Supply chain operations affect our daily lives in a lot of ways. The supply chain is an international and global idea that is made up of a series of steps that an online retailer goes through for every purchase, shipment, and storage operation. Check out these characteristics of supply chain management to enhance your knowledge.
Supply chain management should be a top priority in every industry. Some of the things that helped your supply chain in the past might not be as helpful in the future.
Top 10 – Characteristics of Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is based on the idea that almost every product sold in stores is the result of a lot of companies working together. Even though supply chains have been around for thousands of years, it wasn’t until recently that businesses started to see them as a way to gain a competitive edge. This article will go into characteristics of supply chain management in detail and provide some examples for your convenience. To stay informed about risk of supply chain management subject, make sure to read more.
Innovative
When things change, it’s easy for a supply chain to adapt. It looks like technology is changing faster than it ever has before. Companies of all sizes are using these changes in the supply chain to improve quality control and keep up with the competition in the market.
Smart glasses aid warehouse picking, beacons track production, and geo-fencing enhances truck delivery. These are just a few of the many new ways to manage the supply chain that have been made for different reasons.
Planning
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and smart cloud-based optimization add-ons have replaced Excel spreadsheets as the best way to plan and improve the supply chain. As I said in a previous featured Beet Fusion post, “if” you can manage inventory and other supply chain parts in the cloud is no longer a question.
Operations research uses historical data to make smart estimates that help companies make better decisions about what products to buy and how much to keep on hand as a safety stock. The management can also use these technologies to figure out where in their network to keep stock and how to get it to customers. Managers can get better at planning operations by using the technology that is out there.
Clear
Because the logistics industry doesn’t use the letter “T,” clear was used instead of transparent. One part of supply chain transparency is being able to track where parts and finished goods come from as they move through a company’s manufacturing process.
I need to be able to tell the difference between internal and external supply chain visibility. When I say “internal transparency,” I mean that resources and information can move freely between the buying, making, distributing, and selling stages of a company’s value chain.
Still, supplier visibility is a key part of an external supply chain that is open and clear. Government laws, like the UK Modern Slavery Act, are having a bigger effect on how companies work with their suppliers. This shows how important it is to have visibility across a supplier network.
Punctual
I think this says everything. If you can’t give the customer what they want at the time they want it, someone else will. The logistics business has been taken over by the “now culture,” with companies like Amazon promising home delivery in 30 minutes.
No, I don’t think every wholesaler should be able to do this, but I do think that in our “now culture,” where impatience is on the rise, the ability to make on-time deliveries will be a key feature that sets effective supply networks apart from ordinary supply chains.
Honest
Honesty is another word for ethics. Many businesses are finding out that customers are becoming more and more interested in how supply chain management works. Many companies’ reputations and bottom lines have suffered as a result of child and slave labor scandals. One way to avoid these kinds of problems is to use ethical sourcing practices.
Nestle’s admission of working with a Thai seafood supplier that uses slave labor was commendable. Nestlé, unlike most companies, came out and said they were wrong.
They also came up with a plan to improve working conditions in the Thai fishing industry as a whole. The company’s reputation got a big boost from these admissions and promises to do better. For supply chain management to be excellent, the business culture must be based on honesty and trust.
Agile
A good supply chain will be able to change. Since whole books have been written about the subject, it would be impossible to sum up the importance of this trait in a single blog paragraph. Even so, good supply chains are flexible enough to quickly adjust to changes in the business world. Effective teams exhibit collaboration, risk planning, decision-making tools, and user-oriented goals.
Unified
When I say that a supply chain management strategy is unified, I mean that all the parts work together as a whole. This includes making sure that everyone who buys, makes, distributes, and sells goods has the same goals and expectations for the whole supply chain.
Breaking down barriers and building cross-functional teams can improve organizational performance. Keeping track of how well each department is doing based on metrics that don’t help the company as a whole is bad for success.
Networking
As head of digital marketing, it’s my job to bring this up whenever we talk about how to improve our supply chain. Benefits include staying updated via social media, blogs, podcasts, and industry events.
Also, using social media to teach suppliers lessons or build a supplier platform for the exchange of best practices can be very helpful for managing supplier relationships. Using modern communication tools can enable individuals to communicate with people worldwide in real-time, facilitating greatness.
Youthful
“Youthful” can mean two different things in this sentence. One of the things that needs to be done is to find and train new supply chain talent. Lack of proper training and mentorship for future professionals can harm supply chain operations.
Second, the word “young” can also mean a new way of managing the supply chain. Do you still use Excel sheets to make plans? You didn’t think about how digital and smart innovations helped early adopters get more done. When things are like that, it will be harder to succeed in the future.
Leadership
To achieve excellence in supply chain management, you need a strong foundation in leadership. Leaders in the supply chain should know and have some say in the “big picture” goals of the company. They should also share these goals with their team.
Because of this, it is very important to have good communication and teamwork skills. Supply chain executives should speak up and bring their own chair to C-level meetings. The supply chain head ensures the function is strategic and adds value beyond cost control.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Factors Impact Supply Chain Effectiveness?
Five things affect the supply chain: production, inventory, location, shipping, and information. Businesses can make and run these drives to focus on the best mix of responsiveness and efficiency while taking into account their own business and financial needs.
What is the Supply Chain’s Main Purpose?
The main goal of supply chain management is to reduce costs while increasing output throughout the whole process of making and distributing a product, from getting the raw materials to sending out the finished goods.
What is the Six Sigma Model in the Supply Chain?
The main goal of Six Sigma was to cut down on defects that were too high. The quality control systems of each supply chain would be helped a lot by a Six Sigma study.
Conclusion
To reach the goals of supply chain management, everyone in the chain, from manufacturers to retailers, must work together. Supply chain management is only helpful if all of the steps in the chain are coordinated. When businesses use SCM to its full potential, it could give them a big performance boost and help them stand out in their industry. A business must always know and follow the SCM framework and quality standards. Supply chain management makes it possible to use basic ideas without sacrificing customer focus or service quality. This page discusses characteristics of supply chain management in detail.
