Preparing your Supply Chain for a New Year

There are a number of supply chain management tools and practices which can help to support the growth of organisations. When a business is trying to grow it can be difficult to know where to invest money or time so that it is worthwhile. We look at the key practices and associated tools to invest your time and money in which are most likely to be helpful in 2023.

Communication

Communication with customers and suppliers is key in offering transparency and end to end traceability. Invest in communication tools to keep your customers in the loop and offer them a way to stay in contact with you and vice versa, this will help to build increased loyalty.

Tracking 

In addition to communication tools, offering customers the ability to see auto updates on the whereabouts of their order will help to streamline those communications. When customers are regularly updated on their order they are less likely to contact customer service staff, thus freeing up time for your customer service team to deal with returns and more pressing issues. 

Order Processing and Fulfilment

Efficient order management tools are a key player in ensuring a smooth supply chain. This could involve outsourcing the process completely or it could mean putting software in place which helps to manage the order process in- house. With this sort of software you can be safe in the knowledge that fulfilling orders and payments will be simplified for you, your staff and your customers. 

Stock and Warehouse Management

Keeping informed on stock levels is key to fulfilling orders, preventing delays and monitoring wastage. Inventory or Warehouse management software can help to hold data on stock levels and alert staff on low level stock, best selling stock and stock which hasn’t been moving. This data is invaluable when aiming for a resilient supply chain and for forecasting abilities. 

Forecasting

As mentioned in the above point, stock management software can help to provide data on product lines at a granular level. This is helpful in forecasting because it allows businesses to review previous peak seasons and see which products sold well and which didn’t. Poor selling products can also be prioritised for sale periods such as black friday or new year.

Overall, using software for data and communications can help to build a resilient network and the transparency required in today’s marketplace. Putting the above processes and software in place can help to keep costs down and reduce errors, delays or wastage.