As the market continues to tighten and become even more competitive, companies must search for the right supply chain management tools to help them alleviate some of the pressure and provide higher quality services for their clients.
Why use supply chain management tools?
To make it simple, here are the three main reasons why companies should use supply chain management tools.
- Reduce costs
- Avoid or reduce errors
- Increase productivity
- Streamline internal and external processes
- Stay ahead of competitors
t’s straightforward. Having the right tools to manage your business will help you optimize your workflows and focus on those areas that need improvement, and that will benefit your business.
Implementing supply chain tools into your business
There are a couple of things to consider to successfully implement the right tools in your business. It’s not become pivotal for companies to incorporate technology into their processes, but it’s not just doing it because everyone is doing it. Your business must research to find what type of technology is the right suit for your processes, and if you have the resources, you need to implement and maintain it over time.
Types of supply chain management tools
Here’s an excellent place to start. Research! Find out what technologies are out there and get to know the types of supply chain management tools available and suitable for your business. These are just a few:
- Shipping status tools
This is one of the most common software tools for businesses in the transportation and logistics industry since it provides helpful information for clients. Real-time data is a crucial part of supply chain success. Knowing exactly where your shipments are is essential to help you or your customers act if necessary.
- Order processing tools
Order processing is another type of tool that optimizes the entire process. There are so many tasks within this process that can be automated, allowing for faster and more reliable results. These tools can integrate order management, fulfillment, and billing, streamlining the whole experience.
- Analytics and reporting tools
These tools are essential for a company’s continuous improvement process. This type of tool allows business owners to evaluate and analyze the overall company performance, providing incredible insights and helping you act on the areas that need improvement. Depending on what area of your supply chain you want to focus on, you’ll greatly benefit from having analytics and reporting tools that give you actionable information about your processes.
After understanding and getting to know each type of supply chain management tool, it’s your time to choose what your business needs, depending on your objectives and the available resources.
Create an implementation plan
- Once you’ve chosen the right tools for your business, it’s essential to create an implementation plan that’s accomplishable and that you’ll be able to maintain during the entire process.
- Even though you may become excited and impatient about the implementation process, it’s critical to create a specific roadmap that guides everyone involved in the process. Make sure to define the roles of everyone involved clearly.
- Define what this new addition to your process means to your business and how you’ll measure its success.
- Be realistic: About your budget, about your timeline, and about other important elements that may impact your implementation process.
- Consider the risks involved in the process and create specific tactics to overcome each one or mitigate their impacts on your operation.
Get everyone on board!
One of the most important aspects of your implementation process is having everyone on board. Convincing the management team that you chose the right software and that it’ll provide incredible benefits to your entire operation is pivotal for your implementation success.
In this stage, it would be beneficial to create a business case where you can outline how you did business before, why it’s no longer working, and how you’ll make it work with this new implementation.
Train your staff
Implementing a supply chain management tool means you’ll need to provide training for your employees. Even though some of this software is very intuitive and easy to learn, it’s best to create a complete training program that allows your employees to get familiarized with the software and use all its features correctly.
Communicate through the entire process
Once you’ve got your approval, communication ceases, which is a huge mistake. Even though the plan has been socialized initially, it needs to be communicated every step of the way for everything to run smoothly. This will help everyone stay informed, and if there are any issues, everyone will know and act to mitigate them.
Monitoring
Once your system is up and running, it’s critical to keep a close eye on its performance. Make sure to always ask the employees about the software and get their feedback to make changes if required. Check out how it’s impacting your processes and if it actually is generating valuable results.
Reporting
Once you’ve had your system running for some months, it’s essential to create a report on its performance, especially for those involved in deciding to implement it. The entire team may determine the frequency and the elements to touch on in this report. This is a critical part of the implementation process since you’ll have in writing how the system works and if the objectives laid out at the beginning of the process are being met.
Implementing a new supply chain management tool is not an easy task. What makes it simpler is having a well-structured implementation plan that allows you to incorporate the latest technology within your business seamlessly. A plan that considers everything from initial objectives, training, communication, monitoring, and reporting.
