Using a waterfall approach for supply chain projects

- Going over a waterfall is a one-way journey, you know exactly where you're headed. And once you start, there's no going backward. We often take that approach when we're managing supply chain projects, so let's look at an example of how a waterfall approach would be useful for onboarding a new supplier of glass bottles for Two Trees Olive Oil. Waterfall project management follows a linear, sequential approach. We describe the way things work right now as the current state, and the way we want things to be when we're done as the future state. In order to get a clear picture of the future state, we need to define requirements for the project. We do this by interviewing stakeholders, benchmarking with other companies, and doing business analysis. For our Two Trees Olive Oil example, that means we need to talk with the supplier as well as with our purchasing, logistics, and manufacturing teams. All of them will have…