Beliefs and behaviors are constantly changing due to economic and social developments in today’s world. Factoring the pandemic, labor challenges and rising inflation, companies spend and evaluate projects differently. You must optimize the supply chain to meet the changing needs of current and future markets.
By reviewing the data from various points of the supply chain, you can give your organization a holistic view of the logistics network, which will help you meet your customers’ needs. There are many moving parts, so it can get complicated identifying specific problems. By looking at the entire network, you’ll be able to optimize technology and resources for maximum efficiency.
What does optimization look like?
Between inventory shortages and volatile demands, manufacturers and distributors must find new ways to optimize their supply chain networks while incorporating important data. First, make sense of data aligned to inventory management, quality checks and transportation.
Inventory management
The most significant trend in inventory management is automation and machine learning. It can be difficult to determine what data is important. Machine learning helps you to do that with the use of big data. It will look at your logistics, raw materials and operations in real time.
While this helps give a holistic look, it doesn’t address the several layers of complexity within inventory control. An optimized inventory management system will leverage agile supply chain planning to respond and adapt to current events.
Quality checks
Your manufacturer must implement a quality management practice and standardization. This can include any of the following:
- Production Part Approval Process – enables the management of change to products and processes while evaluating future suppliers.
- Receiving and Inspection – integrates the process of receiving materials from suppliers and sets up inspection schedules based on suppliers’ past actions.
- Supplier Corrective Action Requests – involves conducting a root-cause analysis, corrective planning and risk analysis. It ensures visibility of anything out of inspection.
- Suppliers and Materials – delivers real-time measurements of supplier and material performance.
- Supplier ratings – reviews supplier performance through quantitative and qualitative rating information.
- Enterprise-Wide Approach – expands the role of anyone at your organization interacting with a supplier.
From concept to delivery, every part of the process is important. Manufacturers and suppliers all need to understand what is expected to meet the highest standards of quality.
Brennan’s BI Verify is a semi-automated weight counting system, which eliminates shipping errors. It’s an additional trail for accurate count verification and visual part verification. It double-checks orders for accuracy to avoid costly mistakes.
Transportation
Shippers need to be strategic to overcome the challenges and maximize throughput. While internal data is important, access to external data can answer a variety of questions. But it’s usually unmanaged with little qualification and assessment. It’s important to understand how particular transportation links in the chain will impact operations.
For example, market forces, such as higher fuel costs, can overshadow the ability to reduce costs while improving customer satisfaction. By leveraging data, you’ll be able to optimize and manage transportation. It can be done with shipment pooling, aggregation, consolidation, as well as continuous moves and cross-docking strategies.
Evolving your supply chain strategy
Companies can keep a pulse on the supply chain by identifying problems, shaping habits with new services and analyzing behaviors at a more granular level. Companies are expanding their use of real-time data and supply signals to build a more resilient supply chain for current and future markets. By having technology-infused workflows, companies will be able to be predictive and proactive.
Learn more about supply chain efficiencies by downloading our BluPrint.
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