Quotes for the Supply Chain MBA

Below are a series of Supply Chain MBA quotes and phrases.  These quotes can be used for anyone in business.  We made various comments to show how they apply to supply chain.  Some are definitely supply chain specific and others are more for general business.  Whether you have a supply chain MBA or not, that doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you are adding value to your company.

• “Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.”  ~Tom Peters
• “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” ~W. Edwards Deming
• “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”  ~Taiichi Ohno
• “We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain… what we will not do – and never have done – is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain.  On this you have my word.” ~Tim Cook, CEO Apple
• “Supply chains are everywhere.  From the biggest company in the world to running your household.  We all have supply chain experience even if we don’t know it.”  ~EverythingSupplyChain.com

Taiichi Ohno is the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS).  Toyota is definitely a company you want to research to increase your supply chain knowledge.  There is a great deal of information regarding Toyota’s supply chain and how they have used the Toyota Production System to have quality products year over year.  Some other companies to research include Amazon, Apple, P&G, and Walmart.

Never be afraid of hard work.  Have seen some people think they are above certain work.  No one is above anything.  If you are given a job to do, then do it to the best of your ability no matter what it is.  I have seen some people with a Supply Chain MBA come into a company and think they should run it.  This isn’t how you are going to add value to the company and it is not how you are going to expand your network.  This quote comes to mind my Martin Luther King Jr. “If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

This quote goes well for those in procurement.  It may be good to squeeze a supplier at times but this can also be detrimental.

I like this one because it shows that the top companies in the world highly view the value of supply chain.  Also, the new COO of Apple, Jeff Williams, also led the Apple Supply Chain.

“Supply Chain is like nature, it is all around us.” ~Dave Waters

Things aren’t always going to go the way you want them to go.  You may not get promoted when you absolutely deserve it.  There will be times someone may get a bigger raise or a promotion that you know you are better than.  You are going to hit obstacles.  One of my first bosses gave me great advice.  He told me I would run into obstacles.  I would run into brick walls.  But my job is to figure out how to get over the obstacle, around it, under it, or through it.  That is how I would become a leader.  And I think he was right.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~John F. Kennedy

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.” ~Warren Buffett

“Self-driving vehicles, automatically choosing the most efficient route… Artificial intelligence will dramatically improve logistics.” ~Dave Waters