Surveys Questions

How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?
How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?
Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?
Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?
How well does your company optimize profit
How well does your company optimize profit
How well do you create a pipeline of products / services
How well do you create a pipeline of products / services
How well does your company outsource strategically
How well does your company outsource strategically

How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?

Every company talk about encouraging diversity in its ranks because it encourages innovation. What percentage of your top 50 people (Board of Directors, CEO, Direct reports to CEO and one level lower) are of different gender and ethnic group than the majority?

For gender

Less than 5%

6%-10%

10%-20%

20%-40%

More than 40%

For ethnic group

Less than 5%

6%-10%

10%-20%

20%-40%

More than 40%

Where do key strategic suppliers become deeply involved in the new product development?

At conceptualization stage

At Design stage

At Prototype stage

At production design stage

At production stage

At order placement stage

Where do key strategic customers become deeply involved in the new product development?

At conceptualization stage

At Design stage

At Prototype stage

At production design stage

At production stage

At pre-marketing stage

What percentage of products were developed in deep collaboration with key suppliers?

More than 75%

50% to 75%

25% - 50%

Less than 25%

None

How many participants in the eco-systems that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage?

More than 5

4 or 5

1 (just your company)

How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?

How close knit as a cohesive work group are the various companies that act as participants in the eco-system that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage?

Co-located and work as a single team in same location

Work as a single team in multiple locations

Regular communications, meetings and in-depth discussions followed by individual R & D effort

Mainly a top-down customer supplier relationship managed in a formal manner

Irregular communications

What is your company’s typical role in work groups with various companies that act as participants in the eco-system that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage?

Leader and/or orchestrator

Co-leader or a close 2IC

One of the active participants

Participants who contribute to overall effort

No role

How self-reinforcing is the flywheel of work group of various companies that act as participants in the eco-system that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage?

We build on each other’s ideas, outcomes and actively create further momentum

We sustain momentum by command and compliance

Typically the group is running in many directions but we manage to pull them together from time to time and get outcomes

Not many outcomes in the group format

How well does the work group of various companies that act as participants in the eco-system that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage keeps secrets?

Watertight – no leaks ever

Occasional missteps and leaks – mostly harmless and unintended.

Frequent leaks – sometimes harmful or intended

Regular leaks – there are no secrets

10.

How willing are you, and the work group of various companies that act as participants in the eco-system that typically design your products prior to the prototype stage to cannibalize/ kill current product to build the next one?

We will consider it if necessary

We think about the possibility and how to handle it

We do this regularly and create new products that make old ones redundant

We obsess over it – we know that if we do not do it, someone else will

Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?

11.

Which key drivers of inventory size do you actively manage to regularly reduce the total inventory in your business, and keep it low?

Lead time of key SKUs

Lead time variability of SKUs

Demand variability

Forecast errors

Cyclicality

12.

What percentage of your inventory is superseded or obsolete before it is sold at a fire sale?

Less than 2%

2% to 5%

5% to 10%

10% to 20%

More than 20%

13.

How does your company handle slow moving inventories?

Special warehouses

Segmented supply chain

Quick disposal

Significant mark-ups

Same as other inventory

14.

What is the forecast accuracy in your company and what does your company do with forecast errors?

Forecast Accuracy

More than 90%

75% to 90%

60% to 75%

45%-60%

Less than 45%

Use of Forecast errors

Use to improve forecast accuracy in future

Use to measure the performance of demand forecaster

Use to determine safety stock

Use to design distribution network

Discard

15.

How has Forecast Accuracy improved in your company over time?

Improved more than 25% in the last 2 years

Improved 20% to 25% in the last 2 years

Improved 15% to 20% in the last 2 years

Improved 10% to 15% in the last 2 years

Improved less than 10% in the last 2 years

Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?

16.

How does your company use postponement or modular supply chain to increase the cash velocity?

Not at all

We manufacture to order

We assemble to order

We sub-assemble to order

We stock to order

17.

How does your company match Supply Chain strategy to business strategy?

We have clear customer segments and segmented supply chains

We have clear customer segments, but a single supply chain

We have some customer segmentation, and no supply chain

Do not know

18.

How is your company’s Cash flow from operations/EBITDA as compared to its peers?

Top 20% of the peer group

Second 20% of the peer group

Third 20% of the peer group

Fourth 20% of the peer group

Last 20% of the peer group

19.

How do you collaborate with the suppliers and customers to increase supply chain velocity?

Shorten lead times for key supply chain processes – procurement, manufacturing, logistics

Shorten cycle times for key processes

Increase responsiveness of the supply chain by automatic triggers

Dynamic and flexible planning systems that can rejig quickly

All of the above

20.

Looking at the warehouse expansion in the business, how has it kept pace with the business expansion?

Profit growth has expanded faster than the warehouse space expansion

Warehouse space has expanded faster than the profit growth

Both have expanded at about the same rate

Do not know till I look at the data

How well does your company optimize profit

21.

How well do your front line customer facing staff know individual customers prior to the interaction?

We have loyalty cards and staff can see the key profile characteristics during interaction

We have technology that identifies customers prior to interaction and presents appropriate offers

We have priority queues for our best customers that streamlines the interaction

If a customer believes they deserve special treatment, they must tell us

22.

How well is the customer requirement known and responded by Supply Chain Management?

Supply Chain staff knows the key order parameters – quantity, quality, delivery time – and make sure these are met

In addition to key order parameters, the supply chain staff also know key customer characteristics and deliver a customer experience designed to delight them

The entire supply chain is modularized and configured to customer profile

One generic supply chain should serve everyone

23.

How well do you bundle modules of products and services to design a customized offering to each customer as per his or her preference?

We provide homogenous product and service to all customers

We have multiple levels of products – one for each customer segment

We have multiple level of products and match it will customer experience and service level that would appeal to the customer segment

One generic supply chain should serve everyone

24.

Are the supply chain planning and control processes in your company centralized or decentralized to the right level?

Mainly centralized, to the right level

Mainly decentralised, and to the right level

Too much centralization

Too much decentralization

Do not know

25.

How far do you trust your front line employees with pricing and service decisions? Does adequate training exists to enable them do their job properly. What verification mechanisms exist?

Our front line staff have all the training and information to make the decisions, and we have verification mechanisms to test their decisions

Our frontline staff have most of the information and can use their own judgement to make the decisions, and we trust them to do the best

We set the policies and our frontline staff execute as per their judgment

We set the prices and service parameters. Frontline staff cannot deviate from these

How well does your company optimize profit

26.

When and how do you make information available to the front line decision makers?

Information is available prior to making the decision in an easily to absorb manner, thus facilitating decisions

Information has to be looked for before making decision, but it is easy to absorb at the decision making point

Information can be accessed and absorbed with effort

Information is only vague, inaccurate or outdated so the employee has to use his own judgement in addition to the information

Information is too aggregate – so employees make decisions based on policy and their judgement

27.

Role of the Apex decision makers

Day-to-day decisions because they need experienced persons in the absence of fact based data

Monitor day-to-day decisions because the decision makers lack full perspective on all the facts

Guidance and exceptions based involvement in day-to-day decisions and some direction setting and leadership

Direction setting and leadership – because day to day decisions are made and monitored at lower levels

28.

Is systematic market intelligence available for purchase and sale decisions?

We systematically collect and disseminate in a usable format market intelligence for both buy side and sell side to augment our people’s own market knowledge

We subscribe to several market intelligence reports which are available to our personnel to make up their views on the market positions

We have many trade journals floating around our premises and our people are constantly in touch with the marketplace

We systematically collect one side market intelligence – either buy side, or sell side

We rely on our people to find their own information

29.

Impact of product or service decisions that add features and/or activities on the cost and profits are clear to decision makers?

Staff make promises to customers without knowing full cost implications of those promises

Staff have analytical capability and data to quickly assess the impact of the promise, before making it and adjusting the price accordingly

Staff have some capability to assess the cost implications

Staff are not authorized to deviate from the policy

30.

Value-in-use to the customer of the total product/service offering decisions that add benefits and/or facilitation is clear to the decision makers?

Staff have adequate knowledge about, and/or means of assessing, what value each customer puts of the product in use

Staff have segment-wise indication of value of a product to the customer segment

Staff know where the product is deployed, and do not care about the value in use

Staff are primarily sellers who know the price and transaction process

How well do you create a pipeline of products / services

31.

Innovation cycle (figure 1), or a similar framework, is frequently discussed and utilized in product development in our company.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

32.

We have capacity to extend product/service lifecycle when its maturity by launching multiple generations of the same product/service.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

33.

We tend to maximize profits from each current generation of product/service before launching the next generation of the same product/service.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

34.

We launch the next generation of products/services too quickly – without maximizing the profits from the previous generation of the same product/service.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

35.

Our company varies supply chain strategy based on the phase of product development cycle to match supply chain with product/service maturity.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

How well do you create a pipeline of products / services

36.

We collaborate with suppliers to quickly innovate and create new generations of products using flexible and adaptive supply chain operations.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

37.

We collaborate with suppliers to drive every last cent of cost out of supply chains for established products.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

38.

We can do both – innovate and reduce the cost – at the same time because we can segment our supply chains effectively.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

39.

Our R & D team is focused on progressively improving the customer experience in the next 2-3 generation products, and effectively collaborate with external parties to achieve those commercial outcomes.

All the time

Frequently

Rarely

Never

40.

What percentage of annual profits come from the next generation of existing products launched during the year?

More than 75%

50% to 75%

25% - 50%

Less than 25%

How well does your company outsource strategically

41.

How clear are the service provider selection criteria and how well are they agreed by everyone in the selection process?

Clarity

Not at all

Somewhat

Clearly

Precisely, and in great detail

Consensus

Significantly

Somewhat

Rarely

Never

42.

How well are the expectations from outsourcing managed before, during and after the outsourcing process?

Expectations management before outsourcing

Not at all

Somewhat

Clearly

Precisely, and in great detail

Expectations management during outsourcing

Not at all

Somewhat

Clearly

Precisely, and in great detail

Expectations management after outsourcing

Not at all

Somewhat

Clearly

Precisely, and in great detail

43.

How well does the company manage the transition from current state to future state?

Very well

Somewhat good

Barely

Not well managed

44.

How are KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) selected for ongoing management of outsourcing relationship?

Same as peer group, or others in the industry do

Based on previous experience of the personnel

Vendors suggest several KPIs and we pick the most relevant ones

Work closely with Vendor to configure the KPIs

Go back to strategic objective of outsourcing and link KPIs to them

45.

What is your company’s inclination to use a single formulaic approach for all outsourcing success?

Very likely

Somewhat likely

Somewhat unlikely

Very unlikely

Never

How well does your company outsource strategically

46.

How well does your company standardize, homogenize and modularize the total workscope before embarking on outsourcing strategy?

Very well

Somewhat good

Barely

Not well managed

47.

Refer to figure 3, what percentage of time does your company spend on the preparation phase?

More than 9 months

Between 6 and 9 months

Between 3 and 6 months

Less than 3 months

Do not know

48.

How does your company prepare RFP (request for proposals) that are sent out to vendors?

Use existing library of RFPs inside the company

Relevant personnel bring RFPs from previous jobs

Custom design RFP for each outsourcing

Vendor engagement strategy is customer designed for each outsourcing

Ask vendor to help design the right documentation

49.

During the vendor integration phase (implementation) who leads the process?

Vendor, because they have more experience with their products

Our process team, because they have more experience with the process itself

Both equally – because both are experts in their respective areas

Our business team – because they need to ensure that original objectives of the outsourcing are kept paramount throughout the implementation process

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Medium Supply Chain Review

How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?

How well does your company innovate - using a 5 -Star B2B Network ?

Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?

Cash Cycle - how well do you manage it?

How well does your company optimize profit

How well does your company optimize profit

How well do you create a pipeline of products / services

How well do you create a pipeline of products / services

How well does your company outsource strategically

How well does your company outsource strategically