Three Essentials for Sustaining Supply Chain Health

When it comes to ensuring supply chain health, there are three key approaches your organization can do to improve processes and build resiliency into your network. Not only will this help you minimize uncertainty during times of disruption, it will also help streamline improvements during times of prosperity.

Supply chain essential #1: Digital documents, data, and settlements

Companies must focus on network connectivity and process automation to drive agility and responsiveness while continually investing in predictive and proactive sense and respond capabilities.

Economic sustainability includes multiple key components starting with digital connectivity and collaboration as the digitization of documents and workflows enables speed and agility. Multi-enterprise collaboration enables strategic programs such as providing suppliers access to capital through a multi-bank network. This helps the entire supply chain endure dynamic liquidity shortages that often stem from a crisis and a period of economic recovery.

Supply chain essential #2: Balancing efficiency and resilience

While digitization drives efficiencies and lowers overall cost, investing in tools to build resilient operations also helps organizations endure sudden economic disruption. These two objectives—efficiency and resilience—normally conflict with one another. For example, just-in-time inventory and buffer stock are often assumed to be counter forces, but you don’t have to choose one over the other.

Working within a digital ecosystem, your company can balance efficiency and resiliency effectively by automating processes, increasing worker productivity, and reducing costs where obvious. Combining the simultaneous benefits of connectivity and agility to adapt as disruptions occur allows your organization to avoid buffer stock or adding costly mitigation measures.

Supply chain essential #3: Flexible multi-bank financing

Digitally connecting the parties, systems, and documents opens the door to innovative strategies that improve the overall supply chain. Transactional data available to finance providers on a digital network enables capital to be made available when it’s most needed. Furthermore, a multi-bank business network enables a balanced risk approach to supply chain finance, enhancing opportunities for program coverage across multiple jurisdictions above what a single bank may offer. Finally, local support for supplier activation and on-boarding ensures maximum benefit for buyers, suppliers, and finance providers.

To learn more about building continuity with supply chain digitization, check out the complete best practice guide.