04 December 2008

Viewpoint : Services

What's in a role?

Published:: 30 May 2008
Article Type:: Viewpoint
Byline:: Brian Leapman

I have been modelling supply chains and processes for more than 15 years - since before we even had modelling tools. A lot of my time is spent creating ''use cases'', which is a posh way of describing what is happening in a supply chain.

I''ve spent many hours in semantic discussions about what should be in ''use cases'', sometimes fruitlessly as most of this time is spent describing the roles of stakeholders and actors in the chain.

For example, what is the role of a buyer? We all think we know what a buyer is. We use the word every day. It is a person or organisation that purchases goods or services. But what do buyers do exactly? I can feel the readership of Supply Chain Standard grinding to a mental full stop as they contemplate this simple question to try and arrive at a universal answer. In a world in which it is possible to outsource every process in a supply chain, a buyer could be responsible for any and every process in the supply chain.

A role is simply a list or aggregation of processes that an actor or stakeholder undertakes. So all you need is a list of processes to define a role. One big multinational recently reckoned it could save €150,000 through an exercise to define roles in its business.

Brian Leapman , consultant

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