Customer service is key to supply chain excellence, according to KPMG Management Consulting.

Customer service is the missing ingredient when it comes to excellence in supply chain and logistics, according to Brian Scholey, Principal Consultant at KPMG Management Consulting's Global Supply Chain Unit speaking at Logistics '97 on the Oriana. His speech drew on recent data generated by the KPMG Management Consulting's Awards for Excellence in Supply Chain Management 1997 to highlight the importance of customer service in improving supply chain.

"While 95 per cent of companies currently have a supply chain unit in place, organisations continue to use this resource in the traditional sense, for inventory, distribution, storage and supply. Customer relations, which plays an increasingly important role in ensuring companies gain competitive advantage, is not in practice an integral part of supply chain.

"Factors such as increased globalisation, technological advances and the development of European Economic and Monetary Union mean that cost is no longer the main issue for those companies that rely on an efficient supply chain. The level of customer service is what sets apart an organisation from its competitors.

"One way to ensure greater external customer responsiveness is to instil an ethos of customer service within your own organisation with the use of internal service level agreements. These documents act as a method for different departments within the same organisation to agree standards, control costs and open up communication between customer and supplier. This commitment to service within the organisation will lead to greater external customer awareness.

"It is this level of customer service which is currently lacking in many companies. Attitudes are changing, but there is still a long way to go. Neither customer or supplier should be complacent in the pursuit for excellence in supply chain management. Both parties must actively communicate with their customers, pursue best-practice, conduct bench marking surveys and take advantage of the technology available on the market. Those suppliers and customers who are complacent with their level of customer service will not succeed in the long term".

For further information please contact: Brian Scholey, KPMG Management Consulting. Tel: 0171 311 4603. E-mail: [email protected]