4. Involve external partners in the process if each one's maturity allows it

If your company is sufficiently mature in terms of supply chain management, this particular project can be an opportunity to involve external partners.

These partners may, of course, be suppliers or customers, but they may also be logistics providers, service companies, NGOs, government agencies, or even competitors.

For example, for a project to reduce the number of shortages on store shelves, the retailer can bring together the company's internal components - supply chain, marketing, purchasing, store operations - as well as the manufacturers concerned, an external consumer purchasing measurement organization, a logistics service provider, etc.

Make sure you have sufficiently mature supply chain players, both internal and external; if not, train them or require them to be trained. The implementation of such a project...