….go to the ends of the earth….

Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Homer, Jane Austen and Adele?  One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.  Go ahead and sing it, you know the tune.  However, you would be wrong.  They all belong.  Why?  They have all, in some form or another, used the phrase “go to the ends of the earth” in their work.  So what on earth (no pun intended) does the phrase ‘go to the ends of the earth’ have to do with supply chains? 

Bear with me as I explain.  But first, let me ask you a question, that I already know the answer to without knowing a thing about your company.  Thinking about your supply chain, specifically where you get your raw materials, where does your supply chain begin?  In other words, you buy ‘stuff’ from Company 1 to use in your operation or process.  But where does Company 1 get their ‘stuff’ from?  Company 2, no doubt.  But then where does company 2 get their ‘stuff’ from?  Company 3, no doubt.  Beginning to see the pattern here?  So I ask again, where does your supply chain begin?  Given the title of this blog post, do you see the only possible answer to where your supply chain begins? 

The answer for your company, and for any other manufacturing company in the world, is the Earth.  The big blue marble.  3rd rock from the sun.  The ‘E’ in the planetary mnemonic we all learned growing up.  I recall the one from Dr. Seuss – Mallory, Valerie, Emily Meetzahs Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.  (I include Pluto because it was a planet when I read this book to my kids).  I have asked this question many times to many different companies. 

We have had fun driving through Company 1, 2, 3 etc.  until, together, we arrived at the conclusion that Company N is the Earth. Somewhere, someone is digging, harvesting, collecting or rendering something the Earth has produced.  So what does this mean for you?  Does it mean you have to physically and literally ‘go to the ends of the earth’ in your supply chain?  No, it means you should know where on earth (pun intended) your supply chain begins.  Why?  Without knowing where it begins, it means you don’t fully know the risks of your supply chain or the constraint in your supply chain.  Don’t you think it would be a good idea to know where the risks and constraints are in your supply chain?  After all, you don’t want your customers, the other end of your supply chain, to feel the effects of risks and constraints that you didn’t know about.