The success of a business is not measured only in terms of the profits it has acquired. Other factors also judge whether a company is functioning with full efficiency or not. It includes all the functional areas of a business, such as production, development, marketing, sales, HR, etc.
While a company focuses on all these departments, it often ignores the significance of the logistics division. That’s why half of the loading trucks often travel empty while coming back to the manufacturing units. Moreover, due to the negligence in logistics management, warehouses either stand idle or get overfilled.
The transportation and warehousing operations can be efficiently resolved using digitized solutions, which further help in generating more value and better experiences for vendors and customers, respectively. In other words, it will help create a productive ecosystem for logistics and supply chain providers, be it freight forwarders, manufacturers, or carriers.
Digitalization in logistics primarily focuses on two approaches: process digitization and data utilization. This article will discuss how logistic management solutions deliver value by digitizing processes and utilizing the data to make the right decisions.
Workflow of Next Generation Supply Chain Digitization
Suppose you are constantly manufacturing a product for so many years. However, in recent months, it does not perform in the market the way it used to. In fact, the chances are that it does not even stand out as per your minimal expectations. What should be done in such cases?
You will profoundly analyze the product and figure out the flaws due to which your competitors are consistently beating you up in the market. Since the product has been the same for so many years, it would require advanced tools and modifications to match the current market demands and trends.
Sometimes, the same things happen with the processes. Your supply chain team might be in the industry for several years; however, the dynamic nature of the market demands constant improvisation in the strategies and processes to align with the current trends.
Advanced and improved supply chain management systems help reduce costs and time needed in the production cycle. With the help of digitized solutions and supply chain analytics, retail shelves can be automatically restocked as soon as the product is sold.
You can further enhance the process by analyzing the data available from supply chain partners, which in turn makes the supply chain cycle effective in the following ways:
Anticipation of Potential Issues
Sometimes, the customer orders more products than what a manufacturer can deliver. Getting the products out of stock or getting delayed deliveries can make the customer furious. However, you can anticipate the scarcity through proper data analysis before the customer gets disappointed.
Enhancing Logistics Capabilities Digitally
Just when you think that your logistic management system is at the peak level of its efficiency, a well-strategized and analyzed approach can prove you wrong. By utilizing the data from your supply chain suppliers, you can make changes in your logistics systems and enhance their capabilities digitally.
Dynamic Cost Optimization
Overstocking blocks capital and this holds true for RM and FG. Organizations that are able to keep optimum inventory levels are able to make significant contributions to the bottom line while ensuring optimum space utilization and transportation costs. The losses due to obsolescence and expiry are also avoided through digitization.
By using advanced supply chain management tools and analytics software, you can avail yourself of the forecasting techniques that can improve margins and manage the stock inventory accordingly.
Enhanced Inventory Management/Control
Analytical software solutions aid in the dynamic scheduling of work and allocation of resources based on the sales forecast, raw materials delivery, and actual order placement. In addition to this, manufacturers can also confirm the product’s delivery date when a customer places an order, efficiently minimizing incorrectly-filled orders.
Solutions for Advanced Logistic eProcurement
Supplier Management and Sourcing
Having good relationships with vendors allows you to negotiate the procurement cost and get the delivery on time. But with a legacy system, it is impossible to source the raw material on time. This problem can be overcome by incorporating an advanced logistic eProcurement solution that streamlines real-time communication between you and your suppliers. That bridges the bond between you and your suppliers and automates your procurement needs, improving the overall workflow.
Spend analysis & Contract Management
In order to manage your contracts and spending, you need to invest a lot of hours maintaining spreadsheets and going through the entire agreement, which eats up your employee’s time.
An agile supply chain management solution centralized purchasing information that eliminates paper trails from your contract management process, saving you thousands of hours. Also, the solution will give you vendor performance analytics and fast-track custom reports that allow you to optimize spending across different categories.
Logistics Management System Features
Order Management: Receiving And Processing Order
Managing an order seems like an easy process; however, in reality, it is not!
When you receive and process an order online, you have to create and edit inventory, accept payments, ensure that the transaction is safe and secure, and manage customer service. Besides this, you also need to collect and re-distribute the documentation among supplies, manufacturers, transporters, and warehouse operators.
However, simultaneously managing all these functions can be a huddle, and a single error in one of these can ruin the entire process. Therefore, to avoid it, it is crucial to maintain one system where all the data related to orders, delivery, suppliers, inventory, and customers can be kept and synchronized in one place.
For this, an automated Order to Dispatch system can be effective as it leverages the supply chain analytics data and monitors the status of an order from the moment it is placed until it gets delivered to the customer. It would be the primary connectivity hub where all the information regarding your order will be available.
Inventory Management: Tracking and Storing
Inventory management has always been a crucial part of the supply chain process that manages and documents the product amount for sale. It requires highly information management tools to receive, store, and track inventory and deal with dynamic changes alongside.
Therefore, it becomes crucial to replace the manually managed spreadsheets with an advanced and automated inventory management system (IMS) to centralize and control all the data from one point.
Whenever there is a change in the inventory, IMS will track and report it to you. In addition to this, it also helps maintain a balance to avoid the situations of excess stock or stock-outs.
Warehouse Management: Controlling and Digitizing Storage Rules
As the name suggests, warehouse management deals with the functions of managing, maintaining, and automating the operations associated with the warehouse. These operations include:
Receiving products
Moving products
Supervising warehouse staff as per KPIs
Ensuring safe working conditions
Locating and tracking products
All of this can be easily done using a warehouse management system (WMS) consisting of several hi-tech analytical tools. These integrated tools help streamline the workflow from the beginning to the end – From arriving goods in the warehouse to order management and dispatching from the warehouse.
Labor Management: Planning and Scheduling Workforce
The efficient logistic management solutions will not only focus on the productivity of machines and tools but also look for the betterment of the human side of the entire system. Thus, your logistic management solution must contain a labor management system (LMS). An LMS leverages workforce planning and analyzes the capabilities of the workers based on which individual warehouse tasks are assigned.
This system also helps track the workers’ performance and determine their strengths and weaknesses that can be focused on in the skill enhancement sessions.
Inventory Movement: Optimization & Performance Management
Managing inventory is never easy because it is constantly in a state of flux. Inventory managers need to keep a tab on inventory records to manage the stock better.
What inventory movement includes?
Import product list
Adjust inventory/ Transfer product
Purchase items from suppliers
Ship products to customers/ Return products to suppliers
With an advanced cloud based supply chain digitisation and management solution, you can detect the issues at the level of SKU and plan strategies to correct them. It will increase process efficiency and make your supply chain agile, responsive, and transparent.
What Is the Process Of Supply Chain Analytics?
A supply chain is like a puzzle that determines the success of a business. The better your supply chain, the greater you can cater to your customer and enhance their experience. However, the question is, how can you improve your supply chain in the first place?
Well, decision analytics can help you.
Smart Decision Analytics enables you to make data-driven decisions based on a summary of trusted and relevant information. It analyzes the information tied to the supply chain, from procurement, inventory management, and order management to warehouse management and fulfillment.
Benefits of Supply Chain Analytics
Increase accuracy in strategy planning
Reduce cost and improve margins
Maintain a lean supply chain
Understand the risks
Prepare the business for issues in advance
A supply chain management solution uses structured and scientific data collection to give you real-time data at the click of a button. You can also customize the KPIs in your system. The solution will analyze your supply chain at each stage and match it with your KPIs. Based on that, it will provide you with a report on graphical representation metrics.
Various Types Of Supply Chain Analytics
Descriptive Analytics
Descriptive analytics focuses on providing visibility and a clear and precise view across the entire supply chain, applicable to both internal and external systems and data associated with it.
Predictive Analytics
This type of supply chain analytics helps you understand the most probable outcomes or future scenarios that are likely to happen along with your business implications. For instance, predictive analytics can help you predict and mitigate risks and unnecessary disruptions.
Customized Decision Analytics
With customized design analytics, you can analyze the entire logistics life-cycle of a company. AETOS offers robust and well-designed personalized dashboards that provide profound insights which help in improving efficiency, minimizing wastage, and increasing the quality of serving specific functions. Moreover, they collect data in a well-strategic and structured manner by maintaining a secured data lake and ensuring real-time updates at just a click of the button.
How Can AETOS Assist You With Logistics Management?
AETOS is a renowned name in the digitizing logistics and supply chain management sphere. Our decades of industry experience and a dynamic team of professionals enable you to take control of the supply chain.
By leveraging its capabilities of decision analytics, you not only identify and mitigate the gaps that become hindrances to success but also get a 360° overview of your entire logistics network to enhance efficiency and optimize ROI.
In addition to all this, real-time analysis of all your logistics operations and digitizing the entire system will reduce the time and effort and help you accomplish new growth milestones.
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