E-commerce is a great business choice in this fast-paced, modern world. But if you want to take your business far, then it’s time to shift from working hard to working smart. You don’t want to be just putting out fires - you want to be winning the game.
As the pandemic rages on, companies are seeing that other than the principal facets of the company like the recruitment process and what have you, supply chains are now at the forefront of that priority. Supply chains can essentially make or break the whole business, especially for product-driven operations.
What needed to be done to take back what was lost during the lockdown and survive in the long haul is a complete strengthening and boosting of the supply chain.
This will ensure business for both the company, suppliers, and the customers, but at the same time, it will help rebound economies across the world.
Strengthening the Supply Chain
The supply chain survived as efficiently as it could in this pandemic, although not unscathed.
One thing a company could do to support the supply chain even before disruptive events take place is strengthen the supply chain team and empower the managers to innovate and collaborate with the company. So, what makes an effective supply chain?
Let’s look into this more closely:
The Supply Chain Team
Procurement and Sourcing
Procurement and sourcing fall under the critical role of customer or product alignment. They are the workhorse in the supply chain, eager to keep the procurement cost down and always relentless when it comes to dealing with the suppliers.
Empower the procurement team by hiring and onboarding more women in procurement leadership positions. Oliver Wyman reported that women comprise only 14.7% of all Chief Procurement Officers, even though it has been proven that added creativity and innovation could give the company significant economic gains when they are included.
Inventory Planner
Inventory planning is an integral part of the supply chain. However, the pandemic shed light on how important it is when essentially everything is gone because of a lack of production and stock. They are the analyst and the bookkeeper of the company, keeping track of numbers, whether the dollar or the units.
A way to support the inventory planners is to invest in advanced Inventory Planning Technologies or IPTs. Such technologies have historical data available to forecast future inventory levels.
Logistics and Warehousing
The supply chain survived its problem the past two years with the help of the logistics and warehousing block of the supply chain. They are the pacifier or the mediator in charge of customer relations as well as the supply chain's internal production planning.
Shift to automation is a must
There are various ways to strengthen this block, but none more important than making everything automated, primarily when most jobs concerning this bloc are functioning from home.
The Supply Chain Manager
The supply chain management team's role is all of the previous three combined, plus other troubleshooting and expanding the supply chain's reach roles. They ensure that the supply chain is working efficiently and that everything is running as it should. To keep the supply chain working on all levels, managers could utilize data analytics in its day-to-day workings.
Strategies for Effective Supply Chain
Supply Chain in the time of COVID-19
One of the challenges that the past two years have exposed about the supply chain is unpredictable times supply chains must be ready for. Although faced with new challenges, they are still a lifeline that has proven ingenious in ensuring that everything from medical supplies to other necessities is provided for the community.
To be sustainable and meet stakeholders' expectations, supply chains need resiliency, which could be taken by creating a response plan. This response plan draws out all interventions and other contingency management plans in time of another unexpected circumstance.
Supply Chain and the Company
Ensuring that the supply chain comprehends the companies' needs is also important. The longevity of a company will only be possible if it is profitable, and the profitability will make it able to hold all the workforce it employs. This option is also a two-way road for the company to see that all the efforts of the supply chain workers are compensated, especially for the one who works on-site.
The supply needs to make sense and prioritize newer risks and their possible implications in the supply chain ecosystem. This will ensure that the company's goals are met and troubleshooting measures are done when problems arise.
Supply Chain and the Vendor’s Situation
Another thing the supply chain needs to be mindful of is the current situation of each vendor in distributing the product. This will call for the supply chain to evaluate every possible scenario to ensure that the symbiotic relationship is thriving — from protocols in sourcing to distribution and other service implications.
Supply Chain Plan with the Team
Now that each stakeholder is taken care of, it is time for the supply team to create a plan and execute it. This plan would entail various configurations and could even overhaul the pre-pandemic measures. The supply chain team needs to ensure that products flow out of the company to accomplish the protocols.
A scoreboard can be utilized to record the efforts to keep track of their proposed actions.
Supply Chain and the Management
As the supply chain team draws each plan, the company, in turn, advises, supports, and grants approval to the drawings. This will call for effective communication with the management, and their workers would then relay problems and feedback from suppliers and customers.
Implementation
Techniques such as keeping the workforce healthy by providing new ways of working, especially for data-driven blocks of the supply chain that could work remotely; this would ensure that the people directly working to produce the products runs less risk of catching the virus. This plan could also avoid costly no-production days that could disrupt the process.
A company could also mobilize the sales team to undertake daily challenges brought to the supply chains. This team needs to execute multiple interventions and coordinate consumer responses to the company effectively. Logistics is also vital in creating real-time visibility in all facets of the supply chain operations, from the factory down to customer queries.
The supply chain essentially changed more than it did in the past since its introduction. As each company shifts and adjusts to the demands of the given time, it will only assure them of their endurance and resilience.
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