ABSTRACT
Cost reduction never goes out of style. At the so-called “end of the day,” cost savings sell projects to improve supply chains. As consultants, we point out the “soft” benefits of our solutions. But it’s seldom that our clients won’t want to know how much money they’re going to save. Hardly any businessman or consumer doesn’t want the “best bang for the buck.” If there is any fault in this, it is that saving money often becomes the primary focus, pushing aside hard-to-measure benefits from strategic improvement. However, one reality is likely to remain. That is that the single best way to sell supply chain initiatives is to forecast positive cash flow from either operating expense reduction or increases in sales. Whether one achieves those forecasts is another point.
