Ask a Supply Chain leader where the next round of savings will come from, and the answer is often a shrug. Lean programs have run for years, Procurement has renegotiated the big contracts, and plants have trimmed overtime. The organization looks efficient on paper. Yet costs keep rising, and the operating budget still bears a strong resemblance to the one from several years ago.
The problem is rarely effort. It is the starting point. When each budget cycle begins from last year's spending, the in
