Supply Chain Segmentation Strategies To Manage Complexity

We prepared this whitepaper to give you more detail on the principles and framework we use with customers to help them segment and reduce the complexity of their value chains.

The following introspective questions may help start to align our thinking on this subject of segmentation:

• Why is it important to start with the end-user customer when defining or updating an operations strategy? Why not start with products, suppliers/vendors or manufacturing? Why not leverage the same, single supply chain for all products and routes to customers?
• Do you understand your customers and how/why they use your products? Can you clearly state your company’s unique, customer value proposition (for each product line)?
• Do you also know how customers use and want to not just use your products, but also how they want to purchase your product, pay for it, when they want it to arrive, what kind of service and support they demand or prefer? The answer to these questions helps to clarify and provides a foundation for an appropriate operations strategy.
• Why is it important to start with the end-user customer when defining or updating an operations strategy? Why not start with products, suppliers/vendors or manufacturing? Why not leverage the same, single supply chain for all products and routes to customers?
• Do you understand your customers and how/why they use your products? Can you clearly state your company’s unique, customer value proposition (for each product line)?
• Do you also know how customers use and want to not just use your products, but also how they want to purchase your product, pay for it, when they want it to arrive, what kind of service and support they demand or prefer? The answer to these questions helps to clarify and provides a foundation for an appropriate operations strategy.