Supply Chain Management

A Quick Guide To Supply Chain Management 2022

Effective supply chain management is important, especially if you want to serve your customers efficiently and effectively. We believe business owners like you are aware of this strategic priority.

There is no doubt that supply chain management can help your business achieve a lot of its objectives. This is highly important when it comes to:

  • Controlling manufacturing processes
  • Improving product quality
  • Preventing costly shortages or inventory oversupply
  • Reducing risks of recalls and lawsuits

Our team at Clearinity is here to share with you everything you need to know about Supply Chain Management. We want to make sure that you give your clients the best possible customer experience.

What Is Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management refers to the flow of your goods and services. It encompasses all your processes that tie into transforming your raw materials into finished goods. 

Supply chain management has a lot of moving parts. It involves the active streamlining of your company’s supply-side activities. You must maximize your customer value and gain a competitive advantage in your marketplace.

With supply chain management, your company creates a network of suppliers that link to each other. These suppliers are accountable to move the raw materials to third-party companies who deal directly with users. 

Supply chain management encompasses the integrated planning and execution of your business process that manages your moving materials, capital, and product information. It heavily relies on business strategy, software, technology, and the collaboration of a team.

How Does A Supply Chain Work?

Without a doubt, supply chain management requires direct efforts of suppliers to develop and implement an effective supply chain. 

Every piece of the supply chain network contributes to the success of the process. Since supply planning cover every moving part from production to product development, it’s safe to say that this process has to go through lots of undertakings. 

The supply chain manager is responsible to coordinate the logistics behind the supply chain. It consists of:

  • Plan/strategy
  • Source of raw materials or services
  • Manufacturing
  • Delivery and logistics
  • Return system for unwanted or defective products

Let’s get to know all about these.

Planning

Planning for your resources is a critical part of your supply chain management. This ensures that you meet customer requirements for the products and services you offer. This first step determines the efficiency and effectiveness of the value you bring your customers.

Sourcing

This step requires you to choose suppliers whom you believe will provide your business with the best goods and services. This stage entails you to monitor and nurturing your relationships with suppliers. Here are some of the key processes in this stage:

  • Ordering
  • Receiving
  • Managing Inventory
  • Authorizing payments from suppliers

Manufacturing

As a business owner, you must organize the different activities that support the manufacturing of your products. This includes the procurement of your raw materials from manufacturers, testing the quality of your product, and shipping them to end-users.

Delivery & Logistics

The delivery stage in your supply chain management involves getting your finished products to your customers as needed. In this stage, you must stay keen to coordinate customer orders, schedule dispatch, and issue invoices for payments.

Returning

This stage is crucial in your supply chain management process. Sending defective final products to your customers is inevitable. Therefore, you must create space for your customers to return unwanted products. Remember that quality management is still key to a successful business!

What Is The Role Of Technology In Supply Chain Management?

Without a doubt, technology is important to help you manage your supply chain management program. Good thing that there are ERP as well as IMS vendors that offer modules to help you focus and understand the functions of SCM.

The rise of ecommerce today has posed challenges in logistics and demand planning. Tech and software provide real-time valuable data and supply chain analytics and tools to prevent any issues within the supply chain from going out of hand. It’s safe to say that its integration to your business is of great importance. 

It’s safe to say that technology helps solve modern-day challenges unwanted costs from supply chain risk disruption. Don’t we all aim for a world with supply chain sustainability with the use of big data?

Bottomline

No doubt, supply chains can be far more complex than you expect. Thus, it is common for supply chain management to fail across businesses. 

Here’s one example- food shortages during COVID-19 which affected the food chain. 

This scenario alone shows how the role of inventory management is important. It helps businesses control the manufacturing process to provide more support to customer demand.

It is your responsibility to provide your end-users with excellent product quality and customer service. You want it to become convenient for your customers to access your products and services without shortage issues. 

Always remember that supply chain management provides your business with endless opportunities and prevents you risks from supply chain costs. At the end of the day, your goal is to improve your profit margins, bottom line, and customer satisfaction. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team to gain more knowledge! We’re here to help you design a business plan that brings greater efficiency.