For retailers, the build-up to Christmas is the busiest time of year. It’s a period during which effective management of your supply chain is critical. If you can’t cope with the surge in demand and traffic, then your efforts to build a lasting relationship with your customer base will be thwarted.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Supply Chain Collaboration
A modern supply chain is an intricate and complex thing. Collaborating with your suppliers will allow you to deliver superior results to your customers. If you want to offer a same-day courier service, for example, then collaboration is more or less essential.
By talking to the other parts of your supply chain, you’ll be able to limit your costs, and improve the way that your inventory is managed. You’ll also be able to minimise the impact of your operation on the natural world, which comes with public-relations benefits. Customers tend to prefer greener businesses, after all!
Building Strong Partnerships
Building a rapport with your supply-chain partners is critical. This means pushing up the quality and quantity of your communications. Keep the lines open, and you’ll be more quickly apprised of any developments that might compromise your supply chain.
For best results, it’s worth pairing over-the-phone conversation with the face-to-face variety. This way, you’ll come to regard your suppliers as something more than a name on a screen – and this level of familiarity is sure to come in handy when you need to react quickly to a developing situation.
Information Sharing and Transparency
Today, it’s possible for information to be communicated in real-time. If you have built close links with your suppliers, then you’ll be able to take maximum advantage of this technological boon. For example, you might let your suppliers know about the stock level of a given product in your warehouse, and place orders automatically.
By being transparent about the needs of your business, and the challenges you face, you’ll be able to foster trust.
Coordination and Communication
The right communication strategy will help you to limit missed opportunities, and the kind of damage to relationships that can often result from a miscommunication. By putting together a shared inbox for essential groups of individuals, you can limit the confusion that can result from back-and-forth emails. Collaboration apps can also be beneficial.
Cross-functional teams and Task Forces
Your business relies on planning, sourcing materials, and manufacturing. But if you over-specialise, and appoint siloed teams to deal with these challenges, then problems are more-or-less inevitable. Having a separate task force that serves multiple functions during peak season will help to ensure that all of the various cogs and gears in your business are able to turn together effectively.