Digital Strategies for Modern Supply Chains
Larger businesses with emergency plans and financial resources are more resilient and better equipped to weather supply chain issues. Conversely, small and midsize businesses struggle to adapt to disruptive events resulting in loss of revenue, market share erosion, and increased costs. Small businesses are evening the playing field with modern business process automation technologies for demand planning and procurement. Future-proof ERP applications like Acumatica provide breadth and depth with a suite of connected applications providing real-time insights with robust analytics for increased supply chain visibility. In this guide, we discuss digital strategies for modern supply chains.
This guide provides business leaders with an overview of crucial business application features to perfect their supply chains. Learn how to implement inventory strategies for supply and demand transparency. Discover how to overcome supply chain challenges with a scalable and affordable cloud platform designed for growing businesses.
Supply Chain Fundamentals
Balancing supply and demand is challenging. Supply chain disruption complicates matters further with many unknown elements. On the one hand, businesses minimize inventory to reduce carrying costs, maximize available warehouse space, and reduce dead stock. However, supply chain issues often force companies to buy excessive inventory to avoid stock-outs that impact sales, production, construction jobs, service appointments, and projects.
With 80 percent of supply chain disruptions originating in downstream suppliers , it is impossible to avoid disruption altogether. Hence, business executives question how to minimize supply chain disruption by implementing systems, processes, and strategies to understand demand better while protecting vital supply lines for critical products.
Demand Planning Components and Strategies
Effective supply chains start with demand planning. Without it, businesses cannot develop supply-side strategies. There are two types of demand—actual demand from real orders and forecasted demand from sales projections and statistical forecast models.
SALES ORDERS
Orders created by sales reps, blanket contracts, and EDI purchase orders represent real demand, now and in the future. You should look for ways to improve sales processes to minimize supply disruptions.
HOW ACUMATICA HELPS:
- Matrix Items: Use matrix items to create sales orders using item attributes for improved product accuracy.
- Item Photos: Upload item photos to improve order accuracy for in-house sales and customers via connected storefronts.
- Item Categories: Group items by category to make better product identification with default values by item class.
- Substitute Items: Avoid stock-outs with substitute item suggestions.
- Stock Allocation: Reserve stock for customer orders from sales order entry.
- Returns and Exchanges: Process RMAs for customers with options for account credit, refund, or exchange with reason codes.
Materials are the cornerstone of wholesale distribution, retail, commerce, construction, and manufacturing operations. Manage vendor relationships with embedded CRM and automate the procurement process with a modern ERP platform.
Drop us a line on 011 792 9521, and we’d be glad to guide you further on digital strategies for modern supply chains.