Today, permanent and inflexible procedures still abound in supply chain management. As the global consumer market expands and the needs of modern customers and suppliers evolve, supply chain management is inevitably increasing in complexity and the context of supply chain management is becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable.
An inflexible management system does not allow us to realize the full potential of our supply chain, making it fragile and inefficient and blocking potential gains. This, in many cases, is why many companies and production plants are doomed to failure.
That is why we propose five effective ways that, if implemented correctly, will speed up your supply chain.
1. Introduce automation
Traditional systems are slow, difficult to adapt to change and often fail to respond to sudden changes in demand or supply. Automation, by systematising part or all of the manufacturing process workflow, turns these systems into fast and efficient processes with an infinitely lower probability of error.
For order fulfillment and supplier relations, intelligent contracts using digital technologies are a most effective solution. Decentralised operations allow parties to verify the compliance of other parties without the need for third parties. As with these contracts, key technologies are available to track shipments and processes and manage inventory updates.
On the other hand, consumer demand is developing more volatile tastes, and buyers expect higher levels of customisation and localisation. In order to react to this, data integration and unification is key as it allows information to be shared among interested departments and provides real-time, end-to-end visibility that enables departments to respond according to their capacity.
2. Standardise processes
With the standardisation of processes we will manage to eliminate unnecessary tasks and blockages in the entire supply chain so that production processes become more efficient. This must be accompanied by a humane approach to agile teams, where employees are trained, empowered and efficiency is rewarded while failure is tolerated.
Every global company and its supply chain now has the urgent task of simplifying and finding a central, standardised solution that makes it more agile. To achieve this, the most proactive process and technology workflows must be integrated to address value chain weaknesses.
The entire chain must become a connected network where each individual actor has all the information at their fingertips and can do their best to succeed, reducing the burden on individual actors.
3. Segmenting the supply chain
Supply chain planners now more than ever need to manage and analyse data more closely to achieve carefully prioritised micro-segments, priority customers, and demographics, products and geographies. This action step is essential to strategically move inventory and reuse supply capacity to manufacture high demand products and prioritise products and services that are most urgently needed.
In order to analyse and optimise the supply chain, we must have visibility over it and create a framework through which purchasing and production decisions can be made. For this to happen, a thorough analysis must be made of customers, markets, industries, distribution channels and products, and segment-specific strategies must be created.
4. Greater collaboration: Ecosystem
Production network flexibility is the key to a responsive and resilient supply chain ecosystem. The network needs to be assessed to identify flexible production and co-manufacturing opportunities, as well as additional and scaled-up suppliers to strengthen the supply base with reduced risk. Agile supplier contracts are the future of negotiations: buy-back contracts and zero volume contracts that lead to deeper relationships.
Consider options for flexible distribution and storage capacity by leveraging third parties or dynamic and adaptive fulfillment. The relationships you form can be very valuable in the long term, from material supplier relationships to third-party technology solutions, so you need to find a win-win balance.
5. Understand what your company needs
Data-based decisions support a more accurate and effective response, but require in-depth knowledge about such basics as demand visibility, inventory, capacity, supply, and finance across the ecosystem. To do this, planning leaders must capture continuous demand information using both internal and external sources.
If one expects to anticipate and react quickly to changes in demand, there must be daily feedback from the market and/or from outlets outside the production plants. Internally, situation studies such as supply maps of available inventory, supply options or availability of capacity across the network must be created.
How to achieve an agile supply chain?
Transforming supply chain planning requires better collaboration across the value chain. The need is to move from ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’, anticipating problems that may arise.
For this to happen, not only must decision making be imposed with restrictions on speed, but these decisions must be based on a continuous assessment of everything that happens within the production plant and outside it, affecting it both directly and indirectly.
Collaborate with digital platforms to unlock the value of your data. Invest in digital technologies and applied intelligence to enable real-time visibility and improve decision-making in supply chain planning and execution. This will improve your agility and responsiveness.
Optimise your production chain with Nexus Integra
If you are looking to speed up your supply chain, count on Nexus Integra: a software that manages and controls all the data generated by the different production processes unified in a single platform and shows them in the most intuitive way, always adapting to the needs of your company.
Nexus Integra, the integrated operations platform allows you to control, compare and tele-operate with all your factories and applications from a single platform. Share and consume your company’s information in a simple and transparent way.
Access information from a specific plant or create dashboards to know the status of all your plants instantly and from anywhere. Scale your solutions with minimum effort and maximum efficiency and speed. All this is possible thanks to its powerful three-layer structure: Nexus Connect, Nexus Core and Nexus Apps.
Contact us and let’s talk about how Nexus Integra can help your company.
