Study: Companies Now More Likely to Have Executive Level Supply Chain Leaders

Nearly half the retail and manufacturing companies surveyed in a recent Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium study now have a supply chain leader at or above the executive vice president level, reflecting a positive trend in supply chain leadership over the past five years.

You can see a breakdown of the survey results by industry here.

The study also found that:

Unfortunately, there are gaps in collaboration between these executives and other areas of the organization. For example, more than a quarter of retail companies and 14 percent of manufacturing companies surveyed have no formal process for aligning supply chain goals.


On the bright side, companies in the survey are discovering opportunities for improvement. The functions reporting through the more senior supply chain executives are growing over time as more become consolidated under one organization and one leader. Transportation, distribution center operations, network design and planning functions are now commonly the responsibility of a senior executive.


Outsourcing supply chain functions is growing, particularly for execution functions such as distribution and transportation. Planning, provider selection, and customer-facing functions tend to remain with internal resources.


More information on the survey is available here.