You're facing potential delays in supplier deliveries. How can you prevent them before they happen?

Una de las acciones que mejores resultados me ha dado es conocer el plazo requerido de entrega, y revisar qué tipo de transporte requiere: si es marítimo, las fechas, si es terrestre, factores climáticos, si es aéreo, factor precio, entre otras consideraciones. Ejemplo, los tiempos de producción y si se trae de china, considerar que las fábricas cierras por el a?o nuevo chino, lo cual genera un tiempo adicional. Lo otro, es mirar factores geopolíticos, si hay riesgo de cierres de puertos. En concreto, la evaluación de riesgos es muy muy relevante, pero debe ser general, con mirada estratégica, y considerando distintas variables.

1) Conduct a risk assessment on suppliers and components that are most at risk of causing delays. 2) Consider factors such as geographic location, political stability, and the supplier's historical performance. 3) Develop contingency plans to address potential issues before they disrupt your supply operations. 4) Enhance Communication with suppliers to stay updated on their delivery schedules, capacity, lead times, and any challenges they are facing. 5) Build a strong relationship with suppliers to inform you of potential delays early on, to react and implement your backup plans. 6) Keep safety stock of critical components to protect against unforeseen disruptions. 7) Diversify your supplier base to reduce the risk of delays.

In addition to the traditional strategies like risk assessment and maintaining clear communication with suppliers, consider implementing advanced analytics and real-time monitoring to predict and respond to potential delays. Collaborative planning with suppliers can enhance their ability to meet deadlines, while flexible logistics options, such as multi-modal transportation, can provide alternative solutions in case of disruptions. These approaches not only address immediate risks but also build a more resilient and adaptive supply chain, ensuring smoother operations even in the face of uncertainties.

Risk Assessment starts before the project kicks off and doesn't end until it's clear that all potential impacts are addressed. Too many times companies perform an initial Risk Assessment, but the process is essentially dropped after the project is in process. Then it's likely that surprises happen. Depending on project size a risk committee should convene regularly to address identified risks as well as review new impact potential.

As a procurement professional, I will talk to the suppliers and understand the bottlenecks in the production processes which are affecting the delay in supply schedule. Guiding the suppliers in getting rid of these bottlenecks and then make up for the lost time by putting extra shift or overtime or an additional parallel line to complete the supplies on time.

I maintain a close relationship with my suppliers. Through regular communication, transparency and partnership-based cooperation, I can recognise problems at an early stage and develop solutions together with the supplier.

If you are facing potential delays in supplier deliveries, escalate, communicate, and reach out to your supplier/partner. Let them know that you are concerned about a possible delay. Be sure to explain why you are concerned, for example - a communicated change in the delivery date, lack of confirmation of purchase order, or knowledge of a raw material shortage... listen. Use a tracker to track progress until materials are delivered.

Schedule frequent communication with your suppliers to stay updated on their production, loading, and delivery schedules. Understand thier challenges and offer applicable solutions for both parties.

Communication is key. Ensuring you have open lines of communication with your suppliers and good relationships that promote openness will ensure they inform you of any potential supply chain risks early. This will allow you to make any necessary changes to support the operation and reduce the risk to your organization. At some point even the strongest supply chains will experience a challenge, resulting in delays. It's important to communicate to your suppliers that you understand that this can happen and ask that they communicate openly and early when it does.

I order early and maintain safety stocks. This minimises the risk of delays due to unforeseen events. I also use AI-supported tools to analyse data on delivery times, production capacity utilisation and logistics processes. Predictive analytics helps me to anticipate possible delays and react proactively.

Warehouse team must consider inputs from both buyers and suppliers regarding lead time changes, and sand regularly review safety stock levels to avoid stock shortages. Also, warehouse team should utilize supply chain management software to monitor stock levels and trigger purchase requisitions in a timely manner.

There's been a huge increase in the amount of inventory we carry since 2020. This was the solution for a lot of us during that time, buy more, stock more and source it from wherever you could get it. Depending on the industry this is starting to normalize but it seems that organizations are still uncomfortable with reducing inventory levels to pre-COVID levels. An alternative to carrying more inventory is to partner with your suppliers, if you have them and ask that they maintain inventory levels. Essentially, extending your warehousing and partnering with your vendors to maintain safety stock.

I avoid dependencies on individual suppliers by using several suppliers for critical components. This allows me to remain flexible if a supplier has problems.

ABC Procurement, work with multiple suppliers for key materials to reduce dependency on a single source. For Sole sources, establish long-term contracts with clear terms, including pricing, delivery schedules, and quality expectations. Also, maintain lines of communication with regular meetings to discuss forecasts, potential issues, and improvements.

Para contar con una mayor diversificación de proveedores es importante contar con una cartera de proveedores calificados para posibles emergencias o retrasos por factores exógenos. Por lo que el tiempo que toma "aprobar" a un proveedor puede ser crucial para tomar acción frente a estos inconvenientes. Ahora, el ideal sería evitar que esto suceda, y para esto es clave estar evaluando constantemente el nivel de servicio entregado por cada proveedor, para tomar acción en caso de que estos sea recurrente. Proceso que a?o a a?o debería aumentar la calidad de los proveedores con los que voy trabajando.

Clearly define delivery timelines, quality standards, and penalties for delays or failure to comply with the agreed specs or any other term in contracts. Ensure compliance with rules and regulation and the country of destination and use fair legal terms to achive a win-win situation.

A well drafted contract will provide the framework of the relationship which could include KPIs regarding on time deliveries. But in order to stay ahead of potential delays, it's going to be heavily reliant on your relationships with your suppliers. It's important to maintain positive relationships with your suppliers.

If the contract is clear in how all aspects of changes will be handled any claim is much easier to address. However, too many times the field engineers and construction do not either understand the requirements, or they have not read the contract to determine their part in compliance management. When this happens, claims are almost inevitable and if they are large enough the project goes sideways and disputes appear! It isn't an instantaneous happening. All lead back to a lack of clear direction that everyone must adhere to the contract requirement for schedule requirements, changes, delays, direct, and indirect costs. If it isn't clear in the contract, there is much more room for disagreements on intent which lead to disputes/claims.

I make sure that my contracts contain clear service level agreements (SLAs) and penalties for late deliveries. This provides additional motivation for suppliers to deliver on time.

Proactive planning is the key. A commodity/resource loaded schedule willl provide visibility months ahead of the RAS date at Site, from concrete through manometers or light bulbs. A CPM schedule that is properly integrated with the estimate or forecast at completion is pure gold.

I rely on modern technologies such as IoT, blockchain and AI to ensure real-time monitoring of the supply chain. This allows me to recognise deviations at an early stage and intervene immediately before delays occur.