Choosing the best supply chain solution for your business

All supply chains are unique from one another and each caters to different purposes. Finding the best supply chain solution for your business may be challenging, considering the number of options we have today. Forecasting and event planning beforehand is critical for all industries. However, every industry faces unique challenges and have different goals.

Although there are certain similar standards in every industry, this doesn’t justify using a solution that was originally created for another industry. It is crucial to look for a solution that has been generated particularly for your industry.

The job of retailers’ and distributors’ varies greatly from that of manufacturers. On one hand, retailers’ and distributors’ restore finished goods in certain locations to customers and businesses, while the job of manufacturers is to create and assemble goods with the least possible machine efficiency and labor, alongside getting the required raw materials for production.

Manufacturers have limited or no access to consumer demand details. This makes it difficult to understand demand at any level. As a result of this, forecasting becomes a manual and time-consuming process for manufacturers to understand the raw statistics they have. Using the “best-fit” statistical modelling can be assumed to be a better and sophisticated approach and it may be valid for manufacturers as they are not able to predict consumer behavior at a much detailed level.

To overcome this issue, manufacturers often resort to “post-casting” which means using data from the past to create trends for the future. As retailers’ and distributors’ have data from consumer transactions, this gives them the upper hand at understanding demand at a deeper level. A structured forecasting and planning system reveals interesting trends, events, influences and factors that assist in predicting demand from customers more accurately. This accuracy can help assure that a certain product is available when needed thus leaving no space for stock-outs in the supply chain. It is critical for manufacturers to generate demand forecasts as it helps to drive their sourcing of materials and planning of requirements.

Managing inventory is the key to retail success. In order to meet their required sales and customer fulfillment objectives, retailers’ and distributors’ need to adopt the most cost-effective investment for inventory. A complete solution includes forecasting demand, replenishment of goods, supply planning and fulfillment to meet sales goals in a cost-effective manner.

You need to invest time in carefully picking the solution that proves to be the most profitable and produces fruitful results for your business. Ask yourself, are you looking for a solution that meets customer demand and minimizes the supply chain costs or are you looking for a solution that leads to an efficient manufacturing process? There is a fine line between the two which leads to a crucial distinction.