We know that we can’t adequately integrate anything – all the way from ingredients in a recipe to disparate systems within connected business processes – without planning. It’s just impossible. But knowing that you need to plan and understanding the process are two different things. In this post, we’ll discuss the process of integration planning and how to ensure that your process is optimized.
An Optimal and Powerful Process Outline:
Successful integration planning will achieve the removal of all of the unnecessary or redundant systems (see previous post) that consume/waste a tremendous amount of resources and play a major part in slowing down supply chain processes. It is this redundancy which is responsible for making supply chain processes cumbersome, error-prone, very difficult to manage and administer and, ultimately wasteful.
The redundant and completely unnecessary processes that must be removed from the supply chain operation were also discussed in our previous post.
The following outlines an example of a properly planned and designed integrated supply chain operation. This encompasses not only the integration planning process (that is, the planning of the actual integration phase), but also (and perhaps most importantly) the pre-integration planning process which must be considered and completed first.
Pre-Integration Planning Process:
Integration Planning Process:
In summary, unless the proper automation and the proper integration are implemented, many, if not all of the key business activities cannot be improved, as any and all collaboration with external and internal users and systems will not be accurate and timely.
In our next post, we’ll look at how integration planning applies to a retailer’s supply chain process, what waste there may be, and we’ll describe a hypothetical example of a properly implemented integration plan.
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