What Constitutes Effective Supply Chain Visibility?

Any boost in visibility into your operations is a positive development. However, true supply chain visibility enables you to not only observe what is occurring but also respond effectively and rapidly. Effective visibility must pervade your own organization and extend to your outsourced partners or other providers.

That is the only way you can coordinate your efforts to operate efficiently under ideal circumstances and rapidly detect and resolve difficulties when less-than-ideal circumstances arise. Indeed, it is this capacity for swiftly locating and deploying alternative resources that enables you to continue operating when a less capable system fails or just grinds to a halt.

Businesses that rely on the mobility of goods have discovered that equipping employees with mobile tablet computers or adequately ruggedized tablet PCs guarantees that everyone has the ability to collect or retrieve data when they need it. This simplifies operations, making them more efficient and precise.

However, if you do not have the correct combination of apps or if they are not sufficiently connected to function in unison, you will continue to have severe visibility gaps.

Effective visibility fosters agility.

Globalization is frequently cited as the key reason for rising logistical complexity. Additionally, you're confronted with crucial but apparently conflicting requirements to increase speed and accuracy while decreasing prices.

You need to be able to collect data quickly and make it instantly accessible to everyone who needs it, anywhere in your supply chain, so you can cope with anything that comes your way, whether it's a small error or a natural disaster that disrupts worldwide supply lines. This necessitates

Communication is facilitated via connectivity. To prevent potentially costly delays, emerging "trading network technology" provides consistent communication across disparate systems. Additionally, it is reasonably priced, allowing even your smallest partners to join.

Data that is widely available to anybody who requires it along your supply chain. If required, you can disable access to confidential data. While it is critical to see what you have at hand, it is the capacity to view what is in transit that allows you to be as nimble as possible in avoiding or responding to crises.

Notification of issues immediately. Even if you build the ideal network, there will be just too much data for your workers to process efficiently. Successful visibility is achieved by automatic help in the form of quick notifications in the event of a problem based on predefined parameters. Even better, a system that assists you in managing specific types of events automatically by rerouting them can help limit their negative effects.

simple-to-analyze data. Having information is one thing; having it displayed on the screen of your tablet PC in an intuitive and quick-to-assimilate style helps your team analyze situations and respond more effectively and quickly. Calculations and comparisons can be performed by automated systems, freeing humans to focus on identifying trends and causal relationships. In an ideal world, consumers would be able to tailor analytics displays to their own requirements.

Integration. Supply chain visibility and execution must function in tandem or you will continue to encounter blind spots. Recognizing there is an issue is a good start, but if you are unable to handle it promptly and efficiently, you are not much farther along.

Successful visibility enables you to collect and utilize the data you require, recover from supply chain interruptions, and, in the long run, avoid them entirely. Through visibility, you can improve service levels and reduce reoccurring issues. This enables you to decrease inventory and expenditures. Successful visibility enables you to strike the optimal balance between functional and financial requirements, increasing profitability rather than jeopardizing competitiveness.