Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, known as the Strongest Link in Your Supply Chain® and President of LMA Consulting Group Inc., works with organizations to improve and protect supply chains by initiating cross-organizational alignment. LMA Consulting Group works with manufacturers and distributors on strategy and end-to-end supply chain transformation to maximize the customer experience and enable profitable, scalable, dramatic business growth.

"The success of the supply chain requires the participation of every function within the organization. From customer service and sales to production and finance, every department, every discipline has a stake in the supply chain," Ms. Anderson commented. To be transparent, flexible and in touch with customer needs, there must be communication within the organization.

"Sales has as critical a role in the supply chain as Operations. After all, Sales has its ears to the ground in assessing and understanding customer needs. Yet, if Sales does not communicate with Operations, forecasts and production could be off. If sourcing and finance are not involved, there could be profitability issues. The bottom line is every single department is interconnected with another within the supply chain. And the key is communication and data. Communication so that each area has what they need to do their job and data because data is critical to making decisions," she said.

Ms. Anderson and her firm use the SIOP process to help organizational alignment. "Processes provide consistency. Once there is consistency, accuracy improves. And with processes in place, data integrity improves. The supply chain is complicated and has many moving parts. Yet, breaking the parts down so that stakeholders have visibility allows them to work as a team to deliver desired outcomes," she concluded.

Supply chains are sophisticated and ever-evolving. Ms. Anderson has introduced Supply Chain Chats, a series of short videos that address current topics, issues and challenges related to supply chains. Ms. Anderson also released: Thriving in 2022: Learning from Supply Chain Chaos – Insights from 22 Trusted Advisors, a Special Report to provide supply chain insight and strategies for manufacturers.