The fourth and latest report of Deloitte's Global Benchmark Study program reveals that more than 80 percent of world's most global companies are not capturing full value of their investments. Rather than take a holistic view in the design and expansion of their global supply chain network, most manufacturers focus on fixing individual pieces of the network. The result: suboptimal improvements, wasted efforts and frequently lackluster performance.

Building a platform for continuous optimization
Deloitte's point of view emphasizes the need for continuous optimization of the global supply chain network to capture the full return of globalization. Some key findings from the report:

• Companies that have continually optimized their existing and new investments within the global supply chain structure are as much as 70 percent more profitable than their peers. In one case, a leading industrial products manufacturer gained a staggering 75 annual percent profit improvement by pursuing continuous optimisation, through improved customer service and lower overall cost base.
• Three key enablers to achieving and maintaining comprehensive, global network optimization include:
  • Visibility: Access to critical information regarding product, customer service and manufacturing costs, customer and product profitability, and other vital signs. More than 90 percent of companies researched were not fully satisfied with their visibility of critical information necessary to achieve global optimization;
  • Technology: An integrated and flexible technology infrastructure allows companies to gain visibility and dynamically support changes in the network structure; and,
  • Top Management Support: The vast majority of those manufacturers that are successfully optimizing their networks in a holistic fashion have one executive in charge of the overall supply chain. Conversely, only 40 to 60 percent of other groups (the majority of companies studied) have one leader at the helm.
• Prior to restructuring a global supply chain, manufacturers must build a platform for what we call "continuous optimization," considering both competitive and compliance drivers.

Read the full report, available in its entirety as a PDF file attachment below. View the rest of the Global Benchmark Study materials, or learn more about Deloitte's Global Manufacturing Industry practice.