How Intel Became 'A Supply Chain to Admire'

Even the most dominant companies in the world need to take a look in the mirror now and then. Intel Corp. is no exception. Back in 2007, the company felt that it was slipping in some key areas, including reliability, customer responsiveness and supply-chain costs as a percentage of revenues. It was time for a serious reassessment. So Intel proceeded to implement a number of key performance metrics, and benchmark itself against the competition. ''We had to get our house in order internally,'' says Sharon J. Hall, our guest on this episode. She is director of equipment planning and procurement, as well as of Intel Resale Corp. Hall discusses how Intel went about evaluating itself, and implementing improvements to the organization where necessary. It adopted five key tenets to which its metrics would be aligned. The result: Intel today has once again been designated a ''Supply Chain to Admire'' by Supply Chain Insights. The effort, says Hall, stemmed from a realization that supply chain can help the company not just to control costs, but to deliver growth.