This course will explore key concepts and solutions that can be employed to optimize the balance between supply chain responsiveness and the costs required to deliver desired business results. Supply chain professionals continue to be pressured to deliver superior operational results while at the same time reducing costs.  They need to be able to ensure their organizations become industry pace setters, by better managing their supply chains to achieve reduced costs, whilst at the same time, improving service levels. Nonetheless, reducing supply chain costs is an effort that can be fraught with risk and global trade has brought about proportionally high levels of risk and uncertainty. Risk is found in all supply chains, but with analysis, preparation and action, these risks can be avoided, managed or deflected. This course will feature:

• Apply a thorough understanding of supply chain activities
• Managing and optimizing your inventory to deliver financial results
• Make supply chain organizational improvements
• How to benchmark your supply chain capabilities against the world’s best firms
• Managing and optimizing your inventory to deliver financial results
• Unlocking new business value by effectively managing your supply base
• Managing information to deliver supply chain excellence
• Define, measure, and improve your results
• Apply a thorough understanding of supply chain activities
• Analyze the effectives of your firm’s supply chain practices

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Analyze the effectiveness of your firm’s supply chain practices
• Create an inventory strategy that speeds cash flow
• Evaluate and work with suppliers to deliver tangible business results
• Use analytical tools to identify supply chain risk
• Make cost and service improvements
• Gain a master class in one of the most critical components to creating organizational wealth
• Explain why and how value must flow intelligently and seamlessly in an ever more connected world
• Understand how to leverage technology in their supply chain to ensure that they remain competitive in a global economy
• Examine how companies are realizing the potential of today's supply chain to meet these new challenges
• Understand the concept of integrated supply chain management
• Define and develop a working knowledge of driving forces of supply chain
• Understand the cost and service tradeoffs in the supply chain
• Demonstrate the link between supply chain performance and financial performance
• Perform customs and inbound documentation exercises

Procurement, buyers and purchasing professionals, supply chain professionals, production and manufacturing professionals, logistics, warehouse and distribution professionals, anyone who needs an understanding of the relationships between risk, cost and service in supply chains.

Introduction: Supply Chain Benchmarking

• Quantitative vs. qualitative benchmarking
• Types of process frameworks
• Benchmarking against process standards
• Establishing a cross-functional benchmarking team
• Defining performance gaps
• Prioritization and developing a performance roadmap
• Building the business case for change

Unlocking Your Cash: Inventory Management and Optimization

• Types of inventory
• Analyzing and segmenting your inventory
• Applying procurement strategies that maximize inventory turns
• Speeding the cash-to-cash cycle time
• The financial justification for change

Managing the Supply Base to Unlock New Business Value

• Supplier relationship management: strategies, approaches, and tools
• Segmenting and rationalizing the supply base
• Supplier collaboration and your company's culture
• A different approach to cost-cutting
• Product development and operations: profiting from your suppliers' technical expertise

 Managing Information to Deliver Supply Chain Excellence

• The importance of ERP systems
• Understanding your company’s IT infrastructure and capabilities
• Approaches to internal systems integration
• IT integration with all your suppliers?
• Normalizing, digitizing, and automating, and accelerating the demand signal

A New Paradigm for Outsourcing

• Is your relationship transactional or outcome-based?
• Defining desired outcomes that are measurable
• Developing an effective outsourcing contract
• Designing a pricing model that motivates desired behaviors
• Evaluating cost/service trade-offs
• Creating a governance structure that works

Performance Management: Defining, Measuring & Improving Your Results

• Rationale and approach to performance management
• Identifying, defining and tracking your metrics
• Aligning your metrics with corporate goals
• Incentives and continuous improvement

Understanding the Supply Chain

• Supply Chain Definitions
• The Supply Chain Rules
• Customers, competitive advantage and demand
• Supply Chain Models and Types
• The Global Supply Chain
• Incoterms and reducing Risk
• Recognizing Risks in the Supply Chain

CDGA attendance certificate will be issued to all attendees completing minimum of 75% of the total course duration.