The Importance of Global Supply Chain Management For Businesses in 2023
The following management tips will help you make the most of your internal workforce, external suppliers, and logistics providers.
The supply chain is a vital component of your inventory control and overarching company plan. Your company can save money and increase customer satisfaction by lowering wait times for popular products thanks to an effective supply chain. In other words, it gives you a genuine competitive advantage over other businesses in your sector.
However, an inefficient supply chain can be a significant drain on your resources, so it’s critical to plan for a lean and economical supply chain proactively. Here are some management hints to help you get the most out of your internal workforce, external suppliers, and logistical companies.
Review your suppliers
Evaluating your supplier relationships should be the first step in optimizing your supply chain since the supply chain process starts with your suppliers.
Communication
Without effective communication, a supplier-business owner relationship is doomed to collapse. To evaluate the success of your supplier communications as a starting point. Do they respond to your emails promptly? Can you two readily comprehend one another? Or do you squander time again, explaining the same thing?
Good vendors are communicative. The last thing you want is to lose money on products that can’t be sold because your vendor wasn’t quick to react to a crucial design modification.
Reliability
Suppliers must be trustworthy at all times. Your supply chain will suffer if your supplier consistently falls behind on your purchase orders, ships items slowly, or breaks their commitments. In that instance, cutting relationships with suppliers that have shown themselves as liabilities would be a quick method to enhance your supply chain. To find a different manufacturer who can fulfill your needs, try looking through the supplier listings on websites like Alibaba.
Speed
You should think about how quickly your suppliers can fulfill your orders if you want to make the most of your supply chain. You must reorder things sooner to prevent stockouts if a supplier takes weeks to finish production on your order, which increases the danger of demand planning going wrong.
Consider how quickly your suppliers can dispatch your orders after they are finished to enhance supply chain efficiency. Operating a global supply chain with a supplier halfway around the world may not be efficient if you are using a lean supply chain and just ordering small quantities at a time. Simply because you won’t have to worry about long lead times if your demand planning is inaccurate, a nearby local vendor can be a better option.
Examine your supply chain management plan.
The characteristics of effective supply networks are lean, inexpensive, and dependable. Therefore, if you want to ensure that your supply chain expenses remain low and your process remains reliable, you should assess your supply chain vision and objectives to ensure you’re using the best possible plan for your firm.
Here are some queries to think about:
Is my supply chain strategy suitable for the nature of my business? Ascertain that your plan aligns with your business model. For their supply chain, online-only companies might wish to think about drop shipping. By converting to a wholesale model, B2B enterprises could experience benefits in their supply chains.
Am I making the best use of my third-party logistics (3PL) providers? By analyzing your possibilities, be sure you’re not missing any opportunities. If your supplier prefers to use a particular 3PL provider, but that provider is more expensive, see if they would be willing to deliver their items through an alternate logistics company.
Do I have a solid supply chain management plan? The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the disastrous effects a broken supply chain may have on a growing business. You might improve the resilience of your supply chain by developing partnerships with backup suppliers and logistics companies that can take care of your supplier or shipping needs in an emergency. You are protected if unanticipated events change your supply chain model.
Plan for demand
Demand planning can increase supply chain efficiency if you aren’t currently forecasting client demand for your items using past demand data. For instance, if you are aware that June, July, and November are the most incredible months to sell your red, white, and blue sunglasses, engage with your supply chain partners to make sure you have enough supply to satisfy demand.
Planning for your suppliers and other elements, such as geography, is another aspect of effective supply chain management. If you’re working with a Chinese vendor, for instance, you might need to schedule your purchase orders to consider the two-week holiday period surrounding the Chinese New Year. This guarantees on-time delivery of your goods and lowers the cost of your supply chain (as you won’t have to pay extra storage fees while your interests are being held on a port thousands of miles away).
Get rid of data silos
Only one person or group can access the data that other users or groups require in a “data silo.” Any organization trying to manage a lean supply chain faces challenges from data silos. If your supply chain manager, procurement agent, and demand planner do not have access to the data, it could result in expensive mistakes (like double ordering).
The visibility of your company’s whole supply chain will be improved by using a supply chain platform (or even an inventory management platform). Even your 3PL providers may be invited if you genuinely want to include everyone in your supply chain. This increased visibility aids in total cost savings for your company by lowering errors and addressing numerous operational issues in your supply chain.
Watch your system.
Just because something works well today doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Knowing this, astute supply chain managers keep an eye on critical parts of the chain to identify weak spots. You might be able to identify inefficiencies in your supply chain right away by using inventory management systems that connect platforms for supplier and logistics management. You can search the area for problems, though, and make manual changes.
Evaluate the effectiveness of your current global supply chain solutions at least once every quarter. Look for any unusual patterns. Has the quantity or caliber of late shipments, unfulfilled orders, items, or inconsistent goods increased for your company? If so, look to determine where the problems in your system are coming from — whether they are coming from a supplier, a 3PL, or improper warehouse management.
Once you have identified the cause of your problems, you may decide on the best course of action to optimize the supply chain. To do this, you may try using a different supplier, try out an alternative shipping method, or give your warehouse workers more training.
There is hope if you are currently dissatisfied with how well your supply chain is doing. You can cut expenses and boost customer satisfaction by putting more effort into choosing reliable logistics companies and suppliers, building a sustainable supply chain, and optimizing information flow inside your company. Just keep in mind that it’s a process and that constant development is the end aim.
