How To Manage Your Supply Chain During Market Uncertainty

“A great supply chain is collaborative planning across all functions. It’s a process first, then tools to accelerate and improve process and network. It’s outcome-focused, driving to the right metrics. And, it’s engaging suppliers in common goals,” quoted Steve Raetz, Director of Research and Market Intelligence at C.H. Robinson. The quote seems to fit in the current era perfectly.

Ever since the coronavirus outbreak in the year 2020, supply chain management has been the worst affected arena. It has entirely distorted the cycle right from the initial procurement stages. Even a small dealer, a wholesaler, or a retailer was adversely affected by their supply chain. 

Businesses that invested in a robust, and cost-efficient supply chain system were able to solve all their demand and supply-related problems. This type of tool helps to take complete care of your supply chain cycle throughout the year. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, around 5 million people are employed in transportation and logistics. Shipping of products and goods alone contributes to a Trillion Dollar industry. Supply chain management is witnessing the power of new technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency identification) in its field. By the end of 2025, the global supply chain management market will roar to $22 billion. 

Supply Chain Life Cycle 

Like any other business process, even supply chain management has six critical roles. All six functions are crucial for creating a unique and successful supply chain system. 

Here below are the six main stages involved in the supply chain:

1. Raw Materials: Here, raw materials are produced and passed on at this stage. 
2. Suppliers: Suppliers collect all the raw materials, process them, and pass them on further. 
3. Manufacturing: Here, suppliers will supply raw materials to build final products.
4. Distribution: When the final product is out, it is sent for distribution in the market. 
5. Retailer: Distributors will search for the best retailers or wholesalers for their deals. 
6. Customer: Finally, the final product reaches customers for its usage or application. 

What Elements Make Up The Supply Chain?

The proper delivery of products or services to the end customer makes up an ideal supply chain. The entire process works towards distributing and delivering final and finished goods to the desired customers. Interestingly, the supply chain is classified as a good one only when it depicts excellent visibility, optimization, low-cost margin, timely delivery, and consistency. 

Supply chain management consists of planning, outsourcing raw materials, manufacturing, delivery, and returns. 

• Any business will require a pre-planning for going about and making some strategies. 
• Sources of raw materials must be reliable and trustworthy.
• After collecting raw materials, assembling, testing, and packaging happen at this stage.
• Following company’s delivery channel and logistics services delivery either by rail, air or road. 
• The company discards low-quality and defective products at this stage of the supply chain.

Parameters That Affect The Supply Chain

With the coronavirus pandemic, the supply chain has altered heavily. The new normal has paved the way for many new technological advancements in supply chain software. New technologies have improved the way businesses deal with the issues in the supply chain. 

When coronavirus spread began in China, most of the life-running activities were brought to a stand-still. It got everything to stand still. All businesses were temporarily closed. 

Therefore, other nearby countries dependent on China’s market were also significantly impacted. All export and import activities were shut down for a couple of months. This created an enormous void in the economic cycle. Suppliers had already supplied their raw materials to industrialists, but the clients were not ready to accept the final product to the halt caused by a coronavirus. 

Factors that affect supply chain management are:

1. Inventory and electronic data capture percentage 
2. High Dollar Products and procedural costs 
3. Industry Standard 
4. Human Supply Chains 

Why Is It Essential To Maintain Your Supply Chain During A Crisis Like the Covid Pandemic? 

With a 100% efficient supply chain, one can achieve great heights in their business. It can fulfill your business objectives very well in an organized manner. With a good automated supply chain, businesses save upon their time and resources. It reduces the efforts to go back and check any errors during logistics or delivery. If you do not take any reliable measures to mend your supply chain, everything ahead of the forthcoming cycle will go haphazard. Even if one step in the supply chain gets disturbed, the entire process gets distorted. 

Supply chain management is connected directly to shipping and inventory management. Avoiding the high cost of transportation and inventory oversupply with the right supply chain system is advantageous to small, medium, and large local or international business operations. 

Ways to Improve your supply chain 

Many IT companies are using a supply chain tool to accelerate processes through digital automation, mobile barcoding of inventory, data collection from practically any device, uninterrupted productivity when systems or people go offline, and more. 

Now it is your turn to accept modern technologies for end-to-end management of your supply chain. Here are a few ways to improve your supply chain management process:

1. Increase transparency in your transactions and all your business processes.
2. Usage of best supply chain software.
3. It would help if your relationships with all your suppliers are good to keep a credit for more days.
4. Automate at every step of your supply chain.
5. Try to use in-house raw materials as much as possible, so there is no reliance on other firms. 
6. You can improvise your material distribution network as well. 
7. Regular keeping up a check on supply chain elements helps eliminate significant risk factors. 
8. Work towards sustainability and resilience. 

Conclusion 

As a result of distortion in the supply chain, many companies across various industries are shifting from traditional warehousing and distribution methods to incorporating real-time visibility and customer satisfaction into their performance. All these above factors deeply affect a company’s analytics and even affect decision-making. Each company strives for a low-cost and efficient supply chain management system by choosing the best development companies. 

A full-fledged and robust supply chain management tool will ensure the proper functioning of your entire supply chain regardless of any industry or any product/service.