Visibility in a Transparent Supply Chain
Better visibility into a complex supply chain results in increased customer satisfaction, decreased frequency of disruptions, and lower costs. An SCV or supply chain visibility helps company teams identify and fix major pitfalls in the chain, including order fulfillment issues and inventory shortfalls, before they become too severe. Port congestion and labor shortages have become more common in the post-pandemic period.
According to research, about 38.8% of small businesses in the US have experienced delays in their supply chains because of the pandemic. For this reason, it has become more critical to have an efficient SCV management system. Fortunately, people can use technology to get real-time supply chain visibility. Both consumers and companies can now track the shipment at each step of the entire process.
What Is Supply Chain Visibility?
Supply chain visibility refers to tracking the shipment of various products when they travel from a supplier to a consumer.
It is controlled by supply chain management technology, which combines real-time logistics data with other vital aspects of the chain. Using the data, companies can fix issues like inventory shortages, satisfy compliance directives, avoid bottlenecks, and monitor the products until it gets delivered.
A company can send items to consumers both within its own operational borders and across its partner network, and for both cases, it needs to track the shipment. Tracking an object within its functional borders is less challenging because of its access to relevant data sources. But, when an item is shipped internationally, diverse partner systems need to work together to track the item.
Modern technologies like inventory and order management software used to achieve this goal are included in a company’s broader ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.
Improving your SCV means automating the whole process to enhance efficiency, making reasonable investments in supply chain management software, and utilizing the insights provided by the software to improve decision-making.
Goals of Supply Chain Visibility
The key objective of SCV is to gather more relevant information about different operations in the supply chain, reduce risks, improve operational efficiency, increase profits and boost customer satisfaction. Companies can fulfill these targets through improved planning, supply chain execution tips, and valuable insights provided by the supply chain management software.
Success depends on access to shared and real-time data across every step of a supply chain network. Sometimes, configuring a control hub for the software to analyze various supply chain data, including sales forecasts, product demand, material availability, etc. Decision-makers can review and manage the supply chain activities in this control tower.
How Did the Pandemic Change the Scenario?
The food supply industry is one of the industries that has been dramatically affected by the pandemic. So, the need for real-time supply chain visibility has become more prominent.
Metadata, owned by Farm Logix, has utilized AI technology to provide its proprietary data to others. The best thing is that they offer insights in two ways. Besides giving insights into individual locations like universities, schools, workplaces, and hospital systems, they also provide similar insights to enterprise clients, including food service management companies and distributors.
The pandemic has brought significant changes in the food service industries.
- Many customers, especially schools, find it challenging to find food for the students at the most primary level.
- The United States Department of Agriculture has created temporary nutritional standards to handle the situation.
- Many times, pizza is served when other food items are not found.
Because of such a situation, supply chains must be more diverse and resilient. It will be risky if anyone depends on one to two suppliers for a specific product. However, it has created a tremendous opportunity for regional, new, small-sized, and minority-owned suppliers to participate actively.
There has been a steady rise in warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS). The experts also expect robot operating systems, navigation, and analytics to become more relevant in the near future.
As revealed in a survey conducted by Food Logistics and Supply and Demand Chain Executive, one must use cloud-based software solutions to implement automation.
Automation has become a top trend now and is expected to continue because long-term labor costs will rise.
If one needs to stay on top of the latest supply chain visibility technology trends, they must keep themselves updated. As experts have pointed out, SCV’s future depends on both new regulations and technology.
Why Is Real-Time Supply Chain Visibility Important?
Following are the three key reasons that make real-time supply chain visibility necessary.
Complexity
Today’s supply chains operate globally. Gaining insights across a diverse supplier network requires the use of correct software and trust and transparency.
Customer Satisfaction
When you can deliver the right products at the right time at the suitable locations, it will play a key role in boosting customer satisfaction and retention. Today, customers always expect faster delivery and want to track the shipments of their orders.
Compliance
There are some strict regulatory requirements that international supply chains always face. These include changing procurement rules, trade agreements, and governmental tariffs. Not only that, but one also needs to make sure that their partners are maintaining operational clarity.
SCV allows companies to monitor and manage variables like extreme weather conditions, volatile monetary exchange rates, and social unrests that can delay shipments.
Final Words
Supply chain visibility has made cold food chain companies change their sourcing, transportation, and distribution approaches. Also, because more disruptions are predicted to impact US supply chains in the coming years, SCV will only grow.