for the SCC.

Dave is no stranger to the Council, having served many years in the organization, and most recently as chairperson of the organization’s North America Leadership Team (NALT). In my role as a volunteer member of NALT over the past three years, I have come to appreciate the supply chain practitioner and leadership experience that Dave provided for our team.

The following are Dave’s thoughts about the direction of the Council and the state of the supply chain profession. Due to the length of content, we are dividing the commentary of this interview into two different posts.

 Q: How do you foresee the vision and mission of the Council evolving over this next period of Board leadership?

I view the Council as one of the very few organizations that provides an end-to-end view of the entire supply chain.  If you take a look at many of the existing professional organizations or trade associations associated with supply chain today, many had their genesis from a functional perspective, whether it is procurement, planning, operations, service management, logistics and distribution. The value proposition of the Council, through its evolution of the Supply Chain Operations Model (SCOR) and SCOR process is to provide a perspective of supply chains made up of a fully integrated process vs. any one particular function. We understand that there are multiple functions that make-up a holistic supply chain process.  We want to work with individual companies’ members, and the supply chain professionals that reside in those companies, to transition thinking from an individual functional perspective, to an integrative, end-to-end process perspective.

Moving forward, I would desire Council members to view Council activities and the SCOR model not just as a tool or methodology, but as a means for member companies to dive deeper into supply chain processes, to identify both value as well as opportunity for more efficiency and cost savings. 

Where we have not done a good job in the past is how we position Council activities such as SCOR or DCOR as tools rather than an overall process objective that addresses integration. SCOR in itself can be a process if it is utilized properly. To that end, I would see our organization redirecting its efforts toward helping member companies identify the supply chain as a process that can be fully integrated within a company or service organization.  I’m looking to our strategic committee to identify or expand our efforts for helping member companies’ drive deeper toward either the end customer, or lowest tier of supply, and to look at the supply chain as an overall process that can be fully integrated within the company or organization.

Q; What role and/or benefits will the Council continue to provide for its members?

When you view the supply chain as an integrated whole, it can represent a significant aspect of total cost.  If you are a retailer, 80-90% of value-added costs are associated within supply chain activities.  Consider, for example, Wal-Mart It is a very, very good distribution company that understands its entire supply chain structure. If you extend that to a consumer product goods company, that number may be upwards of 50-60%, and the same holds for automotive and other industry sectors. 

Companies are focusing much more attention to understanding the composition and make-up of their various supply chains.  I speak often with executive recruiters, who are being bombarded with requests to hire experienced supply chain people.  In this economic environment, companies understand that in order to remain profitable, they have to have a full understanding of their cost structure as well as be able look across the whole of their supply chains for cost savings opportunities. They are seeking experienced professionals who can help to quickly identify opportunities for efficiency, but, at the same time, responsiveness to customer needs. I sometimes push back on these requests, because these skills must be developed from within the organization. This is where the Council has an opportunity from a professional development standpoint.

Q; Should existing or prospective Council members expect any changes over the coming months?

Over the coming months as the Council becomes more focused, member companies should expect the organization to have a clearer mission statement and value proposition and clear strategic thrust.

Our organization has already reached out to other supply chain professional organizations such as APICS (Association for Operations Management) to provide broader benefits for both companies and individual supply chain professionals.  Members of the Council are now eligible for member pricing on APICS certification exams and educational events, and APICS members will benefit from access to SCOR’s various training and benchmarking activities. We hope to expand this effort and work with other organizations as well, such as CSCMP or ISM. We all work together in the same space and should collectively be focused on providing additional value for both individual functions, as well as the overall supply chain process.