How Can Manufacturing Executives Prevent Supply Chain Partners From Becoming Bottlenecks To Quality Manufacturing?

It begins with strong, open, collaborative relationships between buyers and sellers. Establishing effective relationship governance at the working team and executive levels between companies ensures goal alignment and execution in accordance with mutual expectations. Resourcing these teams with capable and skilled talent fosters effective communication and trust, accelerating their ability to deal with inevitable challenges. KPIs (key performance indicators) that measure a set of elements for the supply relationship (e.g., quality, service, costs, environmental, safety) further enable supply reliability. Supply risks need to be understood for product/material supply linked to key product lines, and appropriate measures to mitigate risk (e.g. dual sourcing, inventory strategies and supplier development resourcing) must be implemented and managed.

ANU HANS
VP and chief procurement officer, enterprise supply chain at J&J. She also serves as a board member for DCAT.