A recent report in Industry Week has suggested that the most efficient way a business can protect itself from the economic crisis this year is to streamline its supply chain.
Written by supply chain expert Ashok Santhanam, the special report suggests that the inability to predict consumer demand will inevitably lead to expensive stock outs or surplus stock.
To avoid such headaches then, a more streamlined supply chain will offer businesses the chance to make changes to their orders quicker, thus avoiding such expensive mishaps.
"Most organisations feel that their supply chains are not as responsive as they would like," explained Mr Santhanam in the Industry Week report.
"Every supply chain evolves over time as the organization adds more products, suppliers, plants or distribution centres, changes its customer or product mix, implements new postponement or replenishment strategies or simply scales in volume."
Contracting a supply chain management company can help a business streamline their own supply chain in order to cut costs this year.
Similarly, a supply chain management company could also help a business reduce its exposure to fluctuating commodity prices; an issue highlighted very well during 2008.
Order Fulfilment:
Order fulfilment is your number one tool for customer retention. Download a case study – FREE.
