8 essential features of an effective supply chain management solution

The trade system is prospering drastically and the supply chain are now a web of interconnected partners.  

So, What is Supply Chain Management? 

Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services that includes the process from transformation of raw materials to finished products. The supply chains cover everything from production to product development and information system needed to direct the undertakings. 

Benefits of Supply Chain Management

The Supply Chain Management produces benefits such as – 

• New efficiencies
• Higher profits
• Lower costs
• Increased collaboration
• Manage better demand
• Manage inventory
• Meet customer demand on time

Why is supply chain management important?

Supply chain management is important because it will help to achieve most of the business objectives. For example, controlling the manufacturing processes will improve the quality of the product, reduce the risk of recalls and lawsuits while helping to build a strong consumer brand. At the same time, controls over shipping procedures will improve customer service by avoiding costly shortages or periods of inventory oversupply. In general, supply chain management provides several opportunities for companies to improve their profit margins and is especially important for companies with large and international operations.

Stages in the Supply Chain Management Process

1. Demand planning

The process of supply chain management initiates with demand planning. Demand planning includes the collection of historical information, such as preceding sales figures and prediction for the variety and quality of products to be manufactured.

2. Production planning

During the phase of production planning, the company establishes where and how the products defined in the demand plan will be manufactured.

3. Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)

Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) is a process designed to calculate the materials required for the production of goods. The MRP comprises of the three important steps:

• Evaluation of existing materials or components on hand.
• Ascertaining additional materials or components needed.
• Scheduling of production or procurement tasks.

4. Inventory Management and Logistics

Inventory management supervises the relocation of goods, initiating from manufacturers to warehouses and lastly to the point of sale. Its main goal is to monitor and record the arrival of latest products, product returns, and product sales within the warehouses. Logistics, on the other hand, is related to the transportation and storage of goods within the supply chain, wrapping the delivery of factors and materials to manufacturers as well as the delivery of finished products to stores or directly to consumers. Therefore, inventory management is intricately connected with the logistics system.

5. Strategic Sourcing

Strategic sourcing is a systematic system that determines supply channels, formalizing the manner in which data is gathered and utilized by organizations to yield consolidated purchasing power. Such an approach aims to safeguard the best possible values in the market and align the buying strategy with business goals.

Why Supply Chain Management solution is essential?

Supply Chain Management software is a solution that supervises or manages the movement of goods and data from the point of origin to point of consumption. The supply chain management solution optimized the supply chain process and automates the entire process. It provides efficient flow of information from the supply chain to the company, eliminates repetitive tasks and creates smooth functioning of supply chain management. 

Here are 8 essential features of an effective supply chain management solution 

1. Inventory Management

Inventory Management software helps the companies to streamline and synchronize the stock levels and inventory work force in a single platform. It includes tasks like – placing new orders for products and shipping orders to customers. 

Features of an Inventory Management software are – 

• Bills of Materials (BOM)
• Goods Receipt Note (GRN)
• Issue and receipt
• Finished goods management
• Raw material management
• Delivery challan

Benefits of an Inventory Management software are – 

• Increased sales
• Reduction in costs
• Customer retention
• On time delivery
• Forecasts the exact demand
• Improves flexibility

Read our blog – Online Inventory Management System

We at SalesBabu CRM Solutions have developed Inventory Management System Software (Inventory Planning) which is 100% Cloud Platform with Real Time Data for growing businesses. To know more about us, visit our website https://www.salesbabu.com/. 

2. Real time information

The availability of real time information is essential to avoid bottlenecks, track supply chain data such as inventory of raw materials, availability of supplies and expected needs etc. 

Features that provide real time information in a Supply Chain Management solution are- 

• Personalized dashboards

The personalized dashboards provides insight of the up-to-date status monitoring of the entire supply chain management process with a single click and simplifies the governance. 

• Real time notification

The real time notification provides instant information on the supply chain activities. Real time notification eliminates delay in carrying out the supply chain activities, helps to make instant decisions and keeps the users informed in real time. 

3. Analytics and forecasting

With automated day-to-day tasks, good supply chain management software comes with an in-built analytics and forecasting feature. These analytics presents data in the form of graphical graphs, metric analytics and MIS reports. The benefits of analytics and forecasting features are – 

• Identify bottlenecks
• Understand the functioning of the supply chain activities
• Make future predictions and plan for future production
• Anticipate customer demand

4. Cloud based solution

Cloud computing is an On-Demand availability of the computer system resources which offers IT as a service. You get the complete hosting facility from a dedicated cloud solutions provider without any bugs in working to store all your database. The cloud provider save all your data and protect them from any of the virus attacks, malfunctioning etc.

Benefits of cloud based solution are – 

• Accessible from anywhere at anytime with internet connection.
• All your supply chain data is safe and secure in the cloud.
• Cloud is a cost effective solution as you pay, as per the use.
• It reduces paperwork.
• It is a centralized platform.
• It can be easily implemented.
• Provides unlimited storage space.

With a cloud based supply chain management software, users can access the data from anywhere at anytime. They can manage, track and monitor the progress of the transactions in real time. Having access to mobile apps to manage the supply chain and logistics is an added advantage to the users as they remain upto date on various supply chain management activities.  

5. Security

Security is another most important aspect of the supply chain management software. While choosing a supply chain management software, make sure the cloud based solution comes with security features like – 

• Data encryption
• Network monitoring
• Virus scanning
• Multi-factor authentication
• Role based authorization

6. Order Management

The order management involves seamless integration of orders from multiple channels with inventory database, data collection, order processing etc. it starts from when a customer places an order to keeping track of the order until it reaches the customer. The speed at which an order is dealt with internally can make or break a business because customer expectations are so high. Whether the sales order is imported from online selling platforms or created manually, you need to be able to act on it and ensure it goes straight into processing and delivery, so you’re exceeding your customers’ expectations every time.

Benefits of order management software – 

• Fast sales order processing
• Information at your fingertips
• Proforma invoicing

The features of an Order Management software are – 

• Order details
• Pending payments reminder
• Pending documents reminder
• Work order assignment
• Product details
• Customer details

7. Field service Management

Field Service Management is the management of the end-to-end activities in a field service organisation. The field service management includes scheduling, inventory, invoicing, billing and accounting.  

Benefits of Field Service Management are – 

• Resource optimization
• Team coordination
• Real time visibility
• Increased employee productivity
• Customer satisfaction

Features of a Field Service Management are – 

• Complaint management
• AMC management
• Warranty management
• Spare part consumption management
• Service quotation management
• Installation management

Read our blog – Field Service Management Software

A Field Service Management Software is a cost effective investment that can benefit your organisation to the fullest. Just see to that you invest in the best Service Management Software for better results. If you wish to know more about the actual working of the Service CRM software as well as Cloud based CRM software, visit our website https://www.salesbabu.com/. 

8. User-friendly interface

Lastly, the basic necessity of a supply chain management software is an user-friendly interface. You might have the best solution but if your employees are facing problems or finding it difficult in using the software, the solution cannot do any good for you. 

Some other features of Supply Chain Management :

• Customization
  Prebuilt components within the application and customized configuration of business rules introduce flexibility that helps businesses adapt to changes quickly and visit the market faster, with customized solutions for consumers. Some of the supply chain solutions will let developers extend their features with programming languages like Java and Python. Open architecture also encourages organizations to create their own applications to form their unique requirements like developing multiple variations of a product to cater to different customer segments, thus maximizing profitability.

• Scalability
  Any software must grow with a business. And as organizations make inroads into new regions, expand their product documents, and obtain new customers, a supply chain solution must be ready to handle the increasing volume which comes with it. It also has to support multiple applications and extra channels without affecting the system’s performance.

Conclusion 

By implementing a tool with the right features, your business can compete with the fast-paced industry. Implement a single platform solution which provides the best supply chain management features for your business as mentioned above. 

SalesBabu Supply Chain Management software comes with a complete package of essential features which helps your business to optimize its supply chain activities.