Businesses today face a continuously changing supply chain environment. There is a perpetual factor of change, whether it’s supply chain disruptions or unpredictable customer demands, that must be managed quickly and effectively to stay competitive in the marketplace.
Companies are evaluating the resiliency and flexibility of their supply chain in response to today’s fast-paced corporate world. As a business, satisfying customer demands through supply chain initiatives is vital – a dynamic supply chain will help you deliver operational value, increase efficiency, cut costs and improve service.
Here are 4 tips to create a more dynamic supply chain:
- Welcome Innovation
This is one of the most important steps to take when forming a dynamic supply chain. An effective supply chain adapts to avoid disruptions, meet demand and take advantage of new opportunities. None of this is possible without a willingness to change business strategies that may have been in place for decades. Many companies implement formal systems for driving innovation, and 75% are more likely to see innovative processes deliver a competitive advantage in their industry. Innovation is crucial to success in the changing supply chain environment.
- Dive Deep into Data
The latest TMS technology is capable of producing large amounts of actionable data on any process you want visibility into. This phenomenon, Big Data, is the future of supply chain management, but it comes with a downside. Many companies use their data to make vaguely representative averages, rather than using the actual data itself. The point of mining TMS data, as well as the goal for a dynamic supply chain, is to make confident decisions with accurate, real-time data. Creating simple, wide-ranging averages of data defeats the purpose. To make your supply chain more flexible and responsive to current trends, you need to dig into TMS data to find accurate forecasts which lead to solution-driven results.
- Anticipate Opportunities, Disruptions and Customer Demands
Once your supply chain is monitored with TMS data, you can compare historical data to current trends and improve decisions. This data, consisting of things like historical costs, shipping performance and order volumes, enables you to correctly predict the changes that will affect your supply chain. Using predictive analytics lets a company alter shipping schedules, fine-tune inventory management and find new, hidden opportunities. Having a reactive supply chain is important, but being proactive will bring more profitable benefits.
- Flexible Operations
For a more dynamic supply chain, a company must possess the ability to act quickly to market trends. This is an easy concept to understand but not so easy to implement. It takes a lot of planning and changes within an organization to add flexibility to operations. For example, some manufacturers have two different types of raw materials they could use for the same purpose – so they alternate between one or the other based on overall costs of each material. With a flexible supply chain you will realize heightened business processes and find a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Continue Reading:
