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?
How Does Supply Chain Management Affect a Business?
Effective supply chain management both increases customer satisfaction and reduces operating costs. It also decreases purchasing and production costs, which means organizations of all sizes can realize benefits. Efficiency gains can be achieved in plants, warehouses and transportation vehicles. This leads to increased cash flow for your business because customers get their products in a more timely manner.
Better Supply Chain Management Improves Your Planning Process
From inventory planning to expediting, strategic alignment with an experienced supply chain management company can improve planning, forecasting and customer service. Alignment of internal and external resources breaks down barriers and a shared planning process leads to faster cross-functional problem solving and superior solutions. With the help of supply chain automation tools, streamlining routine functions can support company-wide strategic plans while saving valuable resources.
How Supply Chain Management Can Improve Customer Satisfaction
Delivering the right quantity of the requested product in a timely manner helps generate repeat business. Consequently, it’s imperative you get it right the first time. Through experiences with companies like Amazon, consumers 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. And in today’s digital world, your online reputation can be affected quickly and significantly by bad reviews.
A reliable supply chain helps prevent bottlenecks that cause delivery delays. Superior supply chain tactics also improve customer satisfaction because they directly impact two of the factors most important to customers: delivery time and price. An efficient supply chain and the labor hours it saves means that you can beat your competition’s turnaround and rates.
Ultimately, you’re able to give customers what they want, when they want it, at the price they expect. Plus, customer service is an important aspect of any business, with poor service often leading to a loss of customers and decreased revenue. Better supply chain solutions and faster, more accurate order fulfillment boost customer satisfaction.
Supply Chain Management for Expansions
Whether your company is a startup or on the cusp of significant expansion, it’s the goal of all businesses to grow—and for many organizations that requires seriously reimagining your supply chain network. 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, by providing insights into new product and service launches, and by 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 companies like NewStream Enterprises, LLC. This allows these companies to remain flexible while minimizing ownership of raw materials sources and distribution channels. The importance of supply chain management for most organizations ultimately comes down to cost containment. 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. While a successful supply chain management solution can greatly improve your company’s operations, making the right choice is crucial. 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 in the implementation and optimization of supply chain management solutions across various industries. Relevant experience not only ensures that a similar system can be adapted to your needs, it also demonstrates expertise you can present to the decision makers in your organization.
Company culture, while often neglected when assessing potential business partners, is also a key consideration. The company’s workplace culture will not only affect communication, it will also impact the service you receive and ultimately your bottom line. Positive culture breeds enjoyable interactions and improved quality because empowered employees outperform unhappy ones. When employees are also owners (and act as such), like at NewStream, that workplace culture is a productive one because everyone is highly motivated to see its customers delighted and the company succeed over the long haul.
Value-Added Integrations
When choosing a supply chain management provider, be sure to 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.
Letting an experienced supply chain management service provider like NewStream manage your inventory reduces friction and lowers costs. From inventory planning to expediting, a strategic business alignment with our company can improve planning, forecasting and customer service, and can also help you implement a just-in-time delivery approach while reducing lead times to your end user.