Manufacturers say access to supplier data is biggest barrier to supply chain management

Results from a recent global survey of manufacturing companies, all using some kind of supply chain planning software, has revealed that, whilst 90% agree that this software could help solve their supply chain synchronisation issues, only a third said their company was actually planning to address the problem in the next six months. Conducted by supply chain management and scheduling software specialist, Ilog, and the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), the survey involved interviews with 120 senior managers from companies of all sizes, across various functions including operations, logistics, production, CEOs and purchasing. Industry sectors were automotive, manufacturing, electronics, food and beverage, pharma and supply chain planning and transportation. The results showed that the biggest barrier to implementing supply chain synchronisation software (which includes advanced planning and scheduling, supply chain fulfilment and optimisation, event management and supplier relationship management) was, “access to supplier and partner data.” 53% of respondents cited this as their main concern. More than eight out of ten respondents also said that they would find it very difficult to coordinate disparate software systems with those of their partners. Christophe Gasc, Ilog’s UK MD, commented: “You cannot solve these types of issues with existing ERP systems or legacy software… You need some kind of supply chain planning software on top of this, perhaps some advanced planning and scheduling, to synchronise your supply chain. “You then need to build a layer or open, flexible interface to your suppliers [he suggests using XML over the web as an example]. He continued: “The real issue here though is that manufacturers have a general feeling of ‘why should I lead the collaborative effort? It’s not my responsibility’ and nothing moves forward. That’s what we need to try and address here.”