Supply chains carry the bruises of the last few years. Demand whiplash, logistics chaos, supplier churn. Costs climbed while service staggered. The framework here—Zero Based Redesign within a Cost Productivity system—rebuilds the operating spine so cost, service, and speed can play nice. The move is simple to say and hard to fake. Decide what work deserves to exist. Design how it should run. Scale it in waves. Keep score in daylight.
Modern trend to wrestle now: Resilience with a cost spine
Resilience programs ballooned. Extra inventory. Safety stock everywhere. Expedited fees like confetti. Control towers bought on impulse. The tab is real. The framework balances resilience and cost by starting with the “what.”
Create a service catalog for plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Define the essential services, target SLAs, and required cadence by tier. Identify where customers actually feel the difference between 24 hours and 48. Retire low value reports and redundant control checks that add time but not trust. Label each service with an owner and a metric that will be reported every week. People breathe easier when they see the whole picture on one page.
Design the “how” with end-to-end clarity. Standardize planning cycles. Clarify decision rights for inventory range setting and expediting authority. Set cost envelopes by product family and channel. Map the data model that feeds planning and supplier commitments. Align technology and governance so the design works under stress. Structure follows the work. Every design choice must make Tuesday easier.
What the framework contains in one screen
Cost Productivity is a management system that drops unit cost while protecting service, quality, and growth capacity. The framework uses a today forward and future back posture and places technology early, yet refuses to let tools drive the car. Culture, capabilities, and incentives are aligned to hold the gains after applause dies down. Results come from stopping non value work, right sizing service levels, and redesigning processes through standardization, automation, and role clarity.
The transformation unfolds across three phases with eight linked actions that tie ambition to design to delivery. The blueprint becomes the connective tissue across functions. A Results Delivery office runs the cadence that keeps the value narrative honest and visible.
The play in eight steps
- Align leadership around a bold ambition
- Identify sources of value and set direction
- Design the ideal state that supports strategy—the “what”
- Design the future state—the “how”
- Define a holistic blueprint
- Detail design
- Scale and deploy
- Manage the change
Why this framework works when “cost only” fails
Cuts at the budget line yank levers without context. This framework starts with the work. Leaders choose the activities that earn their place, define service levels that match real customer preference and risk tolerance, and document it as a service catalog. That artifact stops whiplash. Structure and decision rights line up with the catalog. Cost envelopes attach to real operating choices rather than abstract targets. Conversations get sane.
Durability is not magic. The cadence and governance make it boring and effective. The Results Delivery office maintains one narrative for value, service, and risk. Dashboards that show savings and SLAs and exceptions get published. Blockers escalate fast. Incentives and role clarity line up behind the future state. The blueprint updates when strategy does. Costs stop bouncing back because the operating model holds them in place.
Speed shows up because the program is a system. Designs are packaged into templates. Backlog items are ranked by impact. Waves run with dates, gates, and KPIs under a single command center. Scale teams use the same SOPs and training. Leaders watch adoption and value from the same screen where exceptions are logged. That reduces noise and elevates actual decision making.
Deep dive on the first two elements
Align leadership around a bold ambition
Supply chain chaos is a leadership problem before it is a logistics problem. The sponsor sets the ambition in plain language, defines guardrails, chooses where to start, and commits to a weekly decision rhythm. Scope comes with courage. Either go enterprise and stage waves, or pick product families with the worst complexity and move fast. Publish decision rights so people know who says yes and who clears blockages.
Identify sources of value and set direction
Data beats folklore. Build an activity level cost map across plan, source, make, and deliver. Benchmark performance externally on service, cost, and resilience. Score complexity and digital readiness by node. Reset each function mission to today’s objectives. Establish design principles and cost targets that balance value, service, and risk. Approve a first portfolio of moves with clear value cases and control implications. No pet projects.
Short summary of core takeaways
The framework gives operators a repeatable way to lower unit cost while protecting service and quality. It starts by deciding the “what” through a service catalog, then designs the “how” with end-to-end clarity, then scales through waves with visible scorekeeping. The blueprint stitches choices together. The Results Delivery office keeps the cadence honest. Savings become bankable and auditable, not whispers.
Case study deep dive: Planning and logistics reboot for a global distributor
Context
A global distributor carried inflated safety stock and paid constant expedite fees. Planning cycles were inconsistent. Reporting was a museum of every version anyone ever wanted. Customer service took the blame weekly. Leadership chose the framework to rebuild the spine.
What changed
The team defined the essential services for demand planning, inventory policy, supplier collaboration, and transportation scheduling. Half a dozen legacy reports were retired. Cadence and service levels were reset to match real risk profiles. The catalog defined owners, SLAs, and metrics and became the reference point for every argument that used to burn an hour.
How it worked
Design squads mapped end to end flows for plan to deliver. Decision rights were clarified for inventory ranges, supplier commitments, and expedite approvals. Cost envelopes were defined by product family and channel. Data and technology were aligned to a single model that served both planning and supplier portals. Structure followed the work. Fewer handoffs. Faster cycle time. Stronger controls.
Scale
Wave one proved the package in two regions. SOPs, training, and metrics were bundled. A command center tracked adoption, value, and exceptions. Weekly steering cleared supply hot spots the same week. Savings from reduced expediting and lower inventory funded automation in slotting and dock scheduling. Service went up. Cost went down. People stopped sending apology emails.
Why this framework is useful
Strategy sounds great until it meets Tuesday. The framework translates strategy into daily operating choices. Leaders get a straight line from ambition to portfolio to design to scale, with a single tracker that cuts the noise. That line of sight keeps energy focused on outcomes, not arguments. The blueprint acts like connective tissue across planning, sourcing, making, delivering, and the finance partners who demand proof.
Operators gain speed and control at the same time. The service catalog shifts debates from headcount to outcomes and risk tolerances. Standard design templates give teams freedom inside boundaries. The Results Delivery cadence makes problems small by catching them early. The output is a run model that tolerates surprises without blowing the cost envelope.
CFOs get math they can defend. Banked savings show up against baselines that match reality. SLAs are public. Exceptions are tracked. Adoption is measured. When quarterly earnings ask for proof, the dashboard tells the story without a novel. Credibility rises because transparency is the default and because the system repeats.
FAQs executives keep asking
How is this different from a cost cutting sprint
Cuts chase numbers. This framework redesigns work. Activities and service levels are decided first, then operating design follows, then budgets align. Savings stick because the spine changed.
What speed is practical
Plan two to four weeks for ambition and governance. Three to five weeks for the service catalog. Four to six for future state design. Six to twelve for detail design sprints. Six to eighteen months for wave-based scaling. Faster is possible. Reckless is not.
Where do the dollars come from
Stopping non value work. Right sizing service levels. Redesigning end to end processes with standardization, automation, and role clarity. Tighter decision rights reduce mistakes and rework.
What governance keeps value from leaking
A Results Delivery office that runs a weekly decision rhythm. Dashboards for savings, SLAs, and exceptions that stay public. Escalation paths that actually trigger. Incentives and roles aligned to the new model. A blueprint that refreshes with strategy.
Where to start if the house is on fire
Start where complexity is highest and digital readiness is decent. Run the diagnostic. Publish the service catalog. Prioritize the first portfolio by value and risk. Prove the package in one region. Scale with dates, gates, and KPIs. Keep score in daylight.
Final nudges worth acting on
Boards want resilience without a bigger cost base. The framework delivers by deciding what work matters, designing how it runs, then scaling with a clear cadence. People stop fighting the last war and start running a tighter system. Cost does not balloon when demand sneezes. Customers feel fewer misses. Finance sees real savings, not slideware.
Leaders get one more gift. A common language replaces endless translation across functions. When everyone shares the catalog, blueprint, and dashboard, coordination costs drop. Decisions move faster because the rules are visible. The template becomes part of how the organization breathes. That is when the operating spine stops flinching and starts compounding value.
Interested in learning more about the steps of the approach to Zero-Based Redesign (ZBR) Cost Transformation? You can download an editable PowerPoint presentation on Zero-Based Redesign (ZBR) Cost Transformation here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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