For the purposes of the study, collaboration was defined as having three key components: 1. alignment of individuals and organizations; 2. sharing of real time data; 3. standardization of processes. The study viewed respondents as either leading edge or laggard.
Reasons that so little collaboration is happening today include technical matters (94%), unaligned strategies (86%) and lack of trust (82%). “Despite a consensus on the need for collaboration,” says Peter Moore, Capgemini’s vice president of supply chain and RFID, “this year’s survey results demonstrate that technical and cultural barriers often keep organizations from reaching the desired level of integration across the supply chain.”
Those in manufacturing represent almost half of the 2,311 U.S.-based supply chain executives who participated in the 2005 study, “Collaboration: Enabling Synchronized Supply Chains,” which is the 14th annual report on trends and issues in logistics and transportation conducted by the three organizations.
Other findings that emerged in this year’s study show that two supply change tools have diminished in use since 2003 – in-house development of software (down 4%) and use of third party providers (down 2%). At the same time, survey participants have increased purchase of commercially purchased software by 6%, with 47% of leading edge companies using that software today compared to 26% of laggard firms.
