Research in Review - Insights from 2014 Studies

Three of the studies in this report are based on year-over-year tracking surveys (Supply Chain Talent, Voice of the Supply Chain Leader on Technology, and the Green Supply Chain.) Where possible, and where we see significant change, we highlight year-over-year trends.

In addition, several of the sections - the focus on supply chain organization and supply chain centers of excellence - represent an aggregated response over multiple surveys. In this case, we have summarized the response of supply chain executives to the same question in multiple studies (from 2012-2014) to drive a more statistically relevant sample.

In all cases, we try to enrich the survey data with financial balance sheet information to understand which trends and process/technology choices drive the greatest value. The financial data is sourced from quarterly filings and accessed through OneSource (now renamed to Avention) and YCharts. We have included several of these charts in the study.

This effort has been vast. Over 800 respondents participated in this research. To help the reader, the survey demographics are shared at the bottom of each figure, with links for the full reports at the back of this report.

Research Overview:

• Survey Details: Data for this report has been taken from a variety of online quantitative surveys conducted by Supply Chain Insights and reported on from January - October 2014, including our research on supply chain talent, planning software, corporate social responsibility, supply chain visibility and our most recent cross-survey analysis
• Objective: To share core research highlights from 2014 - snippets and what we think are the best insights - into a consolidated research summary.
• Highlight: Supply chain excellence is rooted in alignment and conscious trade-offs. Leaders are focused on building end-to-end operating strategies while laggards are struggling to figure out why they are stuck.