Land the Frontside Flip to Create a “Customer-Present” Supply Chain

New York, April 4, 2022

The Digital Supply Chain Institute, a nonprofit applied research organization of The Center for Global Enterprise (CGE), today released pioneering research that provides an execution framework for transforming supply chains to meet the needs and demands of New Customers.

In 2016, DSCI urged supply chain leaders to flip from focusing on the back end of the business to the front side—the customer side. We call this a “Frontside Flip (FSF),” a customer-centric model that integrates supply and demand by breaking down the silos between the supply chain, marketing, product development, and data/IT functions to accelerate the transformation to a digital supply chain. However, from our ongoing research and discussions with global supply chain leaders, we noticed something we did not anticipate–that the most important change is not new technology but the emergence of the “New Customer.” Today’s customers want their products and services to be delivered 50% faster than five years ago. The supply chains that we built for our legacy customers no longer meet the needs of the New Customers. Our research presents an accelerated approach to executing a Frontside Flip where the New Customer is front and center.

Landing the Frontside Flip requires horizontal integration of processes and workflows across the enterprise and throughout the entire constellation of customers, suppliers, and partners. Enterprise boundaries are blurred in a digital supply chain. FSF enables the extension of the supply chain beyond the enterprise walls, thus creating a more expansive “Constellation of Value” integrating a more significant number of stakeholders.

The Frontside Flip optimizes a digital supply chain by seamlessly connecting demand sensing to demand planning to supply chain operations to provide an experience that produces happy and loyal customers. There are a few imperatives for landing the Frontside Flip. These include:

  • Collaboration across functions and throughout your Constellation of Value.
  • Availability of enterprise-wide (and constellation-wide) consistent and trusted data.
  • Customer segments, personas, on-time delivery, loyal customers need to be well defined and the backbone for performance management.
  • A comprehensive Talent Strategy to attract and retain the necessary skills.
  • A plan that prioritizes transformation starts at the top with enterprise-wide goals and subgoals that begin with the achievable and build on success.
  • Building relationships and using technology to gain better visibility to reduce risk.
  • Global KPIs that encourage customer (segment) focus throughout the supply chain and enable horizontal integration.

Digital transformation is not about digitizing your current business model; it is about redefining your business model to serve New Customers and achieve a competitive advantage. Land the Frontside Flip to redefine your business model and supply chain to create a “Constellation of Value.” Read the full Whitepaper to get in-depth details on where to start and a roadmap for execution!

About Digital Supply Chain Institute

The Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) is a leading-edge research institute focused on the evolution of enterprise supply chains in the digital economy and the creation and application of supply chain management best practices.

About Center for Global Enterprise

The Center for Global Enterprise (CGE) is a New York-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of global management best practices, the contemporary corporation, economic integration, and their impact on society.

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