Managing Supply Chain Disruption in Uncertain Times
According to research from Deloitte, 79% of organizations with superior supply chain capabilities are able to grow their revenue well above average. But what happens when you have to manage a far-flung supply chain remotely?
If you have a mature supply chain, this is much easier to do. Depending on the size and complexity of your supply chain, you can use best practices, metrics, and measurements to achieve a degree of maturity.
If a crisis like a pandemic, war, or extreme weather disrupts part of your supply chain, it can bring the entire operation to a halt. According to the BCI Supply Chain Resilience Report, significant financial losses (62%) are the top result.
Supply chains are supposed to operate repetitively, with every element aligned toward one goal: delivering the products to the end customer. If you’re not effectively managing and mitigating the risk in your supply chain even before a crisis, when one happens, you’re going to struggle to manage it remotely.
Assessing Your Supply Chain Maturity
The first thing to do is to assess your supply chain maturity. There are five levels that your organization may fall under. The first level is where you’re able to get basic material replenishments, but you’re not integrating with transportation, logistics, or the overall planning process. At the top level, your supply chain is lean and focused on service optimization. Everything is neatly integrated.
Unfortunately, most organizations fall somewhere in the middle. Many of them struggle if the supply chain team has to work remotely because they’re not adequately prepared or capable of doing so.
Managing Your Supply Chain Remotely
The more mature your supply chain is, the easier it will be to manage it remotely. You’ll need to hone your focus to drive productivity and keep your eye on moving forward. We’re seeing a lot of changes in the marketplace, and you’ll have to decide to pause ongoing projects or move forward with them.
Now is the time to maintain ongoing transformation projects.
If you’re in the process of moving to a platform and supply chain software that makes remote supply chain management possible, stopping the project now could bring your supply chain down. By the time you’re able to resume normal operations, it may be too late to make up the lost ground.
As part of your remote management, you’ll also want to consider how you’re collaborating with your internal and external teams. Along with choosing technology that lets you communicate with each other and share documents and files in real-time, as well as update statuses, you’ll work to maintain morale as they work to hold up the supply chain.
It may seem like everything is quiet to an outsider, but inside your organization, a lot is happening as you work to keep your supply chain operating. Let Ultra Consultants help. Download our Supply Chain whitepaper, and listen to the replay of our Virtual Boot Camp webinar, Key Elements for Managing Your Supply Chain Remotely.
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Supply chain management software touches many departments within a company, as it provides end-to-end visibility and access to information regarding your SCM software vendors and customers.
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Aaron is a supply chain management, business process improvement and forecasting/planning expert with more than 20 years of ERP implementation experience to process manufacturing companies.