Are you using Social Media to improve the effectiveness of your Supply Chain?

The buzz is everywhere, we read about in the newspapers, we hear about it on television, and its part of our everyday life on the Internet. We have to be LinkedIn to our professional network, we have our Facebook page to communicate with our friends and neighbors, and likely we are Twittering while we are out for a casual night on the town. Social networking is everywhere, and although there are new networks being created every day many have yet to fully understand and embrace the potential of this media.

On a personal level, these services can have all sorts of interesting uses and benefits, but what can it mean on a professional level for supply management professionals and their supply chains? Although many new applications will arise in the future there are several ways we can utilize social networking to improve our supply chain communication immediately. The four most common uses are;

1. Advanced Networking

2. Knowledge Sourcing

3. SCM Cloud Automation

4. Communication Repository

Advanced Networking: Many supply-chain experts tell me they feel isolated when working exclusively in their myopic networks. ?We don't really know how other people are dealing with issues similar to our own? said Charles Frederick, who specializes in building and growing family businesses so they can be handed on to the next generation. Charles indicated that often the budgets for educational events and conferences are cut during tough times making it difficult to stay connected with the best new ideas in the industry. Mr. Frederick suggested that social media is a great way to always stay connected with both peers and thought leaders who are relevant to you, your industry or area of specialization right from your deskto. Joining subject specific groups is a great way to stay connected and share the latest thoughts on almost any given subject. Supply-chain groups can be found in Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and other social networks.

Knowledge Sourcing: Is a process associated with finding the appropriate expert in any given subject. Social networking tools can be used to inquire amongst your peers until you find the subject specific experts you have been looking for. This process works extremely effectively in a social networking environment and experts can quickly be evaluated to determine if their particular skills would benefit your specific needs.

SCM Cloud Automation: Cloud computing is the future and like all disruptive technologies there is a healthy tension between the promise of cloud computing and what can be delivered today, particularly when you're an enterprise looking to take advantage of some of the benefits. The promised of low-cost, easy to access, on-demand resources over the Internet can look very attractive to organizations who want to lower their hardware cost and reduce operational expenses. This can be tapped into very effectively through social networks and can even keep the organizations ahead of the curve in terms of utilizing this technology where you have an appropriate role in business. Social networking can be used to qualify the cloud resources in question and ensure that their appropriate for your particular application. Cloud computing will move out of the fear, uncertainty and doubt phase into reality for many customers. Large corporations will begin to move segments of their infrastructure and applications to the cloud and will begin putting pressure on vendors to guarantee predictability and reliability of these information sources. Service management will become main stream and information technology libraries will become standard sources of information that can be easily accessed through social networks.

Knowledge Sourcing: Knowledge sourcing can be greatly enhanced by social networking as more and more information is delivered via the Internet. This information can be qualified and quantified through the process of social networking. There is a consensus of opinion that most knowledge will be disseminated through the Internet, whether it is cloud automation or knowledge sourcing more and more information will be delivered via this media and as it is social networks will play a more important role in both accessing and organizing information for dissemination to its clientele.

Communication Repository: Social networks will play a more important role in disseminating information similar to the Google Wave where information is shared among a group of users or among a social networking utilizing that information. Once such medications are carried out in the social media system they become communication repositories that both new and existing employees can draw upon when dealing with specific supply-chain issues. Implementing a searchable social media driven messaging system for your supply chain can take these islands of information and combined them into valuable assets for understanding, managing and then improving the interactions that take place beyond the direct supply-chain movements and transactions. Social media messaging systems allow all of the message communications within the system whether a closed company system or open system to be stored and then remain a searchable this allows others to view histories of customer interactions, internal employee interactions or situational contextual circumstances of value for future years.

These four methods of utilizing social networks to enhance supply chain information can be implemented today, many more are certain to follow. If you or your organization need help in implementing any of these social networks within your supply chain we would suggest you contact a Supply Chain Expert, their motto is ?you are only as good as your weakest link? and if you are not using social media to enhance your supply-chain information you are missing a golden opportunity to improve your performance and share information across your entire network. The Supply Chain Expert will help you design a program that delivers both immediate and long term benefits to your organization. The program will be designed to shift your organizations thinking, improve innovation, and implement a program that will optimize operational performance and satisfy the requirements of your customers.

Dr. Edward F. Knab
Productivity Constructs, Inc.
800 660 8718 office
949 413 7333 mobile
ed@edwardknab.com
www.productivityconstructs.com
Free Supply Chain Intelligence Reports

Dr. Knab is an academic practitioner and seasoned supply chain expert whose company, Productivity Constructs, Inc., is focused improving global leadership and thereby creating more effective organizations and higher levels of job satisfaction. Dr. Knab can be contacted for speaking engagements, coaching, or consultation at efk@productivityconstructs.com, mailto:ed@ewardknab.com or www.edwardknab.com.

Tags: Chain, EMS, ERP, Software, Supply, efficiency, information, social, network, knowledge, cloud,