With the right moves and a bold approach to tackling issues head-on, you can beat supply chain issues or at least minimize the impact. Here are some ideas to get you started ASAP.
Work with Logistics and Fulfillment Centers
Fulfillment centers are logistical companies that supply business operations of all kinds. With a solid and reliable distribution management system, they can help you to handle problems, shipments, and charges. For example, logistics companies connect directly to commercial data systems. This lets them show you things like product delivery times, customs duties, and impending disruption. When you have such crucial information, you can keep your clients happy and your business running as smoothly as possible during a possible supply crisis.
Understand the Markets to Beat Supply Chain Problems
Regardless of your business, checking up on market dynamics can prevent you from getting specific supply problems. As a business owner, you should always be able to predict some issues. For example, people buy lights and decorations for the Holidays. So, don’t wait until the season has started to order the stock you’ll need. If you know or think there will be a shortage in the global supply chain, order what you need early to get a head start. By getting a slight jump on things, you can get to potential customers before your competitors do and meet consumer needs without losing sales in the near future.
Become a Master of Inventory
Stock control is vital for a business to run well, especially when there are problems with the supply chain. But most of the time, you can’t predict a problem in the supply chain. Also, supply and demand tell you when to buy and when to sell. So it would help if you kept a keen eye on what you have in stock. Keeping track of your inventory will help you avoid shortages and lower sales. Unfortunately, you’ll also lose customers because droughts will hurt your reputation and make you look bad. But you can maintain an accurate record of stock with apps and technology.
Take Advantage of Apps
You can use apps for managing the many parts of a supply chain. You can monitor, order, and take care of shipments from your smartphone. You can also get the latest information about anything that has to do with your production. Some of the best apps for the supply chain are:
- FreightPOP
- NetSuite
- Softeon Warehouse Management System
- Easy WMS
- Vuelta Demand Planning
With as much data as possible, you can deal with problems as soon as they come up, which will make you more productive and efficient. There are several apps that can be used to watch over supply chains. The best ones work in real-time and can be used for analysis.
Keep Customers Informed
The chain includes your suppliers, you, and your customers. No one can stop problems in the supply chain, and if there is going to be a shortage, you need to let your customers know. Tell them why you can’t get anything and how the supply chain works. It’s also helpful to tell customers how and for how long the interruption will affect the whole industry. It’s possible that they need you as much as you need supply. If you don’t have an initial shipment, offer a substitute or get the customer’s contact information so you can let them know when it arrives.
Beat Supply Chain Problems with Outsourcing
It is hard to run an office in the 21st century without using computers or software. Personal and industrial computers are used for communication, writing reports, and automating processes. Yet, modern cloud technology makes it possible for IT support and communications infrastructure to be provided by management services to your company. When there is a worrying lack of semiconductor chips, outsourcing non-sensitive projects to the tech sector is a short-term solution. Also, since there aren’t enough CPUs, there’s a likelihood that prices go up.
Diversify Your Suppliers
Some parts are important and can’t be changed. But most of them can be modified with other things. In the case of semiconductors, we can’t make them without rare metals like silicon and copper. But let’s say you run a PC store and occasionally run out of AMD graphics cards. You can use this to show your customers alternatives such as nVidia cards that they wouldn’t usually buy. Or alternative brands of RAM and motherboards you have in stock. And in some situations, you can sell things for a little more than you usually would in advantageous times.
Summary
You may not think it’s possible to beat supply chain issues. But you can help your business by using logistics companies, sourcing data with apps, and diversifying suppliers for more stock.
