Tranforming supply chains with digital methodologies

The globalization and digitalization has massive impact on supply chains. Agile methodology can help in the transformation efforts and provide solid, practical guidance.

The ADAPT-model of the Scrum methodology offer five common activities:

• Awareness – that the current situation/ process is not delivering acceptable value
• Desire – to adopt/ change
• Ability – the necessary capabilities and skills to succeed
• Promotion – sharing experience and making sure that others see successes
• Transfer – managing the implications of using the new approach throughout the company

Awareness, Desire and Ability are overlapping, whereas Promotion and Transfer repeat and occur throughout the transition effort.

Mike Cohen, highly respected Agile Leader and bestselling author of “Succeeding with Agile” provides a very systematic and practical approach that can also be well leveraged for driving change and transformation programs in general. I have summarized from Mike and provided additional thoughts:

A transformation leader needs to engage in these activities on multiple levels:

• Organizational
  • A critical mass of people with similar awareness is required before the organization will collectively move forward
• Individuals
  • Organizations are made up of individuals. To change organizations, a transformation leader must change individuals.
  • Important is that individual are in different stages of awareness, desire, ability,  promoting change, transferring abilities/ learning to others. They progress differently and need different guidance & support
• As a team
  • Teams can be aids or hindrance to progress of individuals; enforce or undermine right attitudes & behavior
• Per practice
  • Functional units/ stages within the supply chain

Examining the ADAPT model in detail:

1. AWARENESS

Becoming aware that what worked in the past is no longer working can be extremely difficult. This is especially true for companies that are successful. There is almost always a lag between when the need to change first arise and when we become aware of it.

Impediments are:

• A lack of exposure to the big picture
• A refusal to see what’s right in front of us
• People confuse movement with progress
• People listen to their own propaganda

Good way to tools for developing awareness are:

• Communicate that there is a problem. Generate discomfort.
• Use metrics to reinforce core reasons to change.
• Provide exposure to new people and experiences. Encourage people to learn from others in the market, conferences, competitors, etc.
• Run a pilot to demonstrate success (and refine your approach)
• Focus on the most important reasons to change

DESIRE

Without desire there will not be any meaningful action.

Tools for increasing desire:

• Communicate that there is a better way
• Create a sense of urgency
• Build momentum
• Agree on a trial, get teams to test drive
• Align incentives/ remove disincentives
• Address fear
• Help people let go of the past and do not discredit it
• Engage people in the effort.

ABILITY

Becoming agile and equally transformation efforts require learning new personal and technical skills, thinking, working as a team and at different pace.

Tools for developing ability:

• Provide coaching and training (using various approaches & tools)
• Hold individual accountable (must understand that they are expected to apply new skills)
• Share information (collaborate across teams; learn from each other, use tools such as departmental intranet, Wikis, communities of practice and reading groups to disseminate information).
• Set reasonable targets, progress incrementally
• Just do it – Experiment, be patient and expect to make mistakes
• Fail often, fail fast, fail cheaply

PROMOTION

Promotion must lay the foundation for the next pass through the ADAPT cycle. Spread successes to raise awareness and desire for the transformation. Goal is to get the people to commit to the transition, not just merely comply with it.

A good idea is to not put a name on your transition, as it is harder to resist a nameless effort.

Seek shamelessly attention. The more often people here about the effort – even better see or experience it – the better. Use graphical displays, organize events, etc.

 

TRANSFER

A transformation effort requires the support from the other parts of the organization. Without their cooperation, most efforts are likely to fail, even when successful within their own group! The law of organizational gravity pools many innovative groups or good improvement efforts back to the beginning. Key functions to gain cooperation are HR, Marketing and Finance.

Agile methodology is proven. It is structured to embrace change and thus often provides better, faster results. Leading companies driving transformation efforts – across Organization, value & supply chains – will increasingly use agile methodologies to succeed.

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