Supply chain management involves continuously improving processes to eliminate waste in a company, similar to how dieting aims to eliminate fat from the body. It requires thoroughly examining internal processes, modifying behaviors, and maintaining a positive attitude. While outsiders cannot force a company to adopt lean supply chain practices, maintaining rigorous continuous improvement is needed to sustain benefits over time, just as maintaining a diet is required to sustain weight loss. The goals of many lean supply chain efforts include sorting to remove unneeded items, shining to make processes more visible, standardizing similar processes, setting processes in order, and sustaining ongoing monitoring of improvements.

1. Supply Chain Management Is it not a weight loss program of Company / Business ? Lean Supply Chain Management is continuous improvement program.

2. Supply Chain Management For any business, SCM take birth , when company / business take birth. SCM is part of proper business management, so why we are talking so much ? Is it a new thing to manage a business ?

3. Supply Chain Management Business Philosophies have changed. * English Management * American Management * Japanese Management * Holistic Approach

4. Supply Chain Management Business Philosophies have changed. - Industrial Revolution Mass Production World War –II, Military Logistic Management Push Philosophy Pull Philosophy Toyota Production System Adopted as SCM So a lean SCM so is profitable company

5. Supply Chain Management Like Individual in their battle of bulge, enterprises face a never ending fight against bloated processes and excessive inventory. Putting an enterprises on a lean regimen has parallels with putting yourself on diet. What Diet book and Diet guru says : Watch what you eat. Examine your behavior Be positive in attitude Stay on course

6. Supply Chain Management It is elimination of fat in body and waste in company. It requires through examination of internal process, behavior modification from management to down and a can do attitude. As anyone who has tried and failed to lose weight on a diet ( or diets) knows, it might be easier to drop pounds if you have someone to diet with; such collaboration provide positive feedback and support.

7. Supply Chain Management Ideally , enterprises and their trading partners would act together to lean out redundancies, poor communications, and myriad other things that lead to waste. But ultimately any company that seriously wants the efficiencies that lean supply chains bring must evince on its own the discipline needed to change. No one can lose weight for you; no outsider can force a company to adopt lean supply chain management .

8. Supply Chain Management Dropped pounds are soon reacquired if a rigorous weight – loss discipline is not maintained, so is with SCM. Continuous improvement program of company is a journey without destination. Key is “AS-IS mapping i.e. map your existing process of department – identify non – value added elements and eliminate for elements which add value, augment, improve, shorten cycle, do not support with inventory.

9. Supply Chain Management What we should know about software: “ Lean warehousing is not software, at least the major emphasis is not software. It’s management, it’s practice, it’s engineering. Software contributes., but you can’t buy a piece of software and put it in your warehouse and become lean as a result of that.” “ Lean is similar to an attribute, yet it’s more. It is a detailed examination of processes and careful consideration of procedures and ways to do things that are less inefficient. It is management planning.”

10. Supply Chain Management While different types of companies have different needs – an assembly plant vs. a distributor for example- the waste elimination and cost reduction promised by lean SCM operation is attractive to all. So let you custom design your SCM.

11. Supply Chain Management The so called – 5S subsets probably sums up goals most companies have: Sort : get rid of what you don’t need. Shine : Polish your operation, make everything more visible. Standardize : To avoid redundant process, standardize similar ones. Set in order : Implement those standardized process. Sustain : There must be sustained monitoring of the entire lean process.

12. Supply Chain Management However, knowing that efficiencies are needed is not the same thing as knowing how to go about bringing change. Only change is constant and so the solution is “Continuous Improvement”. Either to apply Six Sigma, ISO –9000, TQM, Lean Philosophy or you call is Strategic Approach, whatever you call, requirement is continuous monitoring, little continuous improvements in process & people and dare to take decision at the speed of thought. By : Atul Kumar Srivastava, General Manager (Procurement)- Oil & Gas – Petroleum Development Services.