A recent article in the Harvard Business Review on how to make better decisions (subscription required) provided a framework you can use to improve your supply chain decision making process if you don’t currently have one. It consists of four simple steps to take you down the decision making path:
- Identify
Start by listing the decisions that must be made to decide which are the most important. This will help to insure that you spend enough time analyzing the important decisions with enough care. - Inventory
Assess the factors that affect each decision that must be made. This will help you understand what you need to consider, what decision making processes might be effective, and what data is relevant. - Intervene
Design the roles, processes, systems, and behaviours your organization should be using to make the decisions. A successful decision making process considers all methods of improvement and execution before making a decision. - Institutionalize
Companies serious about decision making have a process for determining who should make a decision, when, and how and all major projects have the benefit of systematic decision analysis.
It’s pretty simple, but just taking the time to identify, and document, the important decisions, relevant factors, appropriate data, and appropriate methods to make, and repeat, the process on similar decisions in the future is a great first step to better decisions.