The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain
Art Koch
Business Expert Press (June 2024)

“If you’ve always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.”  Charles Kettering

Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations have two compelling needs:

1. Effective leadership at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise
2. A sustainable profit chain

What you have in this book is everything of substantial, practical value that Art Koch has learned about HOW to achieve these two separate but interdependent objectives.

More specifically, in Part I, he focuses on

o Building professionalism in supply chain management
o Managing the fundamentals: the “bedrock” of supply chain management
o Swift yet meticulous and rapid assessment of your supply chain as is
o When and why inventory can be “evil”
o The Koch Profit Chain® — The total cost of ownership “beyond the surface”
o Planning for everything that is or could be important
o “The Art of Equalization”: Achieving organizational balance (e.g. inventory control)
o “Turbocharging” supply chain sustainability
o “Entropy Busters® Phase I — Overcoming Denial
o “Entropy Busters® Phase II — Making Progress
o “Entropy Busters® Phase III —  People Matters

Then in Part II, Koch focuses on

o Supply chain health check advisory
o Developing a supply chain business transformation agenda
o Question: “Is your supply chain organization designed for sustainable success?”
o “The Law of 1 Percent = 50 Percent”
o Creating the perfect supplier partner
o “The Inventory Doctor®”

And finally, in Part III, he focuses on

o Question: “Are you identifying the ‘Genius’ and the ‘Castaways’?”
o Leadership Advisory
o Turning operational problems into profits”

Art Koch is a relentless empiricist who takes a pragmatic approach to understanding what works, what doesn’t, and WHY…then sharing what he has learned — the dos and don’ts — with as many people as possible. He notes that “every business situation is unique” and must be approached and dealt with accordingly.

This is a “must read” for all senior-level executives as well as for those among their direct reports. I urge you to keep in mind Alvin Toffler’s prediction in Future Shock (1970): “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

The need for effective organizational leadership of a sustainable profit chain is greater now than at any prior time that I can recall.

Carpe diem! Seize the day!

* * *

Here are two suggestions while reading The Supply Chain Revolution: First, highlight key passages. Also, perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to head notes and key points posed within the narrative. Also record your responses to specific or major issues or questions addressed or suggested in the material, especially at the conclusion of chapters.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.