What Is the SCOR Model? SCOR DS Processes, Metrics and Practices Explained
ASCM describes the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model as "the only comprehensive, universally accepted and open access supply chain standard used by companies large and small." Born from the Supply Chain Council in 1996 and stewarded by ASCM since the 2014 merger, its current form, the SCOR Digital Standard (SCOR DS), version 14.0, is free, fully digital, and "shifts thinking from a linear supply chain model to a more synchronous network." If you want a common language to describe, measure and improve any supply chain, this is it.
The four sections of SCOR DS
SCOR is organised into Performance (metrics), Processes, Practices and People, plus supporting resources. Together they let you describe a supply chain in standard terms, benchmark it, and pinpoint where to improve.
The seven processes
- Orchestrate (OE), the level 0 process: strategy integration and enablement, business rules, enterprise planning, network design and technology, data analytics, contracts, compliance, risk, ESG initiatives, circularity and performance management.
- Plan (P), developing the road maps to operate the chain: determining requirements, gathering resource information, balancing the two and closing gaps, for Order, Source, Transform, Fulfill and Return.
- Order (O), the customer's purchase of products and services: locations, payment, pricing, fulfilment status and order data.
- Source (S), procuring, ordering, scheduling, receiving and transferring products and services (Strategic Source, Direct Procure, Indirect Procure, Source Return).
- Transform (T), scheduling and creating products: production, assembly and disassembly, maintenance, repair and overhaul.
- Fulfill (F), executing customer orders: scheduling delivery, picking, packing, shipping, installing, commissioning and invoicing.
- Return (R), the reverse flow of goods and services back through the network for diagnosis, entitlement and disposition into circular activities.
Processes are decomposed through levels 1 to 3 (industry neutral) down to company specific level 4, the same structure whether you build phones, run a hospital or move containers.
Performance: eight attributes, twenty level 1 metrics
SCOR groups performance into three categories. Customer focused: Reliability (e.g. Perfect Order Fulfillment), Responsiveness (Order Fulfillment Cycle Time), Agility (Supply Chain Agility). Internally focused: Cost (Total Supply Chain Management Cost, COGS), Profit (EBIT as a percent of revenue), Assets (Cash to Cash Cycle Time, return on fixed assets and working capital). Sustainability focused: Environmental (materials, energy, water, GHG emissions, waste) and Social (diversity and inclusion, wage level, training). Level 2 and level 3 metrics act as diagnostics beneath each, what SCOR calls "metric decomposition or root causing."
Practices and People
SCOR catalogues best practices across 21 classifications, planning and forecasting, inventory, warehousing, transportation, sustainability, risk and more, mapped to analytics and technology, process and organisation pillars. The People section defines the skills, experiences and training behind each process, at five competency levels from novice to expert.
Learning SCOR
ASCM offers a free "Introduction to SCOR" course, and SCOR DS training through authorised partners, historically culminating in the SCOR Professional (SCOR P) endorsement. Blue Ocean Academy's SCOR course takes practitioners through the model, its metrics and the five stage improvement program, and shows how it underpins the CTSC transformation credential.
Frequently asked questions
Is SCOR a certification?
SCOR DS is a framework; ASCM has offered the SCOR P endorsement through partner delivered training. Ask us about the current SCOR training pathway, enquire here.
Which industries use SCOR?
Manufacturing, retail, logistics, energy, healthcare, defence and government, anywhere a supply chain needs a common measurement and improvement language.
