Strategic Supply Chain
Supply chain management (SCM) involves the movement of products and services from suppliers to distributors. SCM involves the flow of information and products between and among supply chain stages to maximize profitability. The major functions involved in SCM are the procurement of raw materials, product development, marketing, operations, distribution, finance, and customer services. Customers are an integral part of SCM. The objective of supply network or SCM is to maximize the overall value. Value is correlated to supply chain profitability. Here, profitability is the difference between the total revenue generated from the customer and the overall supply chain costs. Strategies and designing of the supply chain include: Deciding on the supply chain structure and the activities each stage of the supply chain will perform Selecting a location and capacities of facility Deciding on the products that are to be made and the location where they need to be stored Choosing the modes of transportation and the source from where the information is to be collected Supply chain design decisions are long term projects and are expensive to reverse; so the manager must take into account the market uncertainty.
Without a strategy the supply chain activities cannot be aligned to an overall objective. Think of an organisation with no functional or operational strategy much like a ship setting sail without letting the crew know the destination, the crew could be making decisions that could unwittingly impede the ship arriving safely at its end destination.
How Do You Implement a Supply Chain Strategy?
To implement a supply chain strategy once you have undertaken the analysis will require:
- Once you have an awareness of the corporate strategy you can then undertake SWOT and STEEPLED analysis to identify micro and macro factors that may impact supply chain activities.
- Micro factor is internal to your organisation, for example you may have a shortage of specialised skill in your labour force and there is limited availability to gap this skill set within the recruitment market.
- Macro factor is external to your organisation, such as a global disruption that may impact your raw material supply.
- Building business cases: to gain investment for the areas requiring development. I.e. new systems or increase in staff numbers.
- Stakeholder buy in - to gain support for the roll out of the strategy, by ensuring existing members of staff within the team understand their objective whilst taking them on a journey of change management, also engagement with senior or peer stakeholders who can influence the strategy , as your business proposals may in turn impact their operating areas.
- Setting KPI’s: You can’t measure what you don’t know, identify your start point and then review on a regular basis to ensure you remain on target for change progression.
In order to meet the challenges of today’s digital economy, where customers want both products and services quickly and tailored to their unique specifications, your organization needs to fundamentally reimagine its business processes across the digital supply chain
The Benefits of Intelligent Supply Chain
The intelligent supply chain is an engine of growth through new customer experiences and a driver of profitability in challenging economic times.
- Contract Management
- Supplier Relationship Management
- Corporate Governance
- Strategic Sourcing
- Transport Distribution Documentation
- Distribution Network Design
Why choose Tsoaela Industries?
We are able to work with you from conception through execution of your sourcing needs. We are able to work with clients to transform their organisations, heliping reduce spending costs, improve margin and drive value through effective sourcing.