As supply chains continue to globalize, sourcing and procurement is becoming more challenging to keep up. Maintaining supplier relationships and reducing risk gets considerably more difficult when supply chains are optimizing costs by going global and becoming specialized.
Finding the right solutions for these problems is a major concern for supply chain teams going forward. But organizations can focus on increasing the agility of your current systems, rapidly adapting to change, increasing transparency, and preparing for future disruption to better prepare for the challenges to come. Here is how those four factors can lead your team to success in the future.
Increasing the agility of your current systems
Supply chain organizations rely on ERPs to manage data and core processes. While ERPs serve a critical role in storing supply chain data, these systems are actually not providing enough visibility for teams and leaders to have success. Also, point solutions that are designed for specific workflows can be too specific and impossible to customize for individual needs.
Rather than using more IT resources to continue to customize difficult-to-manage core systems, leading organizations are adding agility to their ERPs with no-code platforms. Instead of losing time creating new workflows, retrieving data from ERPs, or working manually, layering no-code capabilities on top of ERP systems allows teams to devote time to strengthening their procurement strategy, solving issues more quickly, and reducing costs along the way.
Rapidly adapting to change
The rapid change of the last year has forced supply chain professionals to constantly react to new challenges. Unfortunately, when only IT, or outside consultants, have the ability to make the necessary adjustments within your organization, any small disruption becomes a major crisis. When technology issues require technical experience from developers, the time spent waiting for a new solution can be devastating.
Instead, leading organizations are giving the people closest to the work the tools to make necessary changes themselves. When procurement leaders have the ability to collect supplier data, track performance, manage workflows, and report on real-time data, IT is no longer a roadblock to teams trying to quickly adjust to supply chain disruption.
Increasing transparency
One major concern for supply chain teams and leaders is transparency. There is a ton of critical information that teams need to have access to – supplier data being siloed or unavailable leads to a host of negative consequences. Late product delivery, overspending on materials, lack of understanding of compliance, and downtime when disruption hits are all risks of missing data.
Instead, effective collaboration with suppliers can bring about real-time visibility into inventory, material quality, and costs to easily understand and report on supplier performance.
Ensuring ongoing agility
Finally, with all of the disruption that has struck supply chains over the last year and a half, it would be foolish to anticipate an end any time soon. The organizations that are going to be successful are the ones who will not just weather this disruption, but thrive within it.
Building an agility layer to allow your organization to react to change will give sourcing and procurement teams the ability to react the moment change strikes. And just as importantly, IT will have the confidence that the work being done by business users is governed and within guardrails.
Leading organizations are using no-code to solve for these problems, and those organizations are solving a variety of issues to become more agile and reactive. From dual-sourcing parts to reacting to COVID-19 supplier troubles, adding more agility to your supply chain with no-code capabilities will make your organization better set for success with the disruption to come.