Did you know 69% of companies don’t have complete visibility into their supply chains?
If you’re having some issues with your supply chain, you might want to look into something known as supply chain management (SCM). In doing so, you should be able to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your supply chain.
This post will help you understand more about supply chain management and why it is worth your time. Once you’ve finished this post, you will be able to answer the question “what is SCM?”.
Let’s begin!
What Is SCM?
To begin with, let’s quickly review the question “what is supply chain management?”.
In simple terms, SCM is a strategy companies use to monitor and optimize their supply chain. For instance, suppose you own a company that makes coffee, and you want to implement supply chain management.
To begin with, you’d need to identify all the suppliers you have. So, this could involve the companies that grow the coffee, roast it, and also the companies that package it for you. Once you’ve identified all the companies involved in your supply chain, you’d then need to identify how they’re connected.
To do this, you’d just need to determine where each supplier stands in relation to the production stage of the product. For instance, coffee growers would be right at the start, but your shipping company might be right at the end.
Now, this is just half of the work required when it comes to supply chain management.
The other half comes down to creating supply chain management strategies that’ll help you achieve better results. More specifically, you want to review your supply chain so that you can:
- Speed things up
- Reduce waste
- Improve margins
If you conduct a thorough review of your supply chain, you will spot opportunities that’ll help you achieve these goals.
Is There a Way to Make This Easier?
As you can see, supply chain management involves a lot of moving parts, and it can be difficult to get everything right. Following this, you might be wondering how you can make things easier.
One option is to bring in a consultant that specializes in supply chain management. These people understand the history of supply chain management, and so they’ll know how to help you.
You might also want to consider investing in supply chain management software.
This software will give you a clear visualization of your supply chain, and it will also help you track all the individual suppliers you work with. All of which will make it easier for you to manage and optimize your supply chain.
Will You Benefit From SCM?
You should now have no issues when it comes to answering the question “what is SCM?”.
Now, at the moment, you might be overwhelmed by the idea of implementing an SCM strategy within your business. After all, there are lots of little things you need to do, and it can all take a lot of time.
That said, you shouldn’t let this deter you, as the benefits of SCM are huge. So, if you can get over this initial hesitation, there’s a good chance that you will benefit from SCM.
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