Supplier management is a critical business strategy. The term describes the management of relations and interactions with third parties involved in your supply chain. Its primary objective is to maximize value and reduce risk, connecting people, processes, and systems to achieve business objectives.
Digital transformation is a vital link in this process as it accelerates timelines, reduces errors and misunderstandings, and enables visibility for all stakeholders from end to end.
Why is Digital Transformation a Must for Companies in 2022?
Digital transformation has taken on new importance in the post-pandemic world. Many companies, logistics suppliers among them, continue to struggle with labor shortages and uncertainty.
Technology has helped organizations overcome the challenges and weather the changes that could easily have signaled the end otherwise. Digital transformation enables supply chain visibility, supporting remote supplier relations management, communication, documentation, scheduling, carrier, and warehouse management. Additionally, stakeholders have access to real-time data that allows them to get in front of emerging situations and mitigate loss.
Why is Supplier Management Important?
Supplier management typically has multiple layers of accountability, often spread across continents and requiring a high level of expertise and diligence on the part of the logistics provider. It’s an essential soft skill that helps organizations control costs and increase customer satisfaction, streamlining all processes throughout the supply chain to improve outcomes by a significant margin.
Supplier Management Challenges for 2022
As supply chains continue to gain complexity, digital transformation facilitates and supports supplier management in many critical ways.
Most notably, perhaps, is that to maintain profitability, it has become necessary to include options like multi-modal, multi-carrier, multi-supplier, and less-than-load (LTL) options and to bring many export-related and documentation services in-house. Doing so helps providers improve quote accuracy, maintain service levels and timelines.
5 Supply Chain Lessons Learned in 2021
As the pandemic continues to drive monumental changes in consumer spending, capacity demand, materials and container shortages, and labor challenges worldwide, planning and forecasting have never been more critical.
Supplier management challenges for 2022 will include:
· Compliance
Regulatory and legal compliance has always been a concern, but with the expectation of delays even in the “best possible” scenarios.
· Risk assessment
Risk assessment and mitigation will be a critical concern as organizations navigate ongoing supply chain challenges in the effort to reduce loss and improve profitability.
· Transparency
Complete supply chain visibility is essential to achieving transparency for all stakeholders in the supply chain. Transparency is necessary to ensure consistency and maintain customer satisfaction.
· Improving ROI
Onboarding the right technology is critical as the costs of doing so must line up with the value it provides. Organizations must find a balance of price, features, and ease of use to ensure a measurable return on investment.
· Understanding the impact of world events on the supply chain
Events that have a significant effect on the supply chain often happen quickly, so it’s vital to stay informed so you can respond in the moment.
· Flexibility
To succeed in 2022, you must have an agile mindset. Many variables are beyond what we can control, so the only strategy is adapting and adjusting to achieve the best possible results.
How DTS Helps
We support you with customized services and innovative technology to ensure compliance, provide access to more suppliers around the world, and enable complete visibility into your supply chain processes. Request a quote today!
