Investigating the DIRECT options for supply chain projects

- When I plan a trip to the grocery store, I make a shopping list. Eggs, milk, bread. These are my requirements. But when I get to the store, I still need to make a lot of choices. Which brand of eggs? What size of milk? What kind of bread? In other words, even though I know my requirements, I still need to investigate my options. And that's the second element of the direct model, because we do the exact same thing in supply chain projects. We investigate options to make sure that we're making the best choices for our organization. In business terms this is called due diligence. I use a three step approach to investigating options. The first step is brainstorming. Try to think of as many ways as possible to solve the problem that we're dealing with. For example, Two Trees Olive Oil is dealing with the problem of not having enough space in their factory. They might start with options like build an addition to the…