The Plays You Can Use to Address Uncertainty
In baseball, every pitch can be an opportunity to respond. Sometimes, you get a fastball — predictable, straightforward, and easy to manage. Other times, you get a curveball — unexpected, tricky, and challenging. Similarly, in the supply chain world, uncertainty comes in both proactive and reactive forms, and you need a strategy to adjust accordingly.
Imagine you’re a baseball team at bat. You have two main ways to approach your next move:
- Offense (Proactive): Planning ahead and setting yourself up for success, like predicting a fastball and preparing for a solid hit.
- Defense (Reactive): Responding to unexpected situations, like reacting to a curveball and adapting to the sudden change.
We use a matrix to understand these strategies. The top row represents proactive and reactive strategies, while the first column represents key components of supply chain management like inventory and suppliers.
When you know what’s coming, you can prepare (proactive), but when something unexpected happens, you’ll need to adapt (reactive). This matrix helps us map out the best ways to deal with uncertainty and keep the game moving forward.
Capacity management ensures that you have the right resources in place to meet demand, even during peak times or when disruptions occur. By understanding your capacity limits and planning accordingly, you can avoid bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Similarly, contingency planning prepares you for the unexpected by creating backup strategies, allowing you to pivot quickly when facing supply chain disruptions. Both are essential for maintaining a resilient and flexible supply chain that can respond effectively to any situation.
The Key Levers: How to Respond Like a Pro
In baseball, a team needs more than just a bat and glove. The key to a winning strategy is having the right tools and players in the right positions. In supply chain management, the same is true. You need to leverage the right systems, processes, and partnerships to create an effective strategy.
These are your levers, and just like in baseball, they’re the tools that help you adjust to whatever uncertainty you face.
1. Systems – Signals of the Game
Systems are the "stats" you use to track performance. They should be:
- Integrated across platforms, so everything talks to each other.
- Scalable to accommodate both expected and unexpected changes.
- Rooted in data, providing you with real-time insights to act fast
In baseball, this is like having a solid scouting report or advanced analytics to know what pitch is coming. With the right system, you can predict the best next move.
2. Processes – The Double-Play Efficiency Boosters
Your processes are what keep things moving and organized. They help you execute your strategy smoothly.
Think of processes like executing a double-play in baseball — fast, efficient, and making sure you get the right result with minimal effort.
Effective processes help maintain the flow of operations, improving efficiency and reducing friction. In supply chain terms, this might look like processes that allow you to quickly pivot inventory or streamline picking and shipping.
3. Partnerships – Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
In baseball, it’s not just about one player; it’s about the whole team. In the supply chain, your partnerships are crucial. Vendors, suppliers, transportation partners, and even labor sources all work together to ensure that the game is won.
Strong partnerships help mitigate risks and ensure flexibility. Just like a catcher and pitcher have to be in sync, your suppliers and transportation partners need to be aligned to keep the game going smoothly.
Putting it Into Action: Examples of Game-Time Strategy
Now that we understand the strategies and levers, let's see how we can put them into play. Here are some real-world scenarios that highlight how to use these strategies to respond to challenges in the supply chain, drawing parallels to situations in a baseball game.
1. Demand Fluctuations — The Curveball of Unexpected Surges
During the pandemic, we saw an unexpected surge in demand for certain products, which created supply chain chaos. It was like a curveball — unpredictable and difficult to manage.
How to Respond:
- Inventory (Reactive): Use alternate inventory stocks and adjust by placing more replenishment orders from existing stock. Implement measures to take products directly from inbound supplies without officially receiving them to reduce lead times.
- Systems: Deploy responsive systems (like Codeworks) for visibility, integrating systems like ERPs for faster ASNs and projected inventory levels.
- Processes: Implement fast picking methods like pick-to-truck or pick-from-inbound to ensure goods get to customers as quickly as possible.
- Partnerships: Leverage strong transportation partnerships for flexible solutions, like hot loads or rush orders.
2. Supply Chain Disruptions — Rerouting After a Romaine Lettuce Recall
A supply chain disruption, like a product recall, can feel like a surprise pitch. A recent example is the romaine lettuce recall, which caused widespread supply chain issues.
How to Respond:
- Inventory (Proactive): Diversify and reroute orders to alternative processing plants or sources.
- Systems: Use systems that allow for quick rerouting of orders, ensuring product availability is maintained.
- Processes: Rapid onboarding of alternate suppliers to keep the supply chain moving.
- Partnerships: Work with transportation partners to expedite shipments and reroute orders as needed.
3. Rising Costs — Labor Shortages and Transportation Challenges
When labor costs rise or transportation becomes more expensive, it's like facing a bases loaded situation where every move counts.
How to Respond:
- Suppliers (Proactive): Establish flexible supplier contracts that allow for quick adjustments.
- Systems: Ensure your systems are user-friendly and scalable, making onboarding and training of new workers efficient.
- Processes: Rapidly onboard temporary labor to fill gaps as needed.
- Partnerships: Work with staffing agencies or transportation providers to secure flexible labor and transportation solutions.
Conclusion: Measuring Success
In baseball, you measure success with stats — batting average, on-base percentage, and home runs. In the supply chain, you measure success with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are the “stats” that show how well your team is performing. However, KPIs aren’t static. They evolve based on the scenario at hand. For example:
- Order Fill %: Total orders fulfilled on time vs. total orders placed.
- Line Fill %: Total order lines fulfilled on time vs. total order lines placed.
- Service Level %: Quantity fulfilled on time vs. quantity ordered.
Just like how a baseball team adjusts strategies depending on the game situation, supply chain teams should adjust their KPIs and strategies based on the circumstances. The key is having the right tools in your toolbox — systems, processes, and partnerships — ready to deploy when uncertainty strikes.
Whether you’re hitting a fastball or reacting to a curveball, resilience in the supply chain is all about using the right plays at the right time. As the season progresses, make sure your team is always ready for whatever the game throws your way.
And just like in baseball, your winning strategy is about adjusting, collaborating, and continuously improving to ensure you're always in the game.