Logistics process performance gaps hurts competitiveness

A study released today by Genpact Limited, has found that many companies must close a performance gap in their business processes to boost competitiveness.

The title of the study is “Made to Measure,” also found that making extensive use of external benchmarks is linked with higher performance in financial and administrative processes.

Genpact executives attending the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in Palm Desert earlier this month, told Supply Chain Management Review—a sister publication— that this research indicates that global organizations can become “substantially more effective” through their finance function.

“This opportunity creates a competitive advantage that can be made manifest by delivering better business outcomes through lower costs, more effective commercial processes, and being a business partner that adds more value,” said Sasha Sanyal, senior vice president, Smart Enterprise Processes and Lean Six Sigma at Genpact.

The research, conducted by CFO Research Services, sought to dig deeper into metrics that are useful to managers to guide their business, surpass their competitors, and, ultimately, deliver value to stakeholders.

“Companies rely on return-based metrics to measure their performance, and while these are very important, they tell only part of a company’s financial and operating story,” said Sanyal.
“Performance metrics on core processes reveal how effectively a company carries out these activities—and how well they deliver return to shareholders.  By combining robust process metrics with measurement from external benchmarks, executives can close the information deficit that too often keeps companies from achieving their best performance.” 

The use of benchmarks varies by region.  According to survey data, companies in North America are more likely to make extensive use of external benchmarks than companies in other regions. Almost half of respondents based in North America (46 percent) say that their companies make extensive use of benchmarks, compared with only 35 percent of respondents based in Asia/Australia/New Zealand, 30 percent of respondents based in Latin/South America, and only 23 percent of respondents based in Europe and the Middle East.