Late last year, Enterprise Apps Today had a great article on 11 Ways to Improve Your Supply Chain Management. A few of these are not repeated, or not listened to, enough, including:

• Throw Away Your Spreadsheets
  As Sourcing Innovation has reminded you, Spreadsheets, which are riddled with errors and outdated information, Will Cost You Billions! Billion dollar accounting errors have resulted from spreadsheets on more than one occasion!
• Manage Information, Don’t Use Information Management
  If the system doesn’t facilitate proper collection, identification, and analysis of the information required to make an informed decision, and make such easy to do, it’s not the right system for your supply chain operation.
• Monitor the Performance of Each Partner in the Supply Chain
  Whether that partner is up stream or downstream. Waiting until a shipment is missed or a customer is late with a payment is too late to begin a problem diagnosis or issue resolution.
• Remember that the Supply Chain Doesn’t Begin at the Warehouse or End on the Store Shelf
  More important than ensuring products are stocked on the shelves is that those products are [considered] desirable by your customers. If the product ain’t selling, it don’t matter that it’s stocked. It’s all about the end customer, and making sure the product is what they want from the raw materials up, with no child labour or sweatshops in the equation.