After COVID-19 first struck China, roughly 70 percent of the world’s resources and products was knocked off the distribution chain. Many midsize companies believed that this interruption would be temporary. Yet, nobody could have predicted that the virus would spread across borders and oceans in such a quick and unrelenting pace.
Disruption always starts with uncertainty somewhere in the distribution chain. Then once the volatility of panic-induced need enters the equation, the capacity to deliver products fast enough finally reaches a breaking point. Midsize companies can’t get their products out to the consumers that need them.
But the problem is not entirely fear buying, nor only the ability to manufacture products fast enough in a new environment of health and safety with additional cleaning, social bookmarking, and change separation conditions. It is also about the distribution system and how it gets needed goods to the ideal hot spots at the right moment.
Navigating supply chain chaos using a renaissance of prominence
In many ways, the current pandemic is a wake-up forecast about dangers associated with global and lean supply chains that are focused on cost reduction. Based on recent research from Oxford Economics almost one-third of midsize companies cited the inability to adapt to a rapidly changing market (30%) and absence of coordination between divisions (31%) as among the top challenges leading to fulfilling their associations strategic priorities. *
Throughout the past couple of months, I have had the chance of talking with several supply chain leaders out of midsize companies, many of whom voiced the same concerns as those raised by the Oxford Economic study. We discussed those struggles impeded their capacity to excel in three crucial regions, and that, I think, still hold true whether handling the complexity of the disturbance or times of fiscal prosperity and growth.
Client centricity: Know what customers want, where to locate them, and how a shortfall of competing goods can affect demand.
Productivity: Maximize the capacity available across your manufacturing and logistics operations.
Visibility: Pinpoint where accessible inventory is situated in the supply chain, which clients want it, and just how to get it all there.
Sustainability: Take an honest look in the supply chain and behave on much-needed improvements to ensure continuous operations without damaging the environment and labor security and wellness.
Taking these measures allows midsize businesses to see what clients are demanding in real time.
When each side of the revenue venture has information that the other does not have, a willingness to collaborate on that insight inevitably emerges. Together, midsize businesses and their partners can maximize the supply chain with information on which is or is not on the shelves and if there are gaps between customer demand and product offerings.
The entire idea of visibility across the supply chain is incredibly important, especially for stock management. Take, for instance, a business with 300 cases of hand sanitizer that needs to be allocated across 20 unique locations. To make sure the most crucial areas get the correct amounts in time, companies require supply chain operations which are transparent enough to move forward using a customer-centric, productive, and sustainable approach.
Turning a painful lesson into a platform for resiliency
COVID-19 definitely taught us all a tough lesson concerning the supply chain. Nobody knows when midsize businesses, customers, and the market will rebound from this outbreak. However, the optimist in me thinks that this is a call to do things today, tomorrow, and for the eventual recovery beforehand.
Such modifications can’t be established immediately. It requires time, effort, and the right tools to reevaluate the distribution chain and pinpoint areas of improvement concerning quality, ability, delivery, cost, and responsiveness to shifts in technology requirements and requirement.
But once midsize companies can locate their game with qualified providers buyers with alternatives such as SAP Ariba Discovery they could build long-term sourcing relationships that are dependable and, most importantly, resilient.
Then, they can better match supply to need to attain better end-to-end visibility throughout the extended supply chain, handle exceptions by getting alerts on issues, and run real time simulation of various demand or supply situations on-the-fly by minding distribution chain planning for a support .
Also read: Supply Chain Attacks And How To Mitigate Them
For additional exploration on how supply chain managers can browse disturbance today while preparing for tomorrow, we ask you to join our Webinar, “Stabilize Supply Chain Today and Build a Resilient Foundation for the upcoming .”
This site is part of a series offering hints to assist small and midsize businesses weather the challenges about the pandemic.
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