This is a contributed post.
Your business supply chain is one that you should be extremely attentive to. Efficiency within your supply chain can easily be achieved, so it’s important to look at ways in which you can better it for the sake of your company’s success.
How do you improve the state of your supply chain efficiency? Keep reading to find out.
Table of Contents
1. Make use of automation
Automation has been an incredible piece of technology that more and more businesses are making use of. With this type of machine-learning technology, has helped many businesses take control of their everyday routines, streamlining them to make them quicker and more efficient.
Within the supply chain, there are many moving parts operating at once, which is why it’s helpful to have software that features automation in place. Automation is a great way of speeding up processes and using technology to complete tasks that would otherwise take up a lot of your staff’s time.
Automation is easy enough to get your head around, even for those who don’t have much experience in technology. It’s also something that can be used across the supply chain and in many areas of business in general. Processing data in real-time is always productive, so it’s well worth making use of this technology if you can implement it.
2. Ensure forecasting and routing are accurate
Forecasting is an important part of your business and something that you want to do accurately and precisely. When it comes to forecasting, it can often make accurate and realistic predictions of where your business is at and where it could be heading in the near future.
With forecasting, you should be mindful of various factors that might influence your forecasting, as well as making use of expert opinions. Relying on the knowledge of those who know the business and perhaps have first-hand experience of how the year tends to play out, is also useful to getting the best accuracy within the forecasting.
Routing is also important because if you’re able to optimise the routing of your drivers, you’re going to make the transport aspects of the supply chain, more effective and efficient.
3. Track and optimise inventory levels
Inventory can often cost a business a considerable amount of money and when you’re ordering inventory, you want to make sure you’re ordering the correct amount. Too much and you end up spending more than you can sell, which means you’ve got less profit and more waste.
Tracking your inventory is a good way of looking at how effective your inventory orders are and what you might need to change in order to make it more accurate for what you sell.
Optimising your inventory levels is always a good thing to do and can make a real difference to the margin of profit you’re making in the business. Widening that margin is a good thing to do so the more you can do it through savings on inventory, the better for your business and the supply chain productivity.
4. Collaborate with the best suppliers out there
Collaboration is an important player when it comes to maximising the productivity of the supply chain.
There are plenty of wonderful partnerships and collaborators out there that you can work with in order to make your business more efficient and stronger as a whole.
When collaborating, look at what you need help with and what could benefit your business when it comes to the supply chain in general. For example, you might find that there are financially savvy collaborations to be had with current stakeholders and new ones too.
With partnerships, finding mutually beneficial and strategic opportunities is a great way to grow your business and anyone you end up working with. Consider what suppliers you work with, whether it’s a UK fulfillment center or a packing company that specialises in offering sustainable materials and ways of working.
5. Develop strong relationships
Strong relationships are important to cement when it comes to your supply chain. When you have a strong relationship, it benefits your interactions with the suppliers themselves, and who knows, you might get some benefits from working closely with these individuals and organisations.
6. Take advantage of technology
Technology is a great part of running a business, so it’s worth finding opportunities within this technological domain. Think about using integrated supply chain software to help speed up processes and improve efficiency across the board.
Improving efficiency within your supply chain is productive, so consider what options you have available to your business maximise them to your advantage this year and every year.