“Improving inventory availability improves demand because, if items aren’t available when people want to purchase and receive them, they move on to another option,” Lisa Anderson, Supply Chain Expert and Consultant, President of LMA Consulting Group.
###
The need for omnichannel capabilities is a major force affecting modern supply chain management. Here are four ways to get strategic, so you won’t be left behind
Companies strive to give their customers a seamless omnichannel experience. Yet, the modern, multifaceted, multiplayer supply chain makes achieving this goal seem nearly impossible. All it takes is for one component — procurement, supply or shipping — to fall out of place, and a company’s omnichannel presentation can be exposed as a fragmented system that seems behind the times.
At its essence, omnichannel is an approach that aims to give customers a seamless shopping experience. In other words, companies seek to use many touchpoints — mobile apps, websites, social media and old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores — to present the right offer at the right time, which is what today’s customer increasingly expects.
It’s no coincidence that the companies that seem to have perfected omnichannel capabilities also seemingly never have supply and demand issues.
Learning from others can also help when it’s time to implement supply chain technology to provide an omnichannel experience.
Lisa Anderson, a supply chain consultant in Claremont, Calif., recommends having a diverse set of stakeholders — those in merchandising, the warehouse, delivery and more — and thoroughly testing applications and systems before implementing them. When testing, include anyone who is outside of the daily supply chain process — say, a manager who doesn’t have direct involvement, or even a customer. Those outside the process, Anderson said, will see limitations and loopholes that those who regularly use the technology might not immediately recognize because they’re too deep in the weeds.
Published in Search Manufacturing ERP on May 5, 2017