Supercharged Supply Chains

CHAPTER 1Churn: The Cause of Disruption

We hear more and more complaints about working in End‐to‐End Supply Chains,¹ and, even worse, we see more and more young people leaving and saying they are glad to have escaped. Throughout this book we will explore and identify the need to implement and use consistently Business Excellence Planning, Figure 1.1, through committed and engaged Leadership driving business processes with a team‐based culture.

FIGURE 1.1 Business Excellence Planning

The youngest daughter of one of the authors recently said, after leaving a manufacturing company to start her own company, “I'm glad to be out of there! I do not mind working hard, but constantly scrambling because of poor planning and poor Leadership has caused me to be demotivated, tired, and frustrated. Instead of feeling any success I feel deflated and undervalued.” What in the world is happening in companies? As one person told us, “You can never plan on anything because shortly after you arrive at work somebody drops a bomb in your planned daily schedule, and then you spend the rest of the day chasing your tail.” All of the authors have experienced this, starting their careers many years ago, expecting things to get better over time, but, instead, seeing the disruption maintained or even getting worse.

A good term of reference to describe this constant disruption was not available until ...