Thursday 20 June 2019

Steps For Supply Chain Planning

By Betty Richardson


Different size companies have employees in various positions in order to make sure everything gets done to keep the business running. Throughout these positions are many that relate to supply chain planning. This is an important function and any business that sells a product needs to have the people in place to make it happen effectively. Without them in place, there can be disastrous consequences that cause product delivery delays, increase needs for customer service, and can cost the company money.

A very critical position in the company is the purchasing manager. This person is in charge of making sure everything from raw materials to pens are purchased at the best prices without degrading the value of the product. They will make sure everything that needs to be bought is and is tracked appropriately in order to stave off financial ruin.

The factory needs raw materials or parts to build the products. If the factory runs out, the process stops quickly. Employees will be standing around getting paid or laid off. In both cases, you will experience costly lost wages. Over time, those employees may go elsewhere and you'll have the expense of training new ones.

It is important to track the inventory. Regardless of what you purchase, you need to know how much you have and where it is. This position will keep track of it using software and digital scanners. At least monthly a full hand count needs to be done. Electronic systems can fail and it is important to reconcile them often enough to prevent running out of anything necessary.

A well-maintained warehouse will keep things running smoothly. Losing time hunting down what you need is wasted money. It is important to be able to find what is needed quickly and get it to the people that need to use it. Managing one or more warehouses requires the right kind of software and knowledge to work well.

Transportation is a key function. If you can ship the product through a regular company, you need to be able to track each shipment. For those companies that have their own transportation, they will need to know when and where each truck is and needs to be. Even if your employees are not the ones driving, you still need a shipping and transportation manager to make sure the products get to their destination.

Customer service provides the customers with information and uses the systems in place to do this. The tracking and ordering systems need to be accessible to the customer representatives so they can quickly provide status updates to customers and work to resolve problems.

Planning how much you need is important to prevent overstocking and running out. Having too much product is just as costly as having too little. If you have product taking up warehouse space because there is too much, it will cost you money to store it. Having too little will cost you sales and your reputation. The demand planning position will need to analyze trends to make sure just enough is on hand at any moment.

Customers expect to get their purchases in a timely manner. Running out of product after the sale is not acceptable and can cause a chain reaction of bad reputation reports that end up costing new customers and money in the short and long term. Making sure that every step is covered is part of owning and running a business.




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