COVID-19 has affected all aspects of businesses, with global supply chain processes being among the worst hit. However, even before the pandemic, increased globalization, shorter lead times, intensification of competition, and changing customer expectations required that businesses constantly evolve and optimize their supply chain management.
With the current uncertain situation, people have retreated into isolation, offices and warehouses have shut down, and international borders are closed. This has forced business owners to get creative and adapt to a completely different world, with one of the biggest changes being a massive rise in online shopping. Any inefficiencies in the supply chain process can create issues that have a ripple effect throughout an organization — something that many businesses just cannot afford, especially at the moment.
Leaders have therefore identified key drivers of success that can help implement best practices in their supply chain management. Understanding each aspect of a supply chain ensures that managers are able to identify and remedy any issues as early as possible. Increasing transparency and visibility, improving communication, and quality control are among the top areas of focus for supply chain executives.
Transparency and Visibility:
Supply chain transparency typically refers to the process of disclosing information to customers, consumers, regulatory bodies, and trading partners. Visibility focuses on sharing data within the supply chain to increase efficiency.
Better visibility and transparency help with effective collaboration, swift resolution of issues, and planning and managing orders, shipments, inventory, and transportation. They also help provide companies and customers with the confidence that their goods and services are genuine, traceable, compliant with regulations, ethically sourced, and are up to the company standards.
Increasing transparency and visibility requires an innovative multipronged approach that includes usage of real-time networks for data management. It is vital that companies recognize the importance and benefits of supply chain transparency and visibility in building trust in the brand, increasing efficiency, enhancing customer experience, and reducing risks.
Communication:
Communication refers to the open and proper exchange of ideas, opinions, and data between both internal and external stakeholders. As simple as it sounds, it is actually one of the most difficult areas to address and improve.
Communication is important as it brings together people with firsthand experience of different points of the process. Improving communication refers to prioritizing relationships with employees, stakeholders, and suppliers. It is essential to regularly meet and discuss current processes, trends, and models to retain healthy relationships, give and receive constructive feedback, and drive collaboration.
Quality Control:
Quality control refers to ongoing quality inspections during sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing processes, and quality checks before delivery to the customer. It is the responsibility of the purchasing department to ensure that all goods and services are compliant with local regulations and are of the correct specifications.
The aspects of quality control include scrutinizing the physical description, dimensional measurements, chemical composition, performance specifications, industrial standards, and brand name.
Each part of the process must be carefully inspected to ensure that all relevant information is shared, such as physical attributes of the components, details of chemical specifications, ability of the part to carry out the role it is meant to, and the reliability of the sources.
The quality of the raw materials, goods, and services that are used by a company makes a difference to the finished products. By carrying out efficient and constant quality control, you ensure consumer satisfaction, repeat customers, and reduction of waste.
At H&S, we understand that the supply chain of today looks significantly different from those of the not-too-distant past. Even the most experienced and adept managers must ensure that they dedicate time to reworking strategies to ensure company growth and evolution of their business.
When it comes to increasing supply chain efficiency, we know that spending a huge amount of money isn’t always necessary to make an impactful change.
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