Key Elements to Building an Effective Resilient Supply Chain
Supply chain resiliency balances out the fickle nature of its sector. From global disruptions to internal functional anomalies, here are some key elements to building a resilient value chain.
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We live in a time of uncertainty. If we needed any further proof, we simply have to look back at 2020, when the best-laid plans were in need of a whole new spin. For supply chain executives, resiliency wasn’t just now limited to simply matching the customer demands in any way possible; it meant reworking their entire operations to the themes of scalability in the face of known and unknown disruptions. Meaning to keep intact the investment made from both financial and resource point of view and ensuring capitalization on every opportunity presented in the market. To create a value chain that not only drives innovation but also leverages sustainability as one of its major founding principles. These understandings are prominently underlined in almost every supply chain conference conducted across the globe yearly.
The objective of an all-season value chain remains to adapt to the challenges owing to internal or external factors and show mobility in how operations are conducted to edge out other competitors. The supply chain resilience strategies include understanding the dynamics of your workflow based on your historical insights and planning it ahead with the backing of informed decision-making via analytics. In this write-up, we’ll be exploring the key elements that contribute to adding pedigree to a resilient framework.
Table of Contents
What are the elements of a resilient supply chain?
- Robust Management
Management’s crucial understanding of their end-to-end workflow is the key to driving their supply chain success. And for that, the leadership needs to comprehend the potential vulnerabilities in their process. All this constitutes in the form of an astute planning framework covering challenges, capabilities, skillset, resource availability, and financial prowess to minimize any potential disruption impact. The smarter way to cover all these pillars is through analysis on the back machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence platforms.
- Adaptability
In the face of anomalies, the biggest virtue that keeps a resilient supply chain league above the rest is its ability to adapt to changing dynamics quickly. Qualities such as adjusting to the evolving customers’ demands, economic fluctuations, global disruptions, and more define how much flexibility is coming to the fore from a workflow point of view. However, in some organizations, the presence of archaic methods, the presence of siloed data, the lack of collaboration amongst internal teams, and the absence of technological support dial the effort for proactivity to nadir, leading resiliency to be a distant dream.
- Supplier Relationship
The role of suppliers in bolstering the robustness of the entire process cannot be highlighted more. So, when an SCM invests in transparent communication and efficient networking, the collaboration finds more pace and results in a more synced-up execution of an action plan in the face of a value chain bottleneck. The best instance for one is when the spiked-up demand from customers during a holiday season turns up. It's during instances like these that suppliers' capabilities come to the fore in the form of scaling up their resourcefulness by matching up increased raw materials supply while keeping the quality intact – and contributing towards supply chain performance.
- Communication Transparency
An organization's turnaround time is very limited when a disruption arises. At these crucial junctures, time is of the most significant essence. It's at instances like these that accurate communication should be passed on to every stakeholder on board with the action plan. On the back of clear communication, enterprises can navigate potential aftereffects of a supply chain hurdle through synced-up responses and intelligent decisions while keeping the data security and compliance strategies intact. These well-orchestrated efforts lead to better brand value and ascension in market standing.
- Simulations
It always helps when SCM has a clear setup of action plans well known of their efficacy. These simulations cover all possibilities for building risk management capabilities that instill agility to react seamlessly to fluctuating market scenarios. These simulations contribute immensely to the long-term resiliency game of the value chain, helping stakeholders cover almost every outcome attached to different scenarios. This makes the process efficient, purpose-driven, and productive, helping save time and resources.
- Sustainability
By now, it’s a pretty well-known fact that sustainability forms an essential foundation for a resilience roadmap. Companies that use sustainable resources tend to have a more robust framework owing to environmental-first packaging, optimized transportation, and ethical sourcing practices. To add further, since a sustainable framework requires a considerable network of stakeholders, a vast supplier network is employed to ensure diversity and continuity in the process.
- Visibility
Having proper tabs on your workflow paints the right picture for the subsequent action ahead. Visibility of inventory levels and accurate demand helps management plan judiciously according to their financial requirements and the resources required for seamless functioning. Even from an operational point of view, visibility keeps in check the supplier's performance to process’ efficacy to detect any anomaly that might contribute to internal disruption. All this catalyzes to better contingency planning, too.
So, there you have it. All the above elements contribute to carving out the roadmap to resiliency in the value chain. From the organization’s scalability goals to its sustainability principle, it is essential for its supply chain to embrace its evolution from archaic to one with all-season capabilities. An objective that can see its fruition through 3SC’s portfolio of advanced analytics platforms. With smart algorithms and artificial intelligence platforms to the fore, the end-to-end functioning sees a positive overhaul with both sustainability and scalability objectives intact. So, if you are on a quest to make your entire process synonymous with driving sustainable value, do connect with us.
