Meeting consumer demand for products or services continues to be a challenge as technology affects buying trends. For businesses, adjusting to this reality requires updated supply chain management strategies and efficiency improvements.
An efficient supply chain gives your company an advantage over competitors when it comes to meeting your customers’ needs. Businesses looking to increase supply chain efficiency often consider alternative supply chain management services. Is it time for you to start rethinking your supply chain strategies?
Signs It’s Time to Rethink Your Strategy
Frequent delays, rising costs, and dissatisfied customers, these issues can impact your bottom line and hinder your growth.
Recognizing when your current strategy is falling short is crucial to making timely adjustments. Whether it’s enhancing your internal processes or considering outsourcing solutions like those offered by NewStream, identifying the signs that you need a change is the first step toward a more effective supply chain.
1. Frequent delays and disruptions: If you regularly face delays in shipments or disruptions in your supply chain, it’s a clear sign that your current strategy may need to be reassessed.
2. Increased operational costs: Rising costs in transportation, inventory management, or procurement can indicate inefficiencies in your supply chain. If you see a steady increase in these costs without a corresponding increase in value or output, it’s time to review your strategy.
3. Poor customer satisfaction: Customer complaints about late deliveries, incorrect orders, or inventory shortages can signal problems within your supply chain.
4. Difficulty in scaling operations: As your business grows, your supply chain should be able to scale with it.
How Does Supply Chain Management Affect a Business?
Supply chain management involves overseeing the entire process of getting a product from its origin to the customer. This includes managing the flow of goods, information, and finances between suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and retailers. The goal is to ensure that products are delivered efficiently, cost-effectively, and in line with customer expectations.
Effective supply chain management both increases customer satisfaction and reduces operating costs. It also decreases purchasing and production costs, meaning organizations of all sizes can benefit.
Efficiency gains can be achieved in plants, warehouses, and vehicles. This leads to increased cash flow for your business because customers get their products in a more timely manner.
How Supply Chain Management Can Improve Customer Satisfaction
Delivering the correct quantity on time helps generate repeat business. Consequently, you must get it right the first time. Through experiences with companies like Amazon, your customers have come to expect on-time delivery with 100 percent accuracy.
If a shipment or delivery issue does arise, customers expect businesses to be timely, responsive, and transparent in righting the wrong. If you don’t, bad reviews can significantly affect your online reputation.
A dependable supply chain prevents bottlenecks and delivery delays. Effective supply chain strategies enhance customer satisfaction through two key factors: delivery time and price.
An efficient supply chain saves labor hours so that you can outperform your competitors regarding turnaround time and rates. Ultimately, you can give customers what they want, when they want it, at the price they expect.
Related Post: The Importance of Customer Service in Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management for Expansions
Whether your company is a startup or on the cusp of significant expansion, all businesses want to grow—and for many organizations, that requires seriously reimagining their supply chain networks. When that time comes, an efficient and proactive supply chain will allow for faster growth.
Today, supply chain networks no longer play merely a supportive role. Instead, they’re an engine for business expansion and enhanced customer experiences. A transformed supply chain strategy can enable growth by allowing for faster movement into new geographical markets, providing insights into new product and service launches, and being flexible enough to anticipate changing customer demands. Unlike insourcing, a supply chain management partner is likely to have trained, experienced staff, advanced systems, and proven procedures already in place to accommodate your expansion, which can dramatically reduce costs and time to market.
Benefits of Retooling Your Supply Chain
Organizations looking to be more competitive in the marketplace gain the following benefits from effective supply chains:
- Higher efficiency
- Improved quality assurance
- Reduced costs
- Reduced ramp-up time
- Improved inventory management
- Less inventory damages
- Enhanced contract management
- More responsive systems
- More easily satisfied customer requirements
- Stronger relationships with vendors and distributors
- Enhanced vendor insight
- More proactive approach to sourcing products and materials
- Higher level of analysis
Letting Experts Enhance Your Supply Chain
Whether outsourced to a third party or developed in-house, improved logistics capabilities can help your company increase cash flow and reduce costs.
Organizations looking to remain focused on their core competencies often seek expert supply chain management services from NewStream Enterprises, LLC. For most organizations, the primary benefit of supply chain management is cost containment. Outsourced supply chain management companies can perform these functions more efficiently and with fewer distractions than in-house teams.
However, outsourcing your supply chain management can be risky. Successful supply chain management can greatly improve your company’s operations, so making the right choice is crucial.
How to Choose an Outsourcing Partner for Supply Chain Management
When looking for a partner, select a supply chain management provider that demonstrates exceptional knowledge and thought leadership in the field—one that first seeks to educate and add value and invests time in earning your trust.
Expect the company to have extensive experience implementing and optimizing supply chain management solutions across various industries. Relevant expertise ensures that a similar system can be adapted to your needs and demonstrates expertise you can present to your organization’s decision-makers.
Company Culture
While often neglected when assessing potential business partners, company culture is also a key consideration.
The company’s workplace culture will not only affect communication but also impact the service you receive and, ultimately, your bottom line. A positive culture means enjoyable interactions and improved quality because empowered employees outperform unhappy ones.
Value Added Integrations
When choosing a supply chain management provider, ask what kind of value-added integrations they provide.
The best organizations will be able to combine a full spectrum of solutions and services, including vendor management, warehousing, distribution, kitting, packaging, assembly/sub-assembly, transportation management, continuous improvement initiatives, expedited supplier parts process, planning and procurement, with innovative ideas and proven problem-solving.
Related Post: How Does Distribution Affect the Price of Products?
Case Study – How NewStream Helped a Manufacturer Achieve 98% On-Time Delivery
When a manufacturer of natural gas technologies for the on-highway market faced challenges in its supply chain management, it became clear that rethinking their strategy was crucial.
Based in British Columbia, the manufacturer internally handled all warehousing, kitting, and distribution services for its U.S.-based OEM customers. Despite their efforts, their on-time delivery performance averaged just 65%, significantly impacting customer satisfaction.
Recognizing the need to focus on manufacturing, the company outsourced its supply chain management to NewStream Enterprises. The goal was to improve on-time delivery, lead times, inventory management, and overall customer service.
By partnering with NSE, the manufacturer transferred their supply chain operations, including warehousing, kitting, inspections, packaging, and distribution, to NSE by the end of 2014. Within less than a year, NSE enabled the manufacturer to boost the on-time delivery rate to an impressive 98%.
Read the Case Study here!
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