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A company's supply chain often is one of the last remaining ways to generate dramatic growth. Growth leaders have lean and effective supply chains, but they are rare. Our research shows that supply chain leaders outperform their competitors by more than 50% on key metrics such as inventory turnover. In a global marketplace, managing a supply chain is a much more complex challenge because of the new - and constantly changing - demands of shorter product life cycles, industry consolidation and the need to take advantage of emerging technologies. Our research shows that most companies believe they haven't extracted the potential of their supply chains - only 12% think they are effectively managing their global supply chains. The cost is huge, resulting in unnecessary spending and missed sales. And, there's a correlation between poor performing supply chains and lost profits.
Organizations that take a broad strategic approach, instead of making improvements in bits and pieces, are rare but they emerge as the winners, with lean and effective supply chains. They've learned how to make the most of growth opportunities, achieving high fill rates for high margin products and appropriate levels of inventory. In our work with over 3,300 major firms across all industries, supply chain overhauls consistently have delivered rapid results. For example, fill rates have increased from 47% to 67% in three months, inventory has been reduced by 25%, while at the same time companies have improved customer service.
Bain & Company offers objective advice, focusing on the biggest levers of value that will deliver the fastest improvements. We conduct a thorough, eight-to-ten week analysis, measuring defects, delays and returns; mapping organizational processes; and assessing systems to identify the largest opportunities. In the following six to eight months and beyond, we provided our clients' implementation teams with Bain support for the most critical and difficult initiatives.
Bain's Supply Chain experience
We have worked on over 1,180 projects across industries including apparel, automotive, aerospace, technology and telecommunications equipment and services, consumer products, financial services, retail, healthcare and a range of industrial goods and services companies, as well as with logistics companies of all types. Our clients typically achieve 5-50X in-year return on fees. Our clients' stock prices generally outperform the market by a factor of 4:1. We have an extensive base of success stories and references across industries to draw upon for potential clients seeking to achieve such gains.
To find out more about Bain's work in this capability area, please contact the Peformance Improvement practice.
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Pulling away: managing and sustaining change 
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