SUPPLY CHAIN GRANULARITY

Many manufacturers and retailers are dealing with the New Reality.  Selling Duality/Omnichannel. Order Delivery Velocity. Success being driven by strategic, weaponized, end-to-end Supply Chain Management.  Speed. Speed. Speed. 

However not every firm has been impacted. Some industries have been, so far, immune to these disruptions.  But that has not excluded them from the need to improve performance and/or reduce costs.  

A technique for such firms is Supply Chain Granularity Analysis.

Concept of Granularity
A company is not homogeneous. It has granularity. Granularity reflects the size of the units being assessed, whether large or small. Think of the United States as a country, then each state and then counties within a state; each level reflects a degree of granularity. 

For businesses, product categories may be considered coarse-grained and individual products can be fine-grained. Fine-grained, smaller units are the surprises of the analysis. Note, granularity is a term often used with information technology-related applications. That is not the way it will be discussed.

The firm’s granular content is defined by and within its different divisions or business units, if it has them; or by different department or product categories. It means looking deeper into a company to gain insights, especially with regards to smaller, less recognized areas or products of the company. It means looking for the gold nugget among the rocks and gravel.

With granular analysis, the company can identify key performance areas to compete in. Profit contribution, return on investment or revenue growth of divisions or product categories is a good way to assess the granularity of a company. The revenue, profit or return metric should be compared to overall GDP (gross domestic product) or some similar measure. Results that exceed the comparative measure are what need to be identified and exploited.

A granular review may find opportunities that traditional analysis could miss. Conventional analysis often stays within the context of the present organization or within terms such as strategic or tactical. To some extent, such rigidity in approach can predetermine the results of the analysis and overlook hidden drivers within the business.

With the granular analysis, the firm looks at customers, customer types, market segments, geographic regions, individual SKUs and other sub-levels. As a result, the company can find performance areas that they compete in and in which they outperform. As such, it may identify areas within business units or product categories that are less emphasized by the overall company organization or portfolio and that may be otherwise overlooked. The company should then work to understand the opportunities and focus on the identified and prior unrecognized areas or products.

Application in Supply Chain Management 

Granularity has value for supply chain practitioners and for 3PLs and other logistics service providers. For supply chain management, it presents two options. One is how to support and to effectively handle these fine-grained opportunities. Two is the use of granular analysis within the supply chain process where there are likely granular opportunities.

There can be a challenge in the supply chain support for fine-grained company opportunities. This would involve costs to support smaller customers or markets. Operations effectiveness often includes volume as a driver of velocity. This can be seen, for example, in the transit time of a truckload of products versus a less-than-truckload shipment or a parcel size shipment. This method also stays within traditional accounting practices where cost spread over more units means lower costs per unit. Similar implications are with warehousing large volumes or picking large orders. Such issues need to be recognized before the specific supply chain support for the company's granular growth or related opportunities are developed and implemented.

The second option is reviewing the company supply chain for granularity. For example, the analysis may proceed with the firm's assessing the first level, the inbound supply chain. Then it looks at the next level, imported products and orders. Then to imports from a certain geographical region.

The supply chain practitioner then looks at the container movements. Then at the ocean carrier and/or freight forwarder who handled the container. Nothing is outstanding there. There are nominal differences among the logistics providers. He then looks at it be inventory priority-A, B and C. That review may be masked by the performance of the logistics service providers.

So another cut is done by suppliers. This part of the analysis shows a supplier that ships its orders at 100% on-time. That is good for the company. Overall suppliers have been shipping about 50% of the orders on-time, with some having a supplier performance as low as 30% on-time. Here is that gold-nugget among the gravel.

Now learn more about that supplier and why his performance is so good as compared to others. This result can be important to the supply chain and to the company. Not shipping orders on time to the firm affect its customer service by not having needed products available for sale, by having too much overall inventory on-hand at the same time there is a certain product(s) not in stock and by impacting warehouse picking and costs with the extra travel time to move around slow-moving inventories.

A review of the outbound supply chain may show a carrier that is outstanding overall or in certain routes. A certain warehouse or labor shift may perform at near mistake-free levels of operation. Process transitions within distinct organization segments may be quick and flawless. Such operations opportunities present benefits have discernible and may be applied and the potential for adapting and expanding them.

There are also two values of granular analysis for 3PLs and other logistics service providers. One is the benefit of doing it and finding opportunities in its own organization as to market or logistics segments or other sub-levels. A global 3P: may disaggregate his scope and find unrealized opportunities in a geographic region or in a select market. A freight forwarder may find them in certain trade lanes.

Two is for the provider to understand what it can mean to a customer in developing and delivering services that more closely match their real requirements. Logistics service providers, or with the assistance of a consulting firm, can offer to do a granular assessment for customers. The end result would be to create a value proposition with a customer that goes beyond standard definitions as to freight costs or other criteria, a proposition that is stronger than such criteria and makes the provider an integral part of that customer's logistics needs and operations.

Conclusion
Granular analysis can yield benefits to all companies, regardless of their industry or service. It is good to do for wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers and for their company’s supply chain. It is likewise good for 3PLs and other logistics service providers. Granularity does not follow the usual ways of looking at a company or its operation based on its organizational structure and sales. These approaches can miss the smaller opportunities that can be developed into a larger impact.

For more on Supply Chain Management, go to www.ltdmgmt.com

BLOG: UNDERSTANDING SUPPLY CHAIN COMPLEXITY IS REQUIRED FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT AND LOWER COST

Supply chains for manufacturers and retailers are under pressure to reduce costs AND improve performance. The low-hanging fruit has been picked. It requires new ways. It starts with recognizing and addressing supply chain complexity.

End-to-end supply chain management, especially ones with international segments--nothing in business is more complex. This is not hyperbole. It is fact. And it must be understood to manage the supply chain because complexity can be a barrier to achieving needed supply chain velocity that is so important in the expanding omnichannel.

Manufacturers and retailers are in a period of disruption. Velocity is required. Supply chain velocity. Inventory velocity. Order-delivery velocity. A problem with achieving these is that companies, regardless of their age, are using a supply chain template that is 20+-years old with emphasis on logistics costs and not on velocity.

There are obvious ways to see the end-to-end intricacy. These are length and time. Supply chains with international souring and/or export sales are long. That length means the time to move products through the supply chain.

Time is a multi-occurring issue. There are times to deliver perfect orders; to meet production schedules; time for this and time for that. It is a common supply chain topic. But there is more.

Inventory is impacted by the time from a product is needed to be replenished from the supplier until it is restocked in warehouses. Longer time adds uncertainty and requires more inventory to be carried as a buffer and more working capital to cushion sales or incur stock outs and lost sales. Companies can become inventory rich. The excess working capital is funds not available in other areas of the business, including transforming the supply chain to compete in the new selling reality of omnichannel and e-commerce for both B2C and B2B.

Additional recognition must be given as to:

• Participants. No group in an organization has more participants and players than supply chain management. This includes both inside and outside the company. Supply chain management crosses the company and interacts with almost every department in a company. As for external, the supply chain extends both directions—toward suppliers and customers. For example, an international supply chain could have 15 or more players with each order and shipment.
• Upstream. Much attention is paid to the downstream supply chain with distribution centers, stores, and factories. The weakness here is that the supply of supply chains begins upstream. Upstream has been often overlooked except for the emphasis with sourcing and with purchasing and inbound freight costs.
• Non-linearity/Supply chains within supply chains. The straight-line supply chain is an illusion. It ties to the "agile", one-size fits all view. Every firm has a supply chain—and more. Think of the Mississippi River in the US. IT is very long, runs from Minnesota down through Louisiana and into the Gulf of Mexico. But the river is not a single entity. It is fed by 7,000 streams, water basins, and smaller rivers. These smaller bodies of water flow through 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces. The great river is not a single entity. Neither is the supply chain. That is how supply chains are—many branches of inventories and activities—and how they evolved.

• Horizontal process. It flows across a vertical organization. The directional conflict between supply chain management and the company structure is more than a silo matter. It impacts the process both inside the particular company and with suppliers and customers as it extends upstream and downstream. Plus, those suppliers and customers have the same flow challenge.There is a multiplier effect with multivariant elements. Namely, the more the components, the more the complexity—and the challenge to achieving critical supply chain performance success. That is an underlying factor with supply chain management.

The greater the end-to-end supply chain complexity, the

• Increased supply chain risk.
• More inherent lean waste.
• Challenge to control.
• Greater likelihood that supply chains processes are under-designed and under-managed.

Understanding complexity is the first step. Addressing it is important for achieving supply chain velocity and its inventory and order delivery velocities. This is especially so with manufacturers and retailers achieving needed supply chain speed that are still using essentially monolithic supply chains. These are not agile and lack supply chain duality in the new omnichannel reality.

The new way to lower costs, increase velocity, and improve performance is to:

1. Attack the complexity. This can create significant improvements.
2. Move upstream. Go to where supply chains begin. Think of it. Many downstream problems start upstream. By the time they get downstream, the problems are compounded as to affect. A caution, the upstream has much of the supply chains within supply chains and nonlinear parts.
3. Assess. Identify. Segment. Prioritize. Focus where the needs and financial returns are greater. Remove bottlenecks and flow delimiters.
4. Evaluate the players and participants--both external and internal, their roles, and value. Reduce where possible. Integrate to reduce process gaps and blind spots in technology.
5. Compress time. With time and its lean international waste impact, this is important. Value stream mapping is a viable tool to use here.

The demands for greater velocity will increase. Think Velocity²—velocity squared. The longer it takes to start, the further behind firms fall in catching up.

For more on Supply Chain Management go to: www.ltdmgmt.com

BLOG: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FOR MID-SIZE MANUFACTURERS, RETAILERS, GROCERS, DISTRIBUTORS

Much is happening with supply chain management—across industries, markets, and the world. And mid-size firms are having difficulties with the challenge—problems that large companies are not having.

It started with e-commerce.  Two days from placing an order till delivery. And that standard is moving to one day and same day.  Retailers are struggling with customer service and customer expectation for both instore sales and online.  And this service expectation is going beyond online and Direct-to-Consumer.  Business-as-usual is being replaced by customer demand for quicker order performance.

Manufacturers and retailers, especially mid-size, are dealing with new realities.  Customers want faster, on-time, and complete deliveries of orders.  At stores, they do not want product stock-outs.  It is now about order delivery velocity—a derivative of inventory velocity which is driven by supply chain velocity.  The challenge is how to gain that speed. The way to do it, the way to meet customer expectations, is with supply chain management (SCM).

Against this, mid-size and small firms are competing against corporations and large firms.  And these big companies have deeper pockets than SMEs to deal with what is happening.  Mid-size firms need to understand what is needed and how they can compete when speed is the requirement.

Supply chain management is now strategic.  Amazon weaponized SCM.  This change, this challenge, is compounded after years, for many firms, of underinvesting in supply chain management and its structure of process, technology, and organization.  

E-commerce, with the Perfect Order (delivered complete, accurate, and on time) and velocity requirements, exposed design flaws and operations shortcomings in Supply Chains of many retailers, grocers, CPG/FMCG manufacturers, and suppliers. Originally, supply chains were meant for start and stop, to hold inventory to feed stores, customers, or factories. Now they are about velocity, the antithesis of the prior. This sets part of the challenge of transitioning to what is happening.

For the current supply chain, indicators of supply chain problems, and obstacles to change may be seen:

• ·       Not recognizing and understanding supply chain cycle time.  Long times to move products from purchase orders/suppliers through to customers or stores are a hidden factor in this situation.  It means noticing the time consumed in the upstream/inbound supply chain and in the downstream/outbound supply chain.
• Defining supply chain performance by its logistics costs.  It should be measured by the Perfect Order—the best company metric.  
  ·       It is valid for customer orders, purchase orders, and internal restocking.
  ·       Much expediting and firefighting.  Too much is a sign of a lack of process which is an element of supply chain structure.  It also means a lack of effective product flow.
  ·       Recognizing another performance metric--inventory turns.  Slow turns can mean excess working capital that is not generating a strong return on investment and which can be used elsewhere in the company, including upgrading the company supply chain. 
  ·       Expanding inventory performance by understanding being inventory rich and yet have stockouts and problems filling orders or making products.  Or the company cuts prices to sell excess merchandise.
  ·       Obsessing about Last Mile costs.  This is a misdirection of attention and resources on the real issues and needs.
  
  
  Inventory is both a key issue and a sleeper when it comes to speed. It is central to the Perfect Order and to Order Delivery Velocity. Yet, it is also a sign of problems while being defined as an asset by accounting/finance. As such, it can be overlooked when measuring performance.  
  
  
  There are many reasons for the inventory situation, such as:
  1)     The prior, standard design supply chains that are based on the concept of node-link, stop and go.  This approach also creates lean defined waste with extra time and inventory.  The bottom line is stop-and-go is a momentum killer, the antithesis of velocity.
  2)     Supply chains were built to connect pieces of the company, whether it was factories or stores.  They were cobbled together.  The company was not created as an end-to-end supply chain—which is what is required now.  Instead, there are inherent delays which are compounded with global sourcing and other factors.  The ideal is to redesign as an entire supply chain based on the speed of product flows.
  3)     Much of the excess inventory and working capital carried is in the upstream supply chain. That is where the longest time is in the complete supply chain for sourcing and logistics. Longer time means carrying more inventory and increased chances for stock-outs.
  4)     Factor in the time impact of container line service for bringing in products from around the world. The service can be slow and not reliable.  That adds to the need to increase inventory to buffer against the service uncertainty.
  The impact of this design and the time is much investment in inventory that could be used elsewhere and not being able to sell products at a high revenue point.  Add to it the focus on logistics costs and not on the total supply chain and its speed.
  It means inventory—raw materials, components, and finished goods.  For manufacturers, this situation crosses both Build To Order (BTO) and Build To Stock (BTS) firms.  It has been an increasing pressure with omnichannel and its e-commerce.
  
  
  Solution
  SMEs often lack the deep pockets that large companies have.  Money is often a differentiator between mid-size firms and major companies as a way to adapt to the new reality. This spending often shows in technology as a silver bullet.
  
  
  Tech emphasis can miss deeper issues.  Mid-size companies can compete by recognizing and addressing these bigger process-related topics, which is more important.  This is important for both performance improvement and for process improvement.  Remember, technology is a process enabler.  If the process is flawed, then the ability of technology to improve it is constrained.
  
  

  	For mid-size firms with limited resources for technology, emphasize end-to-end supply chain process improvement to create increased inventory velocity.

  
  
  At the minimum, there are two ways to look at the end-to-end supply chain. One is upstream and downstream.  Two is inside the four walls and outside the four walls. Many define it as in by the downstream part and inside the four walls.
  
  
  Often companies, regardless of size, look for quick fixes. There are none to make the transformation.  So avoiding them lets firms focus on what the problems and needs are.  This is especially when the easy answer is more challenging when it comes to velocity.
  
  
  First, there are supply chain essentials that should be acknowledged.  These are central to the new supply chain.
  1)     Inventory velocity.  Much inventory sits in storage.  No value is added.  Products are supposed to flow.  From a lean view, this is waste.  Move inventory more quickly through the supply chain is important to the new speed reality, to lean, and to good financial liquidity practice 
  2)     Time compression.  Removing excess time is vital for inventory velocity.  Unnecessary time exists throughout the supply chain.  Compressing time means being able to react more quickly to changes.
  3)     Upstream supply chain.  Supply chain management pulls inventory. Upstream is the origin for supply.  Extending upstream is natural to doing it.  This includes suppliers and their supply chains.  It is fundamental to achieving needed speed.
  Advanced process and technology integration.  Supply chain process flows horizontally across the internal organization and externally to suppliers and customers or stores.  The
  1)     horizontal direction contrasts with organizational pyramids with their vertical emphasis and implied silos.  Gaps to the process impact performance  Technology can link the processes, both internal and external, for visibility and control.
  The above elements are fundamental to the new supply chain to drive speed.
  Defining the solution is a multi-step activity and includes these steps:
  ·       Recognize and understand the complexity and length of supply chains.  They are not linear and are more than the four walls.  Supply chains cross the internal organizations and extend beyond the company boundaries--both upstream and downstream.   Also, there are supply chains within supply chains. 
  
  
  The straight-line supply chain is an illusion.  It ties to the "agile", one-size-fits-all view.  Every firm has a supply chain—and more.  Think of the Mississippi River in the US.  IT is very long, runs from Minnesota down through Louisiana and into the Gulf of Mexico.  But the river is not a single entity.  It is fed by 7,000 streams, water basins, and smaller rivers.  These smaller bodies of water flow through 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces.  The great river is not a single entity.  Neither is the supply chain.  That is how supply chains are—many branches of inventories and activities—and how they evolved. 
  
  
  ·       Assess the end-to-end supply chain.  Firms must know what the operations performance is and identify where problems are.  Think of a macro to micro approach—company strategy, supply chain strategy, and operations.  Use strong supply chain metrics to do this.  Note, the supply chain strategy should be more than what is needed to support the firm's strategy.  It should provide a strategic direction that is driving much of what is happening.
  
  
  The assessment should be done with strong supply chain management, not logistics, metrics.  This effort is very different from an audit.  The point is to know where the company is now as a first step to transforming.
  
  
  ·       Map the supply chain.  There are two approaches.  One is to map what is done, why,  and how. This starts with what people say.  Then analyze it with real transactions.  It can identify gaps and redundancies that impede speed.
  
  
  The other is to use value stream mapping, a lean tool, to see activities and time across the current key, high priority, criticality/high-risk product movements, or high volume.  This tool helps with identifying ways to reduce excess time in the supply chain.  Map all actions, both within the firm and external.  Then it can be analyzed for waste—excess time.  Time compression is central to achieving velocity.  From these efforts comes a new stream map with much time removed.  The result is speed.
  
  
  
  
  ·       Include suppliers and outside logistics providers.  It is not just about the company activities—the four walls.  It is also about the outside participants in the supply chain.  Assessment and mapping should include the various logistics providers and outsourcing.  It is important to understand how they perform and fit in the current supply chain and in the direction the company is going. 
  
  
  ·       Segment the supply chain.  The days of the monolithic, one-size-fits-all supply chain are gone.  Segment based on common supply chain activities which may, in turn, involve groups of customers, products, or other factors.  This also enables seeing where velocity is needed.
  
  
  ·       Prioritize and emphasize.  With these steps, the purpose now is to prioritize where efforts should be placed.  Focus on and change what is important.  Everything cannot be done at once. Note, this is not the same as cherry-picking.  Trying to do it all is a recipe for struggling to accomplish anything.  All segments, all need are not equal.  Especially if resources are an issue for technology, emphasize the end-to-end supply chain process.
  
  
  ·       Design, test, and implement.  Develop a plan for supply chain improvement. Test it to see where changes are needed.  Then implement.  Remember the logistics elements should be part of the solution.  Warehouses, for example, should be aligned and differentiate between moving—not storing--pallet load/cases of products as compared to eaches.
  
  
  Remember, with the design and segmentation, there may be different service requirements of channels.  The solution may be a combination of approaches.  One way may not answer all needs, both cost and service.  That may require data analytics, such as regression analysis, to understand order size, number of SKUs per order, which products are likely to be ordered together, and other questions. 
  
  
  
  

  	A                                                                 Map the supply chain.  Segment it to gain insights.

  
  
  
  

            

With that, construct the network for what is the best way to meet customer demands—warehouses—how many, where located, size; or warehouses of different sizes depending on order volume; or a mix of warehouses and stores.  Segment based on common supply chain or other significant issues.  The monolithic purpose, a one-size-fits-all supply chain is counterproductive to creating velocity. 

Also, the real issue is the total supply chain, not just one part, such as fulfillment.  Think about it.  How does forcing this at the end of the supply chain affect the total chain?  What changes were

required upstream?  Or are there hidden problems if this is to be more than a seasonal time service?

Conclusion

This is about the end-to-end supply chain and its velocity.  There are no shortcuts without sacrificing results.  Segment the supply chain; it is not a one-size-fits-all.  Do not treat the upstream segment as an afterthought.  Remember, that is where the supply of supply chains begin.  Also, with the emphasis on speed, then assess how logistics fits in.  Till now, transport and other logistics areas have been treated as tangential to supply chain management.  Technology is a process enabler, not a silver bullet.  Focus on the process.

The supply chain transformation will be a continuing effort.  The world is in the early stages of a global supply chain revolution.  Internet of Things.  Blockchain.  Platform business.  Integrating the three supply chains of products, information, and finance.  And more.  

For more about Supply Chain Management, go to www.ltdmgmt.com

BLOG: INVENTORY--A ROOT CAUSE OF COMPANY & SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEMS

Inventory is a problem in many companies--manufacturers, retailers, grocers, and distributors.  There can be too much inventory being carried AND incurring stock outs at the same time.

The signs include inventory rich and cash poor, amount of working capital tied up, lost investment opportunity with all the inventory, slow inventory turns, too many days of inventory, cash burn, stock outs, doing product substitutions, missed inventory yield maximization, customer perfect order failures, and poor customer service.  And those are just starters.

Accounting calls inventory an asset and places it on the balance sheet.  An asset.  With all the different types of inventory how are they all captured to assess the inventory situation?  There are finished goods, raw materials, work in process, packaging, components, and assemblies.  Plus include return goods.  And what about inventory in transit?  It belongs to the company regardless of how it is booked.  

Traditional cycle counting challenges the ability to stay current on inventory levels. Melded technologies are needed for the end-to-end supply chain as products are added and removed from onl-hand balances.

Inventory level is a function of anticipated sales, received orders, and a buffer for uncertainty.  That uncertainty is a factor of sales, suppliers' performance, lead times, and other related topics.

The need is to speed up the end-to-end movement of inventory.  The faster products move, the more inventory turns, and less inventory is needed/carried.  

A first step to improving the flow is to map movements from suppliers through to delivery to customers or stores.  Some areas that need attention will stand out by the number of days involved.  Note too that improvements will be made both internally and externally.  You may be surprised by the activities inside the company that impede flow--the process, procedures, and departments that are involved--both directly and indirectly.

The internal includes manufacturing and packaging that you may do.  Identifying and removing in-house "barriers" is important to achieving faster product movement.

Another area that needs attention is where to position inventories.  E-commerce has challenged the old ways with aligning warehouses close to customers.  This contrasts with traditional manufacturing and retailing for stores.

Implicit, even mandatory to faster is end-to-end supply chain visibility.  It is difficult to to do achieve greater speed when you cannot see what is happening to it.  The challenge is is the integrating of different systems from different players in the supply chain.  Blind spots are to be found and eliminated.  

A caution here on visibility is the use of track and trace offereings by transport/logistics providers. They are not enough.  The need is to manage the flow, not just see it.  This means start with what starts the flow--purchase orders or customer orders.  The POs are the keys, not containers and trailers of products.  By looking at the transporation, you may miss that the purchase orders--or customer orders--are already late.  Put attention where it is more important.

There will be more blog posts on inventory.  In the meantime, go to  https://www.ltdmgmt.com/inventory-management.php

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT / LOGISTICS BLOG

Across industries, markets, and the world, there is a common problem with manufacturers and retailers--too much inventory.  In the lean supply chain, the excess inventory is waste.  

Companies can see they have an inventory problem with number of turns or days of inventory.  This is especially shows with all the types of inventory--finished goods, work in process, raw materials, components, assemblies, etc.  For those who include inventory in transit--and they should--the results can be significant.

It means too much working capital tied up and lost investment opportunity cost. Many companies have excess inventory and have stockouts at the same time.  That can be the ultimate sign of underlying supply chain issues.

The way to improve the inventory situation is to build inventory velocity.  This includes using time compression to do it.  Inventory is a buffer. Time is a factor in that buffering.  The longer the time, the more inventory is carried--just in case.  Collapsing time is a big step to creating the critical end-to-end supply chain velocity.

A good way to identify lean waste in the end-to-end supply chain is to follow the inventory, starting with the purchase order and its preparation.  Then end with the customer order or store replenish delivery.

Note, much of lean is about what happens within the 4 walls.  For supply chain management, this narrow view misses where much goes on and where the greatest opportunity exists.  Outside the four walls.

The tool to use for this effort is Value Stream Mapping--VSM.  Since the supply of supply chain management begins upstream and involves suppliers, this is the place to begin mapping. Two notes here.  One, do two mappings.  First map what people say happens.  Then map what actually happens.  The difference between the two is important and provides understanding of perceived and actual events.

Two, prioritize and select what to map.  Your products are not equally important--volume, criticality, risk, dollar value, etc.  Given sound understanding of your items, choose well.  

With mapping the present supply chain, you will see all the things that occur with each product, especially the time to do steps and the various steps.  Since the need is to identify time waste, this is  very important.  Then analyze ways to improve, reduce time, and implement.  Measure the new process.  One mapping is a first step.  It is not the end.

The purpose here is to move products faster through the supply chain, from start to finish.  They should flow.  More upstream/less downstream. More go/less stop. More link/less node. End-to-end velocity will create SIGNIFICANT improvements and opportunities.  AI/analytics can also help find ways to have more flow in your supply chain.   

Time compression/reduction means faster inventory flow which means less capital tied up in inventory which means more opportunities to invest the freed up working capital which mean....  You get the idea.

For more on Value Stream Mapping of Supply Chains, go to https://www.ltdmgmt.com/lean.php