Not that long ago, Inbound Logistics ran a similarly titled article that quoted a large number of CXOs that made some really good observations on common misconceptions that included, and are not necessarily limited to (and you should check out the article in full as a number of the respondents made some very good points on the observations):

The misconceptions included statements that supply chains should:

• reduce cost and/or track the most important metric of cost savings
• accept negotiations as a zero-sum game
• model supply chains as linear (progression from raw materials to finished goods)
• … and made up of planning, buying, transportation, and warehousing silos
• … and each step is independent of the one that proceeds and follows
• accept they will continue to be male dominated
• become more resilient by shifting production out of countries to friendly countries
• expect major delays in transportation
• … even though traditional networks are the best, even for last-mile delivery
• accept truck driver shortage as a systemic issue
• accept the blame when anything in them goes wrong
• only involve supply chain experts
• run on complex / resource intensive processes
• … and only be optimal in big companies
• … which can be optimized one aspect at a time
• press pause on innovation or redesign or growth in a down market
• be unique to a company and pose unique challenges only to that company
• not be sustainable as that is still cost-prohibitive
• see disruption as an aberration
• return to (the new) normal
• use technology to fix everything
• digitalize as people will become less important with increasing automation and AI in the supply chain

And these are all very good points, as these are all common misconceptions that the doctor hears too much (and if you go through enough of the Sourcing Innovation archives, it should become clear as to why), but not the biggest, although the last one gets pretty close.

THE BIGGEST SUPPLY CHAIN MISCONCEPTION

We Can Use Technology to Do That!

the doctor DOES NOT care what “THAT” is, you cannot use technology to do “THAT” 100% of the time in a completely automated way. Never, ever, ever. This is regardless of what the technology is. No technology is perfect and every technology invented to date is governed by a set of parameters that define a state it can operate effectively in. When that state is invalidated, because one or more assumptions or requirements cannot be met, it fails. And a HUMAN has to take over.

Even though really advanced EDI/XML/e-Doc/PDF invoice processing can automate processing of the more-or-less 85% of invoices that come in complete and error free, and automate the completion and correction of the next 10% to 13%, the last 2% to 5% will have to be human corrected (and sometimes even human negotiated) with the supplier. And this is technology we’ve been working on for over three decades! So you can just imagine the typical automation rates you can expect from newer technology that hasn’t had as much development. Especially when you consider the next biggest misconception.