A Requis enabled world: the supply network revolution

A decade ago, the essence of the ‘supply chain professional’ could be found hiding at the bottom of a weekly meeting agenda in a forgotten corner of the accounting department. Cost was king; tactical buying to drive down price was de rigueur; and the idea of long-term, collaborative supplier-buyer relationships as a way to create value in the supply chain was in its nascency. In 1911, the relatively new and inaccessibly expensive motor car was assembled by teams of three to four workers over the course of around 12 hours. The fledgling Ford Motor company produced just over 69,000 vehicles that year. By 1919, the invention of the moving assembly line cut production time to just over an hour and a half, ensuring that 50% of the cars in the United States and 40% of the cars in the UK were made by Ford. In order to curb worker turnover at his new factories, Henry Ford drastically raised wages, improved working conditions, and immediately efficiency and productivity soared. The combination of transformative business practices and technological innovation reshaped the world we live in. Ford reshaped the world of manufacturing - and the culture of a nation - in a few short years, and left a legacy that reached into the next century.