Supply Chain Optimisation Project Checklist
This is a practical guide to building a project checklist for a supply chain optimisation project — a step-by-step checklist covering the project from start to finish, adapted to the realities of improving the efficiency and resilience of the supply chain.
What a Project Checklist is
A project checklist is a step-by-step checklist covering the project from start to finish. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Management Checklist. On a supply chain optimisation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Supply Chain Optimisation project
Supply Chain Optimisation projects live or die on improving the efficiency and resilience of the supply chain. A well-built project checklist gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how supply chain optimisation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Initiation checks
- Planning checks
- Execution checks
- Closure checks
Supply Chain Optimisation-specific considerations
Tailor the project checklist to the risks that most often derail supply chain optimisation projects:
- Data visibility
- Supplier coordination
- Change to established processes
Example
On a real supply chain optimisation project, the project checklist would be shaped by improving the efficiency and resilience of the supply chain. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — data visibility, supplier coordination, change to established processes — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.