Supply chain management is essential for your manufacturing company’s success. It provides the supply chain visibility, reliability, and predictability needed for efficient operations.
Taking steps to better navigate supply chain challenges helps improve productivity, outputs, and your bottom line. The following ideas can help.
Discover four steps you can take to better navigate supply chain challenges.
1. Improve Demand Forecasting
Accurately anticipating customer demand helps prepare for future needs.
Use these tips for more effective demand forecasting:
- Gather actionable input from stakeholders.
- Ensure your data is clean and reliable.
- Implement robust analytics.
- Build strong collaboration through supply chain partnerships.
- Find and resolve issues.
- Change course as needed.
2. Increase Supply Chain Visibility
A high level of supply chain visibility lets you know when raw materials, individual parts, and finished products will reach their destination and be available for the next step.
Implement these tips to elevate the visibility of your supply chain:
- Replace siloed technological systems with supply chain management technology.
- Prioritize your company’s goals and objectives.
- Analyze your current supply chain to uncover the pain points and bottlenecks.
- Resolve the issues based on the order of importance.
- Facilitate transparency and collaboration across the production process.
3. Keep Relevant Materials on Hand
Having the right materials available when needed supports production.
Use these tips to ensure you have the relevant materials available when needed:
- Stay current on manufacturing and supply chain automation trends.
- Effectively manage your inventory to avoid shortages.
- Diversify your supply chain.
- Improve your supplier collaborations.
- Expedite parts delivery when needed.
4. Update the Technology
Current technology enhances supply chain visibility, optimizes supply chain resources, and efficiently manages your supplier network.
Implement these tips to include technology in your day-to-day supply chain operations:
- Conduct a supply chain audit to assess the situation and prioritize needs.
- Research and obtain product demos to see how the technologies meet your organization’s needs.
- Build an implementation team.
- Conduct a test implementation.
- Develop standard operating policies for the technology.
- Train the users.
- Update your suppliers and customers on how the change may impact your relationship with them.
- Launch and assess the technology.
- Talk about and resolve technology-related issues.
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