The quest to be lean is spreading from the catwalk to the supply chain - that’s if the recent results from a survey by E2open, a supply chain management software company, are to be believed.

They recently carried out 160 interviews with participants at the SAP Logistics and Supply Chain Management Conference 2007, and found that half of all respondents (48%) named a lean supply chain as their top priority.

The study suggests many companies are looking to evolve from a “push” to “pull” demand-driven strategy as they look to eliminate waste. However, like the super-models doing all they can to hit size zero, lean supply chains come with their own unique set of hazards, particularly in an era when companies are relying more heavily than ever before on suppliers across the globe.

At present it seems many companies believe the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, although as any CPO will tell you, the implementation of a lean supply chain is very much dependent of every part of the supply chain working to its optimum levels. Something the automotive industry - with continual problems with shipment methods – is continually learning to its cost.

Other issues raised by respondents in the E2open survey included; the need to obtain visibility into supply chain information by replacing manual processes with automation (45%); and the requirement to leverage economies of scale across multiple operating units (39%).