Desperate situations require desperate solutions, and it is our responsibility to equip ourselves with the new normal. Business continuity is essential, and it is the supply chain that needs to accommodate this unique time, as the pandemic has hit many businesses unforgivingly. Supply Chain Management (SCM) facilitates businesses in sustaining a fast production cycle and optimizing the cost of products, which is crucial to creating a competitive business landscape. The coronavirus has put the whole world in an uncomfortable position by disrupting the supply chain.
Here are a few tips to keep your supply chain business running during a global pandemic:
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Diversifying the basket
If the pandemic continues to disrupt the supply of raw materials which are needed for many and varying products, it will be a lot more challenging to sustain business. Longer lead times will drive your customers to other alternative solutions and retrieving them again will be a difficult task. This requires you to seek alternative sources for your products to keep the operations of your business running. Make a list of suppliers based on their geographic location and carefully evaluate critical factors to find out the one that offers the best value for your operation.
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Warehouse Management
Tracking your inventory movement is essential to reduce lead time and speed up inventory management. A perfect warehouse management software ensures sharing forecasts, demands, material requirements, and new product information, allowing reduced inventory level and cost. There are several warehouse management solutions to keep you updated on the entire inventory management process, from demand forecast to facing customers and constraints.
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Moving to Cloud System
Automation in industries after the pandemic will likely move operations of small and medium enterprises to the Cloud System or IoT to track inventory, purchases, and sharing information from producers to distributors. The cloud will enable manufacturers to expand their business, reduce costs, forecast future/new demand, optimize performance, reduce lead-time, and create a centralized knowledge database.
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Balancing Supply Chain Logistics
Besides hampering your overall sales supply chain interruption is likely to divert your customers adversely. The supply chain requires a multidimensional approach for transportation according to the transit time-play of shipment. Active transport is critical to supply chain management to meet demands.
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Communication between Suppliers, Vendors, and Customers
An open channel of communication is essential to get on-time information about what is going on in the manufacturing process, shipping delays, expectations of your customers, changes in production, and adjustment of prices. Your business should be agile and positioned in a way to keep the concerned parties satisfied.
Bottom Line
Businesses need to rapidly assess, recover, and respond to the challenges that have arisen due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The above tips are just a few essential ones to protect your business supply chain from an unprecedented occurrence. A resilient, sustainable supply chain will also save your business for years to come.
