The complexities of today’s business environment are putting pressure on any number of organizational fronts, with the supply chain chief among them.
It’s a global network for supply and demand, and meeting the needs on both sides poses challenges involving distance, culture and time zone differences. In addition, there is the constant pressure to cut costs and improve cycle times, and the complications when mergers and acquisitions add new divisions and expand silos – all charged to find economies and efficiencies to benefit the business.
A variety of pain points are arising as a function of this environment, starting with mushrooming regulatory and compliance requirements, and a breakdown in decision-making clarity. Add issues such as effective data use, product quality and risk management, and making the adoption of supply chain visibility systems becomes an imperative.
A supply chain visibility strategy effectively addresses these pain points by providing a more holistic view of the supply chain, starting with product concept and design, including orders and delivery, and reflecting key steps such as compliance and finance.
To achieve this an organization must develop three distinct capabilities:
Make information available more quickly, easily.
This starts with paving the way toward easier access to rapid, real-time information. Data is critical – your own and that of third parties. For it to yield the insights needed for supply chain visibility, you must recognize the importance of consolidating your data sources. If you strive for fewer integration points and interfaces, data will move faster and visibility will be facilitated. Understand that the time frame in which data is shared – with sales and marketing groups that can use this information, and suppliers and carriers that feed the system – is key for uncovering improved insights for better supply chain performance.
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Enable proactive supply chain alerts, manage by exception.
The better the data is accessed, managed and leveraged, the more effectively the supporting systems will work in creating supply chain visibility. The insights gained can help the organization identify key performance metrics and set up a system of alerts when they’re out of balance. It’s critical to understand the impact of decisions across the supply chain and be able to build the ability to respond more rapidly when aspects of the supply chain deviate from the norm – such as minimum and maximum inventory levels.
Build toward a collaborative supply chain network.
There is tremendous power – and a competitive advantage – to be gained from a network of partners that communicates and collaborates around the real time information created in the name of supply chain visibility. Whether large companies or small, technically sophisticated or not, this network of suppliers, customers, carriers and customs brokers, among others, must work together and believe that everyone benefits from an effective visibility project.
Implementing a successful visibility project starts with that network of trading partners, one that drives the systems for better decisions made more quickly, improved profitability and higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Building the network has its basis in the ability to connect both the different systems and trading partners, providing access to and ensuring the understanding of the data populating the network, and optimizing the networks operations so costs are reduced and efficiencies grow.
The best results in a strategy designed to achieve supply chain visibility are gained when certain guidelines are in place. One is to keep in mind that not all senior managers will be believers in the need or the process. Quick wins, more so than big ones, will prove the concept in less time and keep the project’s plug from being pulled.
Another proviso is to avoid analysis paralysis, which happens when too many milestones bog the process down. A limit of five or seven of the most important is fine at the outset. More can be added, especially since it’s unlikely anyway that the perfect system will be created right out of the gate.
Don’t let your trading partners stymie your strategy. A toolkit of integration options, simple and sophisticated, should be made available to facilitate your network. Also, establish and share a scorecard on data quality to promote user confidence and ensure against gaps in the data.
Finally, sharing the data with your network is of paramount importance to ensure the impact of the team members’ decisions and performance is communicated, understood and builds the network along with the supply chain’s performance.
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