SUPPLY CHAIN SERVICE STRATEGY

10 | R i g h t S e r v e ™ it.” An 88% fill rate target for an unforecastable item is ludicrously risky and expensive. Differentiation is good service! Tell it like it is! I was in Cleveland visiting one of our clients a few years ago. We were sitting in a conference room in their automated distribution center when several attendees’ cell phones rang. After an awkward, silent pause in the meeting, several of those same people stepped out. The meeting was adjourned for an hour. When the meeting re-started, I asked what the hubbub was about. They explained that one of the aisles in their ASRS had malfunctioned and that several of the day’s orders were going to be delayed. Each of the people who had stepped out had been assigned to investigate and expedite a group of affected orders. In addition, they were to communicate the findings and updated ETAs to the affected customers. The communication included a phone call and email apology for the hiccup, a rebate for the cost of the order, a credit for future orders, and an update on the adjusted arrival time for each order. Their transparent, comprehensive and quick response to the few hiccups in their supply chain convert what could be reputation damaging incidents into reputation enhancers. It turns out that how people and organizations handle their failures may have as much or even more impact on their reputation than their successes.