The benefits of a Supply Chain Academy for your company!

Today, customer demand is more complicated to manage. Complex requirements and delivery issues require an understanding of the Supply Chain concepts and processes.

However, when we discuss these issues with the businesses involved in Supply Chain Management (and even outside the company), the observation often reveals gaps and obstacles:

  • A culture in silos,
  • Time constraints,
  • A lack of awareness and commitment,
  • Little or no clear incentive,
  • Insufficient communication on the Supply Chain roadmap (when it exists)
  • Project governance that does not effectively achieve objectives.

In short, a glimpse of a situation that promises many solutions needing to be explored by Supply Chain leaders.

Generally speaking, there is a huge gap between what we know and what we do daily.

This is where a Supply Chain Academy makes sense.

A Supply Chain Academy teaches business teams how to put information and knowledge to the test.

In this regard, experience is no longer tied to the person but becomes a lasting asset of your business.

An academy must offer standard training programs (certifying according to the body of knowledge of the Association for Supply Chain Management, ex-APICS, for example) and personalized programs according to trades and expertise levels.

The design of training courses involves an objective assessment of the teams’ knowledge, skills, and supply chain process.

Supply Chain skills models exist and should be adapted to the specificities of companies.

These models concern supply chain managers, schedulers, suppliers, planning managers, demand managers, warehouse and store managers, logistics specialists.

Also, the initial skills assessment and the identification of target skills are the two prerequisites for training engineering adapted to the company’s challenges.

The Supply Chain Academy is an excellent tool for promoting and providing information to other company departments.

Innovative teaching methods (master classes, educational games, immersive cases, etc.) introduce people to Supply Chain management fundamentals.

Your Supply Chain academy’s success is based on two main pillars: the competence and expertise of its employees and its recognition by all the organization.

In essence, the Supply Chain function is transversal and has to collaborate with the other departments and make the teams collaborate.

Here we see the importance of a common language and a shared understanding of business issues.

Transforming a function takes time and requires significant investment.

Like any transformation program, change goes through top management and then flows through the organization to its base.

The common language is the basis of culture, and the variation of this language facilitates the integration of new concepts and exchanges.

Beyond simple training programs, creating a Supply Chain Academy must be supported by a company’s truly systemic vision and a tenacious desire to invest in teams.

As tasks are increasingly digitalized or robotized, companies must define the new skills necessary to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Some objectives common to the groups that we have supported in the development of their SC Academy:

  • Cover all strata of the company, from the Executive comittee to operations (adapt content and duration accordingly),
  • Understand the strategic role of the Supply Chain to improve customer service and financial performance targets,
  • Develop a culture and share best practices between participants to unite the Supply Chain community (network behavior),
  • Adopt a posture of support for the Supply Chain function,
  • Transmit the keys and tools to manage and pilot your activity effectively,
  • Establish a “common base” in terms of practices, vocabulary, methodology,
  • Organize the skills development of Supply Chain teams,
  • Anticipate the disruptive Supply Chain: digital revolution and application perspectives,
  • Organize training-action sessions: understand state of the art and capitalize on new knowledge to structure the Supply Chain roadmap.

AGILEA supports you in the development of your Supply Chain Academy thanks to its tools & practical use cases. 

Contact us for more information.