Supply chain operations are facing massive disruption, forcing organizations to reimagine supply chain management capabilities and technology. Businesses must transform in a way that brings them the flexibility to be resilient and prepared for the future.
COVID-19 drastically altered supply chain landscapes, forcing organizations to develop and explore new transformation strategies across logistics, planning, distribution, routing, and much more. Organizations that had a strong data and analytics foundation were able to better overcome COVID-19 challenges than organizations who were operating in more traditional legacy environments.
As Quickbase's Supply Chain Resilience Survey found, being able to effectively access and utilize data remains a critical component of successful supply chain operations and helps organizations bring visibility into their data, systems, and operations. Organizations must have a technology foundation that maximizes the effectiveness of their data so that they can drive successful decision making and enhance their resilience in the face of imminent disruption.
Top Supply Chain Challenges
Delivery delays, material procurement overspending, non-compliance, and supply chain downtimes are common challenges and consequences of being unable to respond to the impacts of disruption.
59% of executives say that manual processes and disconnected systems are the root cause of supply chain disruption.
Pulling data from ERP systems is time consuming and expensive.
Organizations can’t respond to unexpected change without taking steps towards modern approaches to data management. Operating in siloed environments is detrimental and creates further risks because your data is out of date and therefore irrelevant. This outdated information can create further problems for teams and departments.
Organizations are lacking access to real-time data, which creates visibility limitations. Furthermore, unnecessary business risks can arise without a holistic view of data, as organizations are unable to respond to changing circumstances in real-time and meet the demands of suppliers, partners, and customers.
Building Resilient Supply Chain Operations
Organizations need the capabilities to manage risk and enhance their visibility into their systems, processes, and operations. Businesses that are able to connect their disparate data and systems and make their data accessible to different teams and departments are positioned to create a more resilient supply chain that can thrive during times of disruption.
They also must must unify their systems and data to ensure people are able to access it from a single place. This unified data access will enhance visibility and data transparency, and will ultimately impact decision making.
Before the pandemic, 34% of executives cited prioritizing supply chain visibility. After the pandemic, 54% say increasing supply chain visibility is a priority
Before the pandemic, 28% of executives cited reducing risk as a priority. After the pandemic, 54% say reducing risk is a priority.
Organizations can enhance their agility, flexibility, and can build a resilient supply chain by building real-time insights into their supplier performance and compliance data, streamline communication between vendors and suppliers, and continuously improve procurement processes.
This level of visibility into key systems and processes will help organizations meet customers demands and respond to disruption effectively. This also results in improving negotiation and coordination between across suppliers, and brings compliance confidence.
The Need for Real-Time Visibility
Organizations can maximize their data effectiveness by bringing end-to-end visibility across their supply chain data, operations, and processes. This approach will pave the way for modernization and enhance the capabilities that establish resilient supply chain operations and management.
Ronald van Loon is a Quickbase partner and discussed topics surrounding a Quickbase supply chain survey of 200 executives. This survey was conducted to better understand executive challenges and experiences in 2021, and determine how businesses can approach the future of supply chain management and operations more effectively.
