Apple CEO Tim Cook joined as supply chief when Apple was struggling, and with his just-in-time inventory genius turned things around.
Cook loathes inventory, telling Forbes he finds it “fundamentally evil”. “Inventory is like dairy products,” he has also said. “No one wants to buy spoiled milk.”
Thanks to his JIT supply model Apple is able to turn over its inventory once every five days. Apple’s ability to launch, manufacture, and ship millions of iPhones globally like clockwork – with virtually no inventory surplus – is held to be a miracle of JIT.
The success factors for future supply chain leaders are
- IT skills,
- Comfort with and aptitude for doing international business,
- Interpersonal and cross-cultural skills,
- Financial skills and
- Functional experience.
This becomes ironic if you see that the above factors will remain valid for almost all C-suite roles! So what is different?
And where are the challenges?
A supply chain executive needs the clout to redirect the cost focus of rationalisation and even synchronisation to the other side of the supply chain matrix, to customisation and innovation.
He or she will need strategic vision and a willingness to lead multi-party initiatives in order to accomplish bold bottom-line and top-line improvements.
All the best!