Over the years, supply chain logistics have become incredibly complex, and while this means they are far more useful, it could just as easily lead to many disruptions possibly emerging in your line. With the potential for issues growing, it is absolutely vital to have clear communication within your supply chain collaboration.
Logistics has always required teamwork, and even if your chain runs relatively smooth at the moment, that does not mean that your business cannot improve how you relay information internally or to third parties. A lack of collaboration is often the real reason supply chain collaboration often break as badly as they do, so ensuring that information can be shared to the right people at the right time through systems and workflows can be the make-or-break your business needs to stay on its feet.
Why Is Collaboration Important?
You might initially think that the concept of keeping the various sections of your supply chain collaboration is a no-brainer, but the pandemic showed most companies that they have more than a few things to learn. In a 2021 survey from the American Productivity and Quality Center, 40% noted that one of the major obstacles for greater supply chain improvements is a lack of support within internal and external partners.
supply chain collaboration is all about coordinating with internal departments, as well as external partners, to ensure an optimized flow of data is being relayed to each sector, guaranteeing demand is kept and deliveries go out in time. Especially in today’s climate, where businesses are expected to respond to the everchanging market with agility, it is a necessity to outsource aspects of your supply chain, and the better the relationship, the easier it is to improve your output.
According to the publication Supply Chain Digest, there are three general levels of collaboration in supply chains:
Transaction Integration
The most basic level, where you primarily share transactional data—think orders, invoices, and payments—through the internet to your departments and partners. It is about as bare bones as you can get, providing exactly what your collaborators need and little else.
Supply Chain Management Information Sharing
A good step above the first level, here you give your partners more information—think availability, inventory, and production forecasts—that will allow them to make better decisions to assist both your and their operations. While falling a bit short of the best possible collaboration, this level is still ideal, helping everyone run their particular stages of the supply chain process with little to no issue.
Strategic Collaboration
At this level, you and your partners are not just sharing data and information but fully working together to plan and design upcoming projects from the very start. From this unparalleled amount of communication between each area, everyone is able to benefit from incredibly accurate forecasts, agility when it comes to supply and demand, and the ability to quickly resolve (or even avoid) disruptions in the supply chain.
How You Can Improve Your Network
Now that you have a better idea of what stage of communication your supply chain is at, it is time to make some needed changes to your internal and external relationships.
First, see if you can find more opportunities within your existing supply chain network. Presuming you have a decent relationship with your partners, you already communicate a fair bit as is, so why not ask them what could be tweaked in the existing system or what kinds of issues they face that your business could assist with.
If your current supply chain is not satisfactory or is in a rut, you can also seek out connections through the industry communities. Even if a relationship does not form, these conversations can still give you fresh perspectives on what other businesses are doing, or maybe outside opinions on what you could be doing better.
Finally, making your data far more accessible is vital to ensure proper communication. Many companies try for deeper collaboration within their network but siloed data and compatibility issues between systems are often hampered. Centralizing your data into a single system with CMS and ERP can allow team members to access the information easily, and having a single source to transfer documents digitally can tremendously boost your employee’s efficiency.
Katalyst Can Optimize Your Supply Chain
While these tips may be great ways for your business to better collaborate with its partners, the truth is that there is no single catch-all method to improve communication. When it comes to approaching barriers to productivity like this, all parties, whether within your company or external contractors, must be willing to take time and contribute to the cause.
At Katalyst, our supply chain and logistics team can help you achieve overall growth and improve transparency through your supply chains. If you want some ideas to better optimize your data or supply chains, schedule a call with our logistics experts today and see what they can do for your business!
