Image Credit: ammgramm on flickr
Supply chain involves a lot of internal and external partners to work together to achieve the business goals. If you look at it from an Indian context, then the supply chain is even more complex. There are overseas Suppliers/OEMs, Freight Forwarders, Airlines/shipping Lines, Customs & Agents, Road Transportation and internal Engineering, Warehouse, CAMO as well as Purchase departments all need to work together. However we see warning signs that indicate that things are not as smooth as they should be. We highlight some warning signs below that indicate unhealthy supply chain
Mistakes can be as simple as getting the shipper/consignee address wrong , mentioning wrong tax numbers on invoices to high impact issues like placing the wrong part orders. All have varied and some have very high impacts on costs, delivery times and overall stress for the team. Mistakes sometimes go unnoticed till the point they are flagged by external parties which creates make situation even more untenable as the blame game start immediately afterwards.
People get frustrated and generally unhappy about the supply chain means there is something wrong in the system. By system we mean SOPs or job responsibilities, which are not very clear or the communication between teams is very fractured.
In supply chain, teams need to depend on vendors especially freight forwarders, however when external players start dictating and internal teams start arranging themselves around the needs of external players, then something is amiss.
When almost all parts are urgent and generally the team is rushing things all the time. This give a clear sense that not everyone is on the same page and the goals are not followed by everyone.
The warning signs emerge because of lack of co-ordination and communication between teams internal and external. Generally teams lack a command centre, a team that is on top of the supply chain and understands the business goals. Apart the intention, team also need technology support to aid their supply chain.A central platform that that tracks the movement of parts as well as has common dashboard shared among teams helps in creating smoother supply chain.
At Abhishek J Date logistics - we have built systems ( technology as well as SOPs) to help teams manage and make their supply chains more efficient and reducing overall stress. Write to us on abhi@abhishekjdate-logitics.in to know more
