It’s no secret that supply chain management is one of the most challenging jobs in the whole world. The sheer magnitude of individual moving parts that you have to control can be staggering. It’s why everyone in the industry is constantly searching for better tools to help improve logistics and reduce the resources needed to manage it all. In that search, supply chain visibility is one of the most powerful tools you can find.
What Is Supply Chain Visibility?
Supply chain visibility is a term that you might see thrown around a lot. It has a loose definition, as each person in the industry might mean something a little different.
In general, it’s referring to your ability to see real-time information relating to your supply chain. Visibility can apply to warehousing and storage — so you know exactly where every item is at any given moment. It can also refer to shipping, allowing real-time tracking of every shipment related to your business. It can also mean both.
The point is that high visibility represents the ability to see important information at any moment, rather than waiting for regularly scheduled reports.
Why Is It So Important?
You probably already have some ideas of just how powerful this visibility can be, but to shed light on the concept, let’s explore just a few benefits that stem from high visibility.
Adaptability
When you can see where all of your resources are in real time, you have more information available that you can use to make decisions. If a shipment is going to be delayed, you can see all of your alternative options right there.
Meanwhile, if you have any surpluses or inefficiencies in the supply chain, you can see them too and reallocate resources on the fly. It’s a simple case of knowledge translating into power, and the power of adaptability is invaluable when it comes to logistics.
Improved Metrics
If supply chain visibility enables you to run a more adaptive supply chain, then it only stands to reason that you can improve any metrics that catch your attention. Do you want shorter delivery times? Focus on your visibility and find opportunities to reduce those times.
Are you interested in lowering overhead, improving labor efficiency, or focusing on customer satisfaction? They’re all within reach. The visibility is merely supplying you with the raw data and information. With that data, you can reliably make the countless small adjustments that consistently improve your measured metrics.
Money
In the end, it’s all about the bottom line. If you’re running an adaptive supply chain where you can consistently improve any number of metrics, then you can translate those improvements into dollar values. Whether you’re focusing on cost efficiency or lowering overhead, it’s easy to save money and improve your bottom line.
Here’s a specific example. When you have high visibility, you can see exactly where all of your product is stored at any given time. That makes it very easy to see any surpluses that exist in your inventory. Inventory surpluses raise overhead, so targeting and reducing surpluses lowers overhead. You’ve made your operation more efficient because you have persistent access to warehouse data.
That’s just one example of how supply chain visibility can improve your bottom line.
Contact American Warehouse, Inc.
If you’re ready to explore the economic benefits of supply chain management, contact American Warehouse, Inc. today. We’ll discuss how to improve your visibility and reliable ways to make good use of that visibility.