Certified in Transformation for Supply Chain (CTSC) cheat sheet

Strategy hierarchy: corporate strategy → business unit strategy → supply chain strategy → functional plans; each level must trace upward to a stated business objective.

Business case math: NPV = Σ CFt/(1+r)^t − initial investment; approve when NPV > 0, IRR exceeds the cost of capital, and payback is within the organization's threshold.

Qualification rule: an initiative enters the portfolio only if it maps to at least one strategic objective and has a baseline/target pair for a named KPI.

Capability maturity levels are typically 1 ad hoc, 2 defined, 3 integrated, 4 managed/predictive, 5 optimized/autonomous; use them to set gap-closure targets rather than to score prestige.

PESTLE scans Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental forces externally; SWOT pairs internal Strengths/Weaknesses with external Opportunities/Threats.

Porter's five forces - rivalry, new entrants, substitutes, supplier power, buyer power - test whether a supply chain capability actually creates competitive advantage.

Sequencing rule: process before technology; technology selection waits until target process, data requirements, and decision rights are defined.

Benefit governance rule: every strategic objective needs an owner, a KPI, a baseline, a target, and a fixed review cadence; missing any one causes benefit drift.

A transformation roadmap is time-phased with dependencies, funding gates, and benefit milestones - not a list of projects sorted by request date.

SCOR organizes processes into Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return, and Enable; a design is complete only when each element has an owner and a metric.

Digital twin = virtual model of a network, flow, or asset fed by real-time data; use it to simulate scenarios before committing capital or physical change.

A control tower delivers value only after data harmonization and event-management rules exist; dashboards alone do not create end-to-end visibility.

Automation decision rule: automate high-volume, rules-based, low-exception work; keep judgment, exceptions, and novel cases with humans (human-in-the-loop).

Data quality is measured on accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, validity, and uniqueness - each needs a threshold and an owner before go-live.

Interoperability options: EDI (ANSI X12, EDIFACT), GS1 identifiers, REST APIs, ISO 20022; choose per trading-partner capability rather than by preference.

Integrated business planning merges demand, supply, and financial plans in one monthly cycle ending in a single leadership-approved consensus plan.

Pre-build readiness screen: integration complexity, source data quality, cybersecurity posture, and user digital literacy determine build versus buy and pace.

Kotter's eight steps: urgency, guiding coalition, vision, communicate, empower/remove barriers, short-term wins, consolidate gains, anchor in culture.

ADKAR sequence is Awareness → Desire → Knowledge → Ability → Reinforcement; a weak or skipped step predicts individual and program failure.

Lewin: unfreeze → change → refreeze; refreeze means embedding the new way in policy, metrics, job design, and training, not just announcing it.

Stakeholder map on a power/interest grid: high power/high interest = manage closely; high power/low interest = keep satisfied; low power/high interest = keep informed.

Rollout rule: pilot or phased when risk, scale, or novelty is high; big-bang only when changes are tightly coupled and an external hard deadline forces a single cutover.

RACI: exactly one Accountable per activity, Responsible does the work, Consulted before the decision, Informed after it.

Readiness assessment dimensions: leadership sponsorship, change capacity, skills gaps, data/technology readiness, culture and incentive alignment.

Measure adoption (usage, compliance, cycle participation) separately from outcome (service, cost, cash, risk) so lagging results are not mistaken for failed adoption.

Risk response options: avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept for threats; exploit, enhance, share, accept for opportunities - each logged with owner and residual rating.

Risk score = likelihood × impact; the heat-map band sets escalation to the steering committee and the review frequency.

Governance layers: executive steering committee (direction, funding, escalation), PMO (delivery control), center of excellence (standards, methods, skills), process owners (sustainment).

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) suits incremental improvement; DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) suits data-rich defect problems where root cause must be proven.

Any KPI kept after go-live needs a formula, data source, owner, target, and review cadence; unowned metrics decay within one operating cycle.

Third-party and cyber risk controls: security assessment, data-sharing agreement, right-to-audit, and a continuity/exit plan for every critical digital supplier.

Continuity design uses RTO (maximum acceptable restore time) and RPO (acceptable data loss) to size redundancy, backup frequency, and alternate-process coverage.

Post-implementation review at roughly 3, 6, and 12 months compares realized benefits with the business case and triggers corrective action or formal re-baselining.

Change control board approves scope and design changes; each approved change re-tests the benefits case and updates the risk register.