HOW A FLAT WORLD AFFECTS MANUFACTURING

If you haven't read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, you should. It's an excellent book explaining globalization and its impact. It made me think about how different things are for my kids compared to when I was young.

Today, both kids and adults have electronic gadgets galore. When you want to buy something new, there are incredible resources at your disposal for research and price shopping. You can go to amazon.com and find a vast array of products with consumer ratings, or you can shop around and get broad consumer input from epinions.com.

Randy Littleson serves as vice president at Kinaxis and has more than 17 years of management experience, having held executive-level positions at Interface Software, Spyglass, and Palindrome Corporation (a Seagate company). To discuss this topic further, join him online at blog.kinaxis.com.

Having endless options in price, choice, availability, and so on puts the consumer clearly in charge. People expect what they buy to arrive when, where, and how they want it—no excuses. And the shrinking adoption rate for new innovations means new products are hitting the market and being snapped up by consumers faster than at any rate in history—fueled by global pricing and a previously unheard of ability to learn about, compare, and discuss each product.

The implications of this trend on manufacturing are pronounced. When I was a kid, if something didn't work well, I might mention it to a few friends, but it would end there. Now, consumers young and old have their own blogs, instant message complaints to friends from their phones, and share their likes and dislikes in online communities like myspaces.com. As a result, any hiccup in quality, delivery, or timing can have immediate and profound consequences on your brand.

Manufacturing products in this environment has become exceedingly complex. Whether you're a brand owner, contract manufacturer, or supplier, you operate in a "virtual enterprise" of interconnected players in a coordinated operation. All players have their own roles, but their execution impacts other players' results. And with consumer whims as the driver, things are moving at lightning speed, and change is a constant.

As a result, strategies for supply chain agility and risk management are now a must. These strategies must empower the organization to quickly respond to change to meet customer commitments, expose and manage inventory liabilities between various players, and ensure compliance. Response Management software can help—by providing the extended supply network visibility, analysis, and decision-making capabilities brand owners, contract manufacturers, and suppliers need to thrive in a flat world.