HOW TO MEASURE SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE

6 | R i g h t S c o r e s ™ pop open and swallow a can of spinach and miraculously transform into a strong warrior. Rocky asks his manager, “Hey Mick, got a can of spinach?” Mick says, “No, but I have a can of Starkist tuna.” Rocky pops open and downs the can of Starkist tuna, pops up off his stool as the bell rings for the final round, walks into the center of the ring and knocks Apollo Creed literally out of the ring and out cold. Rocky wins the world senior heavyweight championship, ten million dollars, and new Mercedes. The movie is wildly popular and audiences begin associating success with Starkist tuna. The sales of Starkist tuna sky rocket. The supply chain cost as a percentage of sales plummets. The supply chain managers at this grocery chain all receive promotions and bonuses. And what in the world does any of this have to do with supply chain performance? NOTHING! That’s the whole point of this round about story. What if Rocky had downed the can of Starkist tuna and collapsed on his stool and Apollo Creed had won the championship?What if people had begun to associate Starkist tuna with failure? What if the supply chain cost as a percent of sales for Starkist tuna had sky rocketed and the grocery company’s supply chain management team was disciplined or even let go? What does any of that have to do with supply chain performance? NOTHING! The point and principle is that whatever metrics are established have to be controllable and influenceable by the people held accountable to them. There are very few phenomenon