What Can Soccer Teach Us About Supply Chain Planning?
Football close up scene at the stadium getty  By yk Ilgar, SAP  As the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship winds down, hardly a day has gone by without hearing Goaaal! and the joyous cheers (or screams of frustration) from various parts of my neighborhood. Experiencing this excitement with diehard fans made me think more about the nuances of football (thats soccer to North American readers) in the last few weeks. Watching coaches and managers provide advice and tactics to players lead me to think about the similar parallels between managing a soccer team and managing a supply chain. Create a perfect game plan  As a soccer player, imagine what would happen if you werent told the game plan until the very last minute. Having time to understand the plan before hitting the field is a key part of a team's preparation. Having a plan for different situations helps the team to mentally as well as practically be ready for the unexpected. In a business environment, minor operational issues are part of the daily challenges that supply chains face. This might be a delayed supplier shipment or an equipment failure causing complications on your production line. At a first glance, these low-level disruptions might not seem to impact the business significantly, however, the overall time spending on resolving these day-to-day challenges might be far-reaching and costly. Supply chains need to address these types of disruptions on a daily basis. Focus on the solution, instead of the problem; and ask the reason causing the delay or the malfunctioning within the production line or to find a solution to make the purchase approval run smooth in the future to prevent delays. This approach mitigates possible risks and opens doors to other opportunities. Or everything went well until the last fifth minute, then one of your star defensive players got injured. It is important to know the direction of the game can change in a split second, and you have to have a plan B (if not C, D, and E) as a backup. Some events cause widespread global consequences such as natural disasters, financial crises, or pandemics which can result in far-reaching impacts in various industries. These are called black swan events, and most of the times organizations are entirely unprepared for these disruptions. Not having a B or C plan, inability to take rapid decisions, or not having resolute decision capability in executing what you plan may cause your organization to struggle with its long-term goals- or even survive in the market. A fundamental difference between the winners and the losers is that the winners know how to define competitive situations as challenges, and aim to improve the missing skills. Being able to measure how far or close to the target helps to understand the possible risks that the team may encounter or game opportunities to take advantage of. Either minor or major, organizations can turn disruptions situations to their advantage and find new ways to disrupt the markets for their good. Identifying the root of the daily supply chain hiccups and analyzing these enables supply chain planners to adapt to the market changes and prevents the reoccurrence of the same problem in the future. In this way, organizations are being pushed to moving forward improving productivity and enhancing efficiency. Focusing on a solution instead of a problem enables organizations to see opportunities rather than challenges, as they innovate to survive. When pandemic hit almost all the industries, the disruption made businesses to re-shape their business models and invent the way to make money. Many high-street retailers moved their business online and reach out to much wider customer bases compared to the past. When the demand for toilet paper shifted and changed, the distributers had to go online to support the end consumers. Another example is the businesses that built a reputation through one specific line of manufacturing started choosing to scale back to benefit from the high-demand industries such as house production or consumer electronics. Well, it happens quite often. Teamwork is vital, you should pass the ball to someone who cooperates to help to reach the goal. Similar to the business, the ability to work as a team is a significant skill that successful teams have. In the supply chain environment, visibility across the supply chain including your partners, suppliers, contract manufacturers, and third or fourth-party providers is crucial. If you know what your supply chain partners are capable of and understand the characteristics of your supply chain ecosystem, you can adapt to the market changes quickly as the collaboration works more efficiently. Utilizing this visibility requires agility. Being able to identify the disruptive events quickly, and understanding the potential impact in the business enables supply chains to run in an agile and competitive manner. With an agile action and clear visibility, supply chain planners can develop strategies to mitigate the risks before they turn into problems. In a world where unexpected is a life fact, end-game still depends on how you play through it either in a soccer tournament or a business situation. Adopting structured and integrated business planning enables organizations to achieve robust supply chain processes, supported by technologies that help them proactively manage the undesired impacts of disruptions. Having a team empowered with the real-time data insights required to make better-informed and rapid decisions help organizations to anticipate not only threads but also possible opportunities that them to become a market disruptor. If youd like to learn more about how Integrated Business Planning can help companies become disruptors, check out From Disorder to Agility. Follow me on LinkedIn.