Steve Smith, senior vice president EMEA at Manhattan Associates commented. “The research has revealed the need to evaluate supply chains not just in terms of eliminating inefficiencies, but also in terms of value creation. The organisations securing the greatest benefit from new or existing supply chain systems are those who are successfully and continually aligning systems functionality with effective people management programmes and well-managed business processes. The role of supply chain technology in this process is inevitably that of enabler rather than driver of change, but it is nonetheless a vital part of the whole. As the retail industry begins to understand more about Lean, and the role of technology in achieving it, the challenge is to recognise that Lean is a journey, not a destination.”

The outputs of the market research are being presented at the Supply Chain Leadership conference, taking place today at Unipart Group’s offices in Cowley, Oxfordshire. The Market Research Summary Findings can be downloaded from www.manh.com/sclcresearch.

LONDON - June 10, 2008

New research commissioned by Unipart Group, one of Europe’s leading logistics companies and Manhattan Associates, the global supply chain optimisation provider, has identified people, process and IT integration as one of the six most commonly cited supply chain challenges facing both retailers and their suppliers. The research, conducted by White Space Insight, focused on senior supply chain professionals from some of the UK’s leading retailers and manufacturers. It revealed that lack of flexibility, management information, effective forecasting tools, product tracking technology, and systems for the effective management of people, were also making the pursuit of supply chain perfection an elusive goal.

A central theme of the research was ‘Lean working practices’ and the application of this approach in a supply chain context. Many respondents reported that Lean initiatives tend to take place as part of big “transformation” projects, which do not necessarily lead on to a programme of ongoing iterative changes or continuous improvement. While necessary rationalisation and standardisation of operations and practices take place early on, this is not always followed up with a programme to maintain an optimised supply chain.

As supply chain change programmes can be inherently risky – not least those initiatives which involve large-scale systems changes – the research suggests that it is not unusual for even the larger retailers to make do with long-standing legacy systems, rather than expose the organisation to the risk of major change. However, it is possible to make a significant reduction in the risk associated with major transformations by taking the alternative route of using Lean working practices to understand, measure and continually improve supply chain processes, in order to create the best climate for controlled and incremental change.