end to end supply chain visibility: achieving the supply
TRANSCRIPT
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End to End Supply Chain Visibility:Achieving the Supply Chain HolyGrail
Complex, time-consuming, and sometimes frustratingly opaque, supply chainmanagement (SCM) poses a serious challenge for many organizations. From smallbusinesses and startups to globe-spanning conglomerates, getting an optimalreturn on investment (ROI) requires companies to juggle spend activity, logistics,risk management, and supplier relationships. And the unfortunate truth is,without end to end supply chain visibility, one or more of those balls are going tobe dropped—with costly consequences.
Taking the time to understand what end to end supply chain visibility is, what itcan do, and how you can obtain it for your own business will put you on the path
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to improving your own cost effectiveness, profitability, and competitive strength.
What is End to End Supply ChainVisibility?Frequently abbreviated to E2E, end to end supply chain visibility is transparencyat all stages of supply chain management from procurement through delivery offinished goods to customers. This transparency is made possible by carefullymonitoring each step of the process, capturing all related data, and organizing itin a centralized data management space, where it can be reviewed, analyzed, and,in time, mined for actionable insights that improve business processes, long-termfinancial planning, and strategic decision making.
As a rule, end to end supply chain visibility covers six primary areas:
Procurement and inventory management1.Finance2.Logistics3.Operations4.Quality control5.Sales and customer service6.
Complete visibility in each of these areas is essential for proper data analysis.However, it’s also a key part of ensuring team members have complete andaccurate information they need to communicate and collaborate effectively tomeet stakeholder and customer expectations, innovate and enhance productofferings, and optimize business processes to build value and supportorganizational goals.
“According to a 2017 survey conducted by GEODIS, just 6% of responding firms
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had achieved their goals for end to end supply chain visibility, despite the factthat 57% considered effective supply chain management to be a competitiveadvantage, and that obtaining such visibility had become the third-highestpriority for all firms.”
How Does Improved Supply ChainVisibility Improve the Planning Process?The argument for achieving real-time visibility across your supply chain is acompelling one. Global supply chains are complex and require carefulmanagement in order to yield the best possible pricing and terms with the leastamount of acceptable risk.
That’s a fine line to walk, and as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic sodramatically demonstrated, companies without full and real-time visibility intotheir supply chains quite often lack the necessary resilience to roll with thepunches of business disruption.
Companies who make the necessary investments digital transformation—whichusually includes the implementation of a purpose-built solution such asPLANERGY—to obtain the necessary procure to pay (P2P) automation, riskmanagement, supply chain management, and supply chain visibility solutions arenot only more resilient and agile, but more able to reap the benefits of end to endsupply chain visibility.
Optimized supply chain visibility improves supply chain performance in severalimportant ways:
Full monitoring of supply chain processes yields clear and complete data
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for analysis, financial reporting, and evaluating supply chain operationsusing metrics such as key performance indicators (KPIs).Real-time visibility promotes clear communication and fosters acollaborative approach between internal teams and key suppliers andservice providers, strengthening supplier relationships, simplifyingstrategic sourcing, and supporting the development of shared initiativesfor growth and innovation.Better visibility also simplifies concurrent process optimization and digitaltransformation initiatives.Improved responsiveness; major supply chain disruptors are more readilyanticipated and mitigated, allowing more time to develop contingencymeasures or, better still, deploy those already developed using dataanalysis.Inventory management is improved through better demand forecasting,more accurate safety stock management, and turnover rate optimization.
Taken together and supported by cloud-based software solutions, these benefitshave a strongly positive impact on long-term financial planning and strategicdecision making. The more complete and accurate the available data, the moreinsightful and strategically useful the insights mined from it will be. Theseinsights, in turn, can be applied to improve everything from cash flowmanagement to strategic planning and product development.
The Challenge of Reaching True End toEnd Supply Chain VisibilityThe importance of complete supply chain visibility is clear. Sadly, obtaining it canbe an exercise in frustration for many organizations.
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According to a 2017 survey conducted by GEODIS, just 6% of responding firmshad achieved their goals for end to end supply chain visibility, despite the factthat 57% considered effective supply chain management to be a competitiveadvantage, and that obtaining such visibility had become the third-highest priorityfor all firms.
The same survey revealed that while a full 41% of respondents prioritized dataanalysis and 39% prioritized the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing,only 53% of those surveyed said they were meaningfully engaged in advanced andinnovative supply chain management.
Without significant investment in the software tools and processes that support atruly digital supply chain, companies will likely struggle to obtain the kind ofvisibility they need to make critical business decisions, accurate and completebudgets and financial forecasts, and reach their goals for profitability, competitiveperformance, and growth.
Lack of technological investment is only part of the reason companies struggle toachieve a truly transparent supply chain, however. Many organizations are stillmired in traditional operational ecosystems where upstream and downstreamprocesses in both operations and procurement/accounts payable are regarded asseparate entities rather than powerful partners in shared success. Focusing toomuch on one without optimizing the other creates a broken system wherein datais never as clear, accurate, and complete as it needs to be, and thus total visibilityremains elusive.
Tips for Achieving Better Supply Chain
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VisibilityThe best first step to achieving the kind of supply chain visibility you need tocreate a responsive, resilient, and versatile supply chain (and an agile business togo with it) is to set the stage for transparency with a proactive approach to datamanagement and digital supply chain management.
A centralized, cloud-based data management solution like PLANERGY provides asingle hub for data collection and analysis while simultaneously streamlining yourexisting software environment.
Templates, file standardization, and full integration with otherapplications (including existing enterprise resource planning (ERP),customer resource management (CRM), accounting software, etc.) ensureeveryone’s on the same page, using the same file formats and processes.Robotic process automation, powered by machine learning, createsimmediate cost savings by streamlining workflows while eliminating theneed for human intervention in high volume, time-consuming tasks likedata entry or invoice verification. Data quality, completeness, andavailability increase exponentially while staff are freed to focus their timeand skills on more strategic areas.Centering procurement as both a data center and a value creation stationfor your entire organization allows for complete visibility into all spendactivity while process improvements and robust analytics improvebudgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, financial reporting andplanning, and long-term strategic development.Cloud-based, centralized data management not only allows for real-timevisibility and access for team members, but allows them to leverage real-time data flowing in from upstream and downstream to:
Refine logistics.
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Optimize operations.Connect finance with strategic planning, marketing, and sales.Maximize value chain efficiency from procurement through sales.Gain deep insights into the true value generated by every dollarspent.
Once you’ve primed your data ecosystem for visibility, you can use the tools atyour disposal to:
Develop, implement and monitor KPIs to identify areas in need ofimprovement (for both internal processes as well as vendor managementKPIs such as lead times and service level compliance) as well asopportunities to grow key suppliers into supply chain partners ininnovation.Target and eliminate weaknesses in your internal practices that lead toopacity, such as eradicating rogue spend through the use of guidedbuying and automatic integration of supplier contract data supported byvendor portals.Take control of inventory management, warehousing, and logistics acrossyour entire supply chain by connecting and collaborating with relevantinternal stakeholders at your own facilities as well as those operated byyour suppliers and customers.Integrate new data streams as they become available to provide additionaltransparency and enrichment to your datasphere (e.g., integration of datafrom vehicles used by third-party logistics service providers, real-timeupdates from retailers regarding available stock on hand, etc.).
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Full Supply Chain Visibility Helps YouPlan, Innovate, and GrowTrying to manage what you can’t see is a recipe for frustration, if not outrightdisaster. By investing in the tools and organizational changes you need to achievetrue end to end supply chain visibility, you can plan for the future and makestrategic decisions with confidence thanks to clear and complete data, welloptimized supply chain processes, and the agility and resilience you need tocompete in today’s complex global marketplace.
Find Out How
Automate, Innovate, and Optimizewith Supply Chain ManagementTools from PLANERGY
PurchaseControl is cloud based procurement software for business spend management. We empower businesses by providing greater transparency and oversight into the purchasing process. With PurchaseControl, you have the flexibility to manage how spend actually happens instead of how you wish it would happen.
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