Sefas' Bruno Henry

Sefas' Bruno Henry: The Supply Chain is the Key to Success

  

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A supply-chain perspective is the key to operational success in document production

I like the concept of the document supply chain.

As soon as you start to think about the production of transactional documents in this sort of way, it becomes obvious where there is room for improvement. We are all paying a price for fragmented, silo thinking – and it’s a price that can be measured in dollars and cents.

If our document composition systems, CRM datastreams, legacy documents, accounting systems, post-composition and production management systems can’t link together seamlessly, we end up having to accept delays, workarounds, and worst of all - compromises. 

When we compare our print and document workflow with the flow of goods through a retail distribution system, for instance, it becomes obvious that the whole supply chain needs to be seen as one sustained process.

For the big retailers, supply chain management is the key to success because as the old saying goes any chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

I work for Sefas, so I’m not impartial. But it seems that this supply chain thinking way of just has to be right and right for everybody involved in the document workflow.

Any glitch, anywhere, or any handover that needs human intervention is a potential showstopper. So the whole process needs to be seen, and planned, and implemented, as a single, integrated, continuous sequence.

Sefas is currently the only supplier – except, perhaps, for Pitney Bowes, which has acquired modular solutions for each of the stages – with a holistic view of the document supply chain and the products to knit all the elements together.

If I were a customer, I know whose approach I’d be taking seriously.