PWPM Wiki

Supply Chain Optimisation Project Roadmap

This is a practical guide to building a project roadmap for a supply chain optimisation project — a strategic, outcome-oriented view of direction over time, adapted to the realities of improving the efficiency and resilience of the supply chain.

What a Project Roadmap is

A project roadmap is a strategic, outcome-oriented view of direction over time. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Roadmap. 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 roadmap 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

  • Themes / workstreams
  • Milestones by quarter
  • Dependencies
  • Outcomes

Supply Chain Optimisation-specific considerations

Tailor the project roadmap 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 roadmap 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.