If your business has been having problems with your supply chain over the last few years, like almost all businesses have, then it’s high time that you figure out what you can do to better protect your supply chain and build some redundancies into your systems so that you don’t have to constantly be dealing with things like transportation issues, lost or delayed products, and so much more.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three things you can do to improve the supply chain for your business.
Rethink Your Current Suppliers
When thinking about your supply chain, it’s best to start at the beginning to make sure that you don’t experience any problems or bottlenecks at this stage that could affect things on every stage after this. Knowing this, you should take a look at your suppliers and figure out what you can do to improve things here first.
When evaluating your current suppliers, it’s best to look at things like how well you can communicate with them and how well they communicate with you, how reliable they are in getting you what you’ve ordered in the time that they’ve said they would and when you need it, and how fast the overall process of getting resupplied is. If any of these things are lacking with any of your suppliers, you might want to reconsider that relationship and find suppliers who can better align with what you need in these areas.
Get Communication Flowing
All along your supply chain, communication is key. Especially if there’s any kind of hiccup that you’re going to have to deal with, you want to be informed about this as soon as possible so that you can take steps to mitigate the damage.
As part of this, you’ll want to make sure that you yourself are reaching out and communicating with all of your vendors, suppliers, and distributors all along the way. You also will want to make it easier to see the information you’re needing to discuss by digitizing your supply chain so that you can see what’s going on in real time.
Know How Much Risk You’re Taking On
When trying to improve your supply chain, one overarching principle that you’ll need to consider is how much risk you’re willing to take on, especially when it comes to how much money you’re willing to spend on more reliable suppliers. It can take a lot of balance to manage the risk of your supply chain. But once you realize what’s important to you business and how the risk associated with your supply chain can help you get this right amount of risk, you may find that you’re much happier with how your supply chain is managed.
If you’re needing to do some rethinking with your supply chain management, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do this.
