@ Supply Chain Management

If you’ve come across the term KPIs or Fill Rate or Inventory turns, chances are that you’re aware that all these terms fall (not exclusively though) under the rubric of a topic called Supply Chain Metrics. In this first post about Supply Chain Metrics (of what I will be hoping is a series of posts), I want to assemble an intersection of the most common Supply Chain Metrics as might be observed in practice. Beware, there is no uniform standard for these metrics across firms and so terms that mean one thing in one firm might mean something approximately the same with slight differences.
Here’s an initial list of metrics that I have assembled
Supplychainmetric.com
1. Back orders
2. Cycle Time
3. Fill Rate
4. Inventory Classification (ABC)
5. Inventory Turns
6. On time shipping and delivery
7. Perfect Order
The Power of Metrics (DMReview)
DMReview organizes supply chain metrics using the following four dimensions:

1. Response-Time Metric (timeliness dimension)
2. Visibility Metric (process efficiency dimension)
3. Productivity Metric (productivity dimension)
4. Shrinkage Metric (profitability dimension)

Building and leveraging Metrics Framework to drive Supply Chain Performance (Infosys)
They outline the key characteristics of the right metric as including – Reliability, Validity, Accessibility and Relevant. They also elaborate that:

• Metrics are most useful when embedded in a metrics model that represents a business process
• The criticality of a metric is determined by the process performance insight that it provides
• Metrics need to be assigned to roles that have process execution, monitoring and tracking responsibilities

Supply Chain Benchmarking (AMR Research)
AMR Research focuses on 8 high-level operational processes:

* Request to quotation
* Order to delivery/cash
* Perfect order fulfillment
* Inventory management
* Source and make (with cash to cash)
* Operational planning
* New product development time
* Supply chain management costs

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