Supply chain management is the process of optimising a company's entire operations that starts from raw material procurement, optimising production processes, and shipping finished products as much as required to the right place at the right time. Supply chain consulting is the key to revamping the entire system prevailing in a company and bringing in efficiency by cutting costs at every stage.
How they go about their job Supply chain consulting begins by understanding client needs and how much improvement the client is looking at. Supply chain consulting firms meet the top management of a client company, do some basic studies, and then reveal to them the anomalies and losses at their plant and the possible improvement by focused supply chain management. The top management of a top company is mostly surprised when a supply chain consultant reveals to them what is wrong in their company and the need for improvement. Supply chain consulting companies in India introduce concepts such as inventory management of raw materials and finished goods. Other areas that supply chain management will touch upon are vendor management, movement of goods, transportation, logistics and production optimisation. Getting started Most often, client companies begin cautiously and let supply chain consultancy services reveal the shortcomings in their initial assessment and propose changes. Once results begin to come in and there is a perceptible change in the business with world-class practices being brought in by the consultants, a full contract is given to the supply chain consulting firm. The best action taken by supply chain consulting is to begin reorientation and training of key company staff in modern supply chain management. This is important and sets the pace for future change in supply chain practices as many company staff tend to be rooted in the old concept of the supply chain being a new form of the erstwhile purchase department. The next important steps taken by supply chain consultants are to review the production and production planning process and reducing the production of made to stock material that mostly serves to build up finished product inventory. There is constant monitoring of the market, and the supply chain consultants ensure that only those products that can be shipped out immediately to customers are made. Great changes begin to occur Raw material and consumables inventory is significantly reduced by building a partnership with vendors and encouraging them to stock their products near the client company's premises so that material will be brought in as and when required. The third important step is to minimise multiple movement of products and bringing in robust transportation and efficient management of the company fleet such that the capacity of each truck is effectively utilised and there are important materials to bring back so that even a return trip of a truck is utilised. Just these initial steps will see costs going down, and the business will begin to grow and prosper. Trends have shown that as good supply chain management practices are implemented, the company business begins to expand and diversify. Among the best practices supply chain consultants do is to examine the effectiveness of the ERP system being effectively used by the client company and then ensure it is not being bypassed. Supply chain consultants use SQL to analyse performance data and also use lean concepts to make the production process more efficient. Supply chain consulting also conducts QA reviews of contracts and renegotiate them to make them more profitable for the company in terms of pricing and the key deliverables. The key to growing a business further is finding the right supply chain consultant to revamp supply chain management within a client company.
1 Comment
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2021
Categories |