Supply chains play a critical role in modern economies. They connect producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers across multiple industries. When disruptions occur, these networks become vulnerable to damage or failure.
Businesses can prepare their operations for supply chain disruptions through a variety of strategies. These include developing contingency plans, improving visibility into supply chains, and adopting new technologies. As the ongoing disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic highlight, it is important that businesses do all that they can to minimize the impact of a supply chain disruption on their bottom line.
Supply Chain Risks
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound effect on businesses around the world. Supply chain disruptions are now affecting every industry sector, impacting everything from food production and distribution to healthcare products and pharmaceuticals. In response to the unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19, many organizations are being forced to rethink their approach to operations and business models.
As a result, it is important to understand your specific company’s unique supply chain risks. This will help you identify potential vulnerabilities and develop mitigation strategies. For example, if your organization relies heavily on imports, then you may be at risk of interrupting your supply chain due to border closures. If you rely on third parties to provide services such as transportation, warehousing, or logistics, then you may need to consider alternative providers.
In addition, understanding your supply chain risks will allow you to better assess how prepared your organization is to respond to an emergency situation. You should also evaluate whether your current processes and systems are adequate to meet the needs of your organization during this time.
Identify Your Vulnerabilities
Companies must understand how their current systems work and what changes could occur in the future. A thorough analysis requires looking beyond the first and second tier of suppliers and identifying those who make up the rest of your supply chain. This includes distributors, vendors, logistics providers, and transportation hubs. Going deeper into your supply chain provides you with greater visibility into your operations and helps you better prepare for possible disruptions.
Price Fluctuations
Price fluctuations can happen for many reasons, including commodity price volatility, currency exchange rates, political instability, supply and demand issues, etc. They can cause significant problems for businesses, especially those that rely heavily on materials and products that are subject to fluctuating prices. This is why it is important to keep track of how much money you spend on raw materials and supplies, as well as how much you pay out in wages and salaries.
Preparing Your Operations for Supply Chain Disruption
While there are no guarantees when it comes to supply chain disruptions, there are steps that companies can take to reduce their exposure. The first step is to ensure that your organization has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place. A good disaster recovery plan includes:
- Identifying key suppliers and customers
- Developing a list of alternate sources
- Preparing backup facilities
- Establishing communication channels with vendors
- Assessing the availability of inventory
- Creating a plan for resuming normal operations
Once your disaster recovery plan is complete, you must make sure that it is tested regularly. It is essential to test your plan against real-world scenarios, including natural disasters, cyberattacks, and other emergencies.
You should also have a plan for responding to any disruptions in your supply chain. This could involve temporarily diverting shipments, rerouting deliveries, or even canceling orders. While it is difficult to predict what disruptions might occur, it is possible to mitigate some of these risks. For instance, you can use advanced technology to monitor shipments and track them throughout the supply chain. This allows you to quickly detect problems before they become major issues.
You can also improve your visibility into your supply chain by using tools like IoT sensors and analytics software. This helps you gain insight into where your products come from and where they go after leaving your facility.
Finally, you should establish contingency plans for dealing with supply chain disruptions. These plans should include procedures for identifying and communicating with affected stakeholders, developing new contracts, and managing customer complaints.
Diversify Your Supply Base
One way to minimize the impact of supply chain disruptions is to diversify your supply base. In particular, you should look for ways to increase your reliance on local manufacturers and distributors.
For example, if you operate a manufacturing plant in China, you may want to consider establishing a second location in India. Doing so would give you access to more diverse suppliers while reducing the likelihood of having to shut down production entirely.
Similarly, if you import goods from overseas, you may benefit from sourcing from multiple countries. By doing so, you can avoid relying solely on one country for all of your imports.
The Importance of Data Analytics
Data analytics plays a critical role in helping companies prepare for supply chain disruptions. By analyzing data about your supply chain, you can identify potential risks and opportunities. For example, you can use predictive models to forecast demand and production levels. In turn, this information can help you determine which products or services are most likely to be impacted by supply chain disruptions.
Analytics can also help you manage your supply chain more efficiently. For instance, you could use predictive modeling to optimize the allocation of resources across different locations. This would enable you to allocate your limited resources to those areas that need them most.
In addition, you can use analytics to analyze your existing business relationships. For example, you could use historical data to understand how well your partners are performing. This information can help you develop strategies to strengthen your relationship with each partner.
Analytics can also help you identify potential threats to your supply chain. For example, you may want to look at past events to see if there were any similar incidents that occurred recently. If so, you can take steps to prevent future disruptions.
Prepare to Manage Customer Demand
Companies must prepare for disruptions in the supply chain. There are three main ways companies can respond to such events: allocation, product triage, and reallocation.
Allocation involves deciding what products receive priority over others based on factors like cost, profitability, and customer importance. This strategy requires planning ahead because it’s difficult to make decisions about allocations during a crisis.
Product triage involves choosing one product over another based on factors like financial contribution, customer importance, fairness, and need. This approach allows companies to allocate resources quickly to those most important to customers. However, it does require making decisions while under pressure.
Reallocation occurs when a supplier fails to deliver parts or products, causing shortages. In this case, companies may choose to give priority to some customers over others. Reallocation is typically used when suppliers fail to meet delivery schedules.
Hold Intermediate Inventory
When companies are faced with a shortage of raw material, whether because of a natural disaster or another unexpected event, they often respond by ordering additional supplies. This strategy is known as just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, and it’s become increasingly common in recent decades. Companies typically use JIT strategies to reduce production lead times and increase efficiency.
But there’s one big problem with JIT. When you don’t have enough inventory on hand, you end up holding onto too many goods — and sometimes you end up buying more than you need. And that can cause problems. For example, if you run out of a critical component, you might need to buy more than you had planned. Or maybe you need to make some changes to your product design. In both cases, you could be forced to pay more money for the parts than you would have otherwise.
And while you’re waiting for the supplier to deliver the additional stock, you’ll probably lose sales. You won’t have the products ready to sell when customers want them, and you’ll have to charge more for them once you do start selling them. So even though you saved yourself money by cutting down on the amount of inventory you needed to keep around, you actually ended up paying more overall.
The solution is simple: Hold some extra inventory. That way, if something goes wrong, you aren’t left scrambling to find replacements. Instead, you can wait for the situation to improve and still come out ahead.
Do What You Can to Protect Your Business During a Supply Chain Disruption
Supply chain disruption is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today. However, with proper planning, you can minimize the impact on your company’s bottom line. To do this, you will first need to assess your current situation. You should then create a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that includes all aspects of your supply chain. Finally, you should periodically test your plan to ensure that it works as expected.
If you’re ready to get started with a professional answering service, we’re here to help. Contact Answer Aide by calling (866) 427-3500 or by filling out our online form. We’re happy to partner with you to support your business while it grows.