Supply chain professionals have never had many tools at their disposal, nor a prominent stage to engage with their corporate leadership teams on risk mitigation and business continuity planning. So, developing the right tools can be the pivotal factor behind successful supply chain resilience. This can further affect the procurement strategy of a firm.
Building a resilient supply chain strategy can improve procurement efficiency.
Simple tactics of proper communication and collaboration can positively alter the relation with suppliers to boost the procurement strategy.
How a supply chain strategy helps
A calculated and intentional strategy to mitigate supply chain threats enables companies to avoid disruptions that not only lead to higher costs and lower revenues but an unsatisfactory customer experience and brand erosion.
The opportunities to develop frictionless business models and solutions are enormous, as are the potential obstacles to meaningful transformation. Determining where to focus your efforts to yield the greatest impact is rarely a straightforward decision.
Start with an honest appraisal of your supply chain planning function. One key method of simplifying procurement is by centralizing the procurement to one department. This limits waste and keeps information centrally located for easy access.
Cooperate with Team Members
Too often we focus our energies outward, building and nurturing relationships with our supplier partners and other external stakeholders while overlooking the dependencies within our organizations that can make or break our improvement efforts.
Design engineering, sales, operations, finance, and even IT can contribute to and influence the development and execution of a strategic supply chain solution. Building bridges between the supply chain and these other functions are essential to optimizing efficiency and profitability.
Cooperating within the team will allow for better planning for purchasing. Different teams can discuss the preferred suppliers based on various factors to make informed decisions.
Collaborate with Suppliers
Supply chain management is a team sport. Collaborative planning across the stakeholders involved in an engagement is crucial to more effective planning. By working closely with customers and suppliers, organizations can facilitate a more open exchange of capabilities and requirements.
This can be beneficial in developing a long-term relationship with suppliers for forwarding mutual interests. They can ensure that resources are best aligned to achieve the shared goal of meeting market demand on time and at the right price. The chief advantages are the better quality of products and even customized deliveries.
Ensure Proper Communication
By embracing leading-edge supply chain technology to connect with supply chain partners, companies can improve visibility throughout the supply chain. The more information you can share with and amass from your supply chain partners, the closer you can get to a planning process that is not only strategic but smart.
Today, supply chain leaders must be able to use this data to draw conclusions and make recommendations. Applying sophisticated data mining and analytics tools to real-time insights into market trends and ever-fluctuating supply and demand signals will enable your organization to move beyond reliance on historical forecasts so that you can plan with more efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility.
Closing thoughts
It’s important to note that while the pandemic has played a leading role in disrupting just about every node within supply chains in every sector and region, there is a sense among many supply chain managers that this upheaval was an inevitability.
