Applying Social Media Principles to Supply Chain Management

Excerpt from: Social networks and supply chains: It’s a question of maturity

“Relying on phone/FAX/email to devise a response to an issue in the supply chain is simply too slow and too error prone, the greatest drawback being the lack of ability to evaluate the financial and operational consequences of any proposed changes in a timely and effective manner, let alone reach a consensus and compromise on the course of action.

So much of the data transferred between trading partners has nuance and meaning that is lost in EDI, which is where the use of social networks/media can play a strong role. And not only can they serve as a replacement for phone/FAX/email, but also as a way of capturing the information for governance and corporate learning.

One of the trickiest aspects that will need to be addressed in order to get a broader adoption of social network technologies in business processes is the concept of ‘responsibility’… I want to draw the distinction here between the people who need to know, which implies responsibility to take action, and the people who want to know, which implies an interest but not a responsibility.

Existing social networks are principally about sharing or ‘pushing’ information …and thus, address the want to know, but not the need to know aspect.“

On the following pages of this report you will find excerpts and links to resources and content that I have contributed over time on many relevant sub-themes supporting this vision of integrated supply chain planning and response management.