For schooling fish, the ‘‘move as one’’ trait is innate. Separation means likely death. For global supply chains, misalignment—failure to move as one—means poor service, high inventory, unexpected costs, constrained growth and profits, and loss of market share.  Based on 100 projects, here is a list of the 15 most common motivations for companies to start the supply chain excellence journey and learn to swim as one. Which ones are relevant to you?

1. Building a technology investment plan
2. In search of return on investment (ROI)
3. Creating a supply chain strategy
4. Implementing a supply chain process improvement
5. Improving sales and operations planning
6. Meeting financial commitments and shaping shareholder expectations
7. Building organization support and human resource competence
8. Optimizing enterprise resource planning
9. Maximizing use of existing technology
10. Achieving operational excellence
11. Integrating a merger or acquisition
12. Standardizing and managing global business processes
13. Extending to the value chain through product life cycle management
14. Integrating lean, six sigma, and SCOR to build a better project portfolio
15. Defining and building an effective and efficient supply chain organization