Getting your products effectively and efficiently to your customers is the core of your business, and every step of their journey from purchasing raw materials or components to production or assembly to final delivery impacts your operational and business success. Working with dedicated supply chain innovation consultants can help you optimise and innovate your supply chain processes for an improved business development strategy and overall customer experience. Unique Excellence offers comprehensive supply chain innovation management across Australia for small, medium and large enterprises.
Keep reading to unpack the fundamentals of supply chain innovation management and how implementing a successful supply chain innovation strategy is able to improve your business operations. We also discuss potential threats to your supply chain success and how a supply chain innovation consultant can help mitigate these risks.
What is Supply Chain Management?
Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning and operationalising every link of your supply chain network. Your supply chain is the sequence of operations needed to convert raw materials or components into saleable products for the marketplace. Your supply chain network includes all your suppliers, partners, internal team members, and customers.
Five areas where supply chain innovation consultant can assist:
Developing a supply chain strategy. A supply chain consultant is able to assist you to optimise and innovate your operational supply chain by pragmatically analysing the drivers behind your business. Once they have analysed these drivers, including your product demand profile and competitive market position, they will plan your supply chain structure accordingly. Your supply chain structure will then fully align with your business goals and priorities.
Procurement. Supply chain consultants understand and provide hands-on guidance in the sourcing you raw materials and components to produce your final products in the most efficient and cost-effective way. This includes managing your supplier relationships, contractual obligations, and generating procurement analytics. An SCM solution can also help you automate sourcing requirement inputs according to the projected market demand.
Production and warehousing. Production is a crucial part of your supply chain. Using sophisticated production tracking processes, an effective SCM solution includes inventory management and fit-for-purpose quality control. A supply chain consultant can help enforce accountability among your production partners (contract manufacturers) and maintain adequate warehouse security, traceability, and visibility solutions to mitigate the risk of financial loss due to theft or damage. SCM will additionally introduce optimal product packaging processes and preparation for outbound delivery.
Logistics and distribution. A supply chain consultant oversees the transportation of raw materials between production facilities, product distribution for B2B or retail, and customer order fulfilment. SCM solutions prioritise mitigating product issues, damages and delivery delays for higher operational efficiency. Seamless customer delivery processes and after-sales service are crucial for customer satisfaction. Through introducing a feedback loop into the supply chain, your business is able to continuously evaluate and improve your end-to-end supply chain to continuously serve your customers
Product returns and reverse logistics. You may still dispatch “defective” products even after implementing a tailored quality control solution. SCM facilitates customer grievance and product return processes. This includes introduction of a reverse logistics solution to move returned goods backwards through the supply chain for disposal, recycling, or refurbishing for resale. Giving unsatisfied customers a pleasant return experience, with a product replacement solution has shown increased customer retention.
So, the next time you're finding yourself in need of a supply chain (innovation) consultant, assess which area you're looking to improve.
Choose Unique Excellence as Your Preferred Supply Chain Innovation Consultants
Unique Excellence offers comprehensive, innovative, and pragmatic Supply Chain Management solutions across Australia for small and medium enterprises. We are dedicated to helping you achieve continuous supply chain innovation through our proven SCOR-ESG model, combining a well-defined Supply Chain Operations Reference model with the latest sustainability frameworks. We examine your supply chain performance by using sophisticated data analytics to identify opportunities, mitigate risks, creating resilience and bolster business development throughout your supplier network.
Our experienced consultants offer hands-on and meaningful industry insight to develop an efficient supply chain strategy to optimise your supply chain operations. We help build smarter supply chains informed by economic and technological trends. Our professional team will gladly answer your questions to help you make more informed business decisions.
Contact us for more information.
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