Robert J. Bowman, editor-in-chief of SupplyChainBrain and I recently talked about how to stabilize the supply chain. We talked about your customers’ customers, your suppliers’ suppliers, how to access them, whether they’ll share data, how technology can help, how SIOP can help and more. Listen to our conversation.

What Should We Consider and/or What Impacts Could Arise?
Although there are many steps every manufacturer or distributor should take to stabilize during these unprecedented times, there are a few critical and common steps everyone should pursue. A few highlights we discussed on Supply Chain Brain include:

  1. Your customers’ customers – Establish trust with your customers so that you can get information about what is going on further into your supply chain.  Explain that you’ll use the information to improve your customer’s experience and their success with their customer.
  2. Your suppliers’ suppliers – Establish trust with your suppliers so that you can build stronger relationships, gain information further into your supply chain and better understand how you can help to ensure a stable source of supply.
  3. How can technology help– Predictive analytics, business intelligence, simple demand planning/ forecasting and ERP functionality can go a long way.
  4. SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning)– Better align and manage your demand and supply (SIOP) at an accelerated pace (weekly instead of monthly) while still taking the longer view at the top level in terms of dollars, capacity, etc., so you can plan into the future. For example, if you need to move buildings, you have to know LONG before a week or quarter prior to the event but the 80/20 of your time should be spent on weekly exceptions.
  5. Future-proof your supply chain– Set your supply chain up to be agile and resilient so that you can evolve at a breakneck pace.

Read more about these types of topics in my eBook, SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning): Creating Predictable Revenue and EBITDA Growth. Gain ideas and strategies to successfully emerging from coronavirus and thrive long-term. If you are interested in doing an assessment and rapid roadmap tailored to your company, please contact us about this new service offering.