Take Charge of Your Supply Chain – Part 1 of 5
We’ve all heard the saying, “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And, in many instances, that is wise counsel. However, when it comes to supply chain management, planning tomorrow based on yesterday is a recipe for disaster.
Let’s face it…the world is different than it was at the start of the decade. Massive product and raw materials shortages are now commonplace as the world continues its struggle to recover from a global pandemic that shut down production and shipping. Escalating prices of finished goods have impacted consumer demand for many products, as has a change in consumer buying habits overall. Gone are the days when one could anticipate delivery to be sixteen weeks from order date, or to plan inventory based on a historical number of weeks of supply. History, as they say, is a mystery. The uncertain present is hardly a barometer of tomorrow. Today you need to think about trends and the impact of those trends on every product segment, industry, category, and SKU.
So, where does one look for those trends that enable supply chain managers to do the right job of forecasting their purchases? The answer lies in data that can come from technology. Where are the raw materials coming from, and what is the status of those materials? How are consumers coping with a lack of product availability and what kind of appetite will they still have for their historical brands? How have consumer buying habits impacted the inventory that you need to be ordering, and how long can you anticipate that inventory lasting?
Today, more than ever, having a technology solution to help turn data into usable information and to get beyond the inefficiency of manual inventory management is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Cloud-based supply chain planning solutions like the 4R Suite of Intelligent Inventory Solutions and Planning as a Service offering puts the data and intelligence in one place so you can take control of your supply chain.
The second part of the series: Applying the 4P’s to Supply Chain Management