Navigating Supply Chain Pain

Between the Baltimore bridge collapse, Red Sea conflict and Panama Canal drought, the supply chain has been in the spotlight because of the global pandemic and shutdown, international conflicts, major weather events and more.

Addressing Challenges

Customers need assurances from businesses that merchandise will arrive when promised. In an increasingly competitive landscape, businesses need to take proactive steps to implement change to keep their customers satisfied.

One of the main issues is that businesses can only address the challenges they can identify. These challenges create the supply chain woes we have today, which puts stress on the retail landscape, causing many disruptions throughout the industry. It can cause disruptions in product availability, increase lead times, lead to a lack of supply chain visibility, boost freight and product costs, inhibit communication, and much more, creating challenges with operations, labor, transportation and global trade. Finding the root cause of these issues and navigating through them is the key to success. Supply chain companies and leaders must understand the root cause of these challenges and effectively navigate through them.

Embracing Diversification

The key to a strong foundation is a sound supply chain that can adapt quickly though unforeseen disruptions. It's important to diversify your sources, strengthen your key relationships, and manage your inventory, operations and logistics to reduce the risk of future disruptions. Diversifying sources helps reduce risks associated with relying on one supplier or source. If your sole supplier encounters disruptions, having an alternative source in place can help to mitigate any disruptions to your supply chain. In addition, diversification can lead to cost savings by having more tools at your disposal for negotiation.

At Remcoda, we heavily rely on the supply chain to source materials, produce goods and deliver to the end customer. Our company, and companies of all sizes, lean on international suppliers for products, services and delivery. The globalization of production creates complexity as there are numerous factors in place that leave the system prone for disruption. Some of these causes are labor strikes, industrial accidents, supplier bankruptcies, climate-induced weather events, delay in vessels, etc. At Remcoda, we learned to improve our supply chain operations by creating contingency plans and improving visibility by leveraging the tools at our disposal. We learned that rather than to just react to crises as they arise, it’s crucial to delve into the root causes of these disruptions and take preemptive action. A stronger supply chain with contingencies in place is more likely to adapt to disruptions and challenges, keeping the flow of goods smoothly throughout the supply chain.

Maximizing Strategic Planning for Achieving Success

Work closely with your partners, suppliers and stakeholders to proactively solve your common problems. Use technology to your advantage and use tools to help forecast, optimize and increase efficiency. Put a strong emphasis on forecasting to better predict demand, utilizing all data analytics at your disposal to identify inefficiencies and improve decision making. Diversify your sources by expanding into different regions of the world. Look internally at your logistics and examine if you're operating efficiently. Look to your peers to work through common problems.

It's important to understand that supply chain crisis creates significant challenges for the industry. Use the tools at your disposable to help navigate through this global landscape. By proactively looking at your business, reviewing the global landscape, and assessing the vulnerabilities, you can strengthen your business and position yourself for success in an increasingly complex and unpredictable business environment.

In conclusion, the supply chain today is still feeling the effects of the pandemic and the lingering impact of the global shutdown, as well as large shifts in consumer spending. Additional international conflict and political unrest have added pressures on global supply. Companies need to use the tools at their disposal to adapt and better navigate through uncertain times and position themselves for success.

Darryn Garson is the chief growth officer of Remcoda, the top supplier of food service and safety products in the U.S. market.