English-language book.
This is not an ordinary supply chain management how-to guide. It is a detective novel that can be read from start to finish in one weekend. However, much like in one of my favorite books, Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt’s groundbreaking work, The Goal, readers will discover valuable information about different ways to improve a company and to implement change woven into the plot of the story.
Therefore, if you have a serious interest in the “how-to” part of supply chain management best practices, demand driven methodologies, and the S&OP (sales and operations planning) process, then this book is definitely for you.
There are thirty-three “clues” along the margins of the book. These indicate the availability of additional information and more in-depth treatment of topics concerning supply chain management and management of change on the affiliated website: www.themissinglinks.info. As supply chain management best practices evolve rapidly, these appendices be updated continuously by top international experts.
The website will also have an index and bibliography for further reading on those subjects that catch your interest.
I hope you enjoy my book. Of course I would love to hear from you through my contact info on www.themissinglinks.info. A bientôt!
— Caroline Mondon
This book would not had been possible without the encouragements and the contribution of my dear friend Milton Zysman, who taught much more than English; my dear colleague Tracy Cheetham, who taught international relationships; and my dear instructor Carol Ptak, who taught me state-of-the-art best practices in supply chain management.
Thank you very much to them and to my numerous test readers. Thanks also to the authors of the appendixes, which are located on the website www.themissinglinks.info and indicated with clues in the margins of this book. It is going to be a continuing pleasure and privilege for me to gather and update this collective intelligence from top international experts, present and future, to help professionals around the world to build capable, ethical, and therefore generous supply chains. Like my heroines Héloïse and Lila and my hero Thierry, I believe that our supply chains can contribute to creating a world to which people want to belong.
Competent supply chain managers know that a vision without a proper professional back-office to make things happen stay within the ego of the visionary. Deep and endless thanks to Alicia Peres, my translator and editor, who has retained a positive outlook and strong dedication to this project from her first involvement many years ago. Her understanding of the best practices of editorial excellence, her flexibility with my crazy traveling schedule, and her humour and bienveillance have added to the pleasure of seeing my detective story offered to an English-language audience.
Caroline Mondon, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP, CDDP, NLP Master Practitioner, and Certified Independent Board Member, has been a plant manager for the robotics and electronic equipment industries, a supply chain implementer in several medium-sized companies, a Supply Chain & Logistics Director in several countries for the automotive industry, and consultant/owner of CM Enterprises since 2005. She has conducted seminars on S&OP for executives on four continents, has instructed for APICS certifications in CPIM and CSCP since 1994, and is currently a trainer for the Demand Driven Institute.
Ms. Mondon was the president of Fapics, the French Association of Supply Chain Management, between 2011 and 2016, in charge of international and national partnerships. She is the author of a bestselling French business detective novel, Le chaînon manquant, which won a national award for “Quality and Performance Principles” in 2009. The Ministry of the Economy of France awarded her the Chevalière de la Légion d’Honneur in 2014.
HÉLOÏSE AND THE MISSING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER
Poor S&OP Processes Generate Discord
MONDAY, LATE AUGUST. 7:00 A.M. The small white Peugeot 205 cuts sharply away from the banks of the Loire to turn left onto the winding road that follows the hillside. On this late summer morning, the Loire stretches serenely between the white rock-face walls, tangled with greenery, that trace its bed. At this level of the embankment, the fold of soft limestone is fully bared, as if to better absorb the air and light that renders it the strength of a building stone. Today, as it had yesterday, and would again tomorrow, the changing light along the banks of the Loire feeds the contrasts in this stone—known here as tuffeau—the raw material from which were constructed the most beautiful buildings in the history of France.
The car slows on one of the first turns and passes some centuries-old “troglodyte” homes—cave-homes common in these cliffs—and picks up speed again as it begins the winding climb between vineyards. The warm humidity rising from the earth has fogged its windows. It would be difficult for anyone observing the car to see the strained look on the driver’s face.
For the first time since the car crash that took her father’s life, Héloïse is confronting this tortuous drive through the vineyards. She could have taken the other, easier route, although it’s longer and much less scenic. But this morning she wants to dispel the demons that lie along this particular road and get her life back on track.
At the end of June, she found herself thrust suddenly into the leadership of the family business, as though she were some kind of puppet on a string. No one imagined that Henri Rami, president of the self-named company he had founded thirty years before, would suddenly leave the business and all its secrets without having named a successor.
Henri Rami himself had owned 60 percent of the limited-liability partnership, which was valued at €51,000. His wife’s eighty-year-old mother held the other 40 percent. Alone and isolated as the head of his company, it never occurred to him to appoint independent members to the board of directors who could bring useful and complementary business skills. Now, all eyes are turned to Héloïse, his only child, to know what should be done.
Once over her initial grief, Héloïse agreed to take over running the company, although she had no clue what to do. She agreed to do so only to help her mother, in shock and deeply unsettled by the sudden loss of her husband, and to protect her grandmother’s interests.
After the funeral, Héloïse met with the employees and their families and became conscious that to avoid any labor disruptions a transition should be organized with whoever would buy the company. The mayor of the village was interested to know how the changes to the company would affect its contribution to the village’s tax revenues and asked
