How to Achieve Supply Chain Visibility

Supply chain visibility means companies can keep an eye on the progress and effectiveness of their supply chain while meeting the demands for real-time visibility from customers. With the growing complexity of the market, and rising demands and expectations of the consumer, a supply chain visibility system is an essential aspect of business in the modern era. Getting started to understand how to foster an environment of transparency and visibility can be difficult, but is made easy with a handful of simple tips.

• Experience
  • Starting with experience means to define what visibility means to you, your company and your customers. What visibility do you expect and what visibility does your customer expect. This can be done by working backwards from the question “what experience do I want my customers to have?” and “what do I want to gain from this increased visibility?”

• Platform
  • Selecting a digital platform should start with the idea that connectivity is your main goal. This platform should be able to connect all of the important and key players in your supply chain. What this means for your needs is that the platform technology should be intended for all of the parties to use and access easily.

• Trust
  • It’s critical that you learn to trust the information and data that you have. If you can’t trust your system, the security, and the other entities that information is shared with, you have a bigger problem to deal with first. You want to be able to ensure and confirm confidentiality and security around the exchange of financial information above all else.

• Real-Time Transparency
  • Through real-time transparency, you can begin to create opportunities for improvement in real-time and leverage the increasingly complex data exchange. This can be done by understanding the importance of each piece of data, and how it can help solve problems, what problems can arise, and what this data means.

• Managing the Data
  • Being able to understand, define, and cleanse the data models allows you to be able to consistently use and translate all of the data into meaningful information. The data means nothing if you are unable to understand it and use it to better your company’s supply chain, so being able to manage the data is an essential step to using a supply chain visibility tool.

• Extended Ecosystem
  • This step means that you need to be able to bring together all of your partners and the best talent to capitalize on the capabilities of the environment created through supply chain visibility. Instead of falling into a false sense of security, this ecosystem of talent and business partners can help manage the supply chain in a more collaborative and useful manner.

For many people new to the ever-changing landscape of supply chain visibility, and demand the technology can seem overwhelming. With the right platform, an ecosystem of support, and talent, however, it can be made easy to utilize and capitalize on. This technology allows you to meet the new and ever-changing demands of the market and rise above competitors when used effectively.