As COVID- 19 pandemic continues to impact supply chains, let's have a look at the four important elements of the supply chain in which manufacturers should take action to mitigate the risk.

A supply chain is a sequence of processes that must be completed to produce and distribute the goods or services. Having a strong supply chain is crucial, and so is managing it effectively to achieve the best results.

Read Also: How to Never  Miss Retailer PO Acknowledgement Expectations

Supply chain disruptions can come in many forms (weather events, changes in economic conditions, etc), but the aggressive spread of COVID-19 has created issues that are beyond the means of any individual company to deal with.

As we are working closely with our clients, Team EDI by design is seeing how challenging this supply chain disruption is. It is completely impossible to avoid the impact of this pandemic, but not every industry is facing reverberation in the same way. Some industries are experiencing peak demand, while others have come to a complete standstill.

Additionally, Harvard Business Review says “Corona Virus is a wakeup call for Supply Chain Management, as vital information is often not available or accessible across their global team. To overcome these challenges and building rapid responsibilities capability, trading partners require extraordinary measures to ensure their supply chain system is at the place.

Here are four main elements of supply chain companies should focus to mitigate the risk of COVID 19:

Integration: “Integration is the heart of the supply chain and is considered as the brains and heart of the supply chain process.” Says Kieren Wilson.

Supply chain integration means coordinating communications between the rest of the supply chain to produce effective & timely results. Often, this means exploring new technological means to advance communications between departments & trading partners, whilst improving communication reduces errors which costs time and money. Companies should invest 24*7 in exploring and monitoring new software or technology to regulate their communication in a faster way.

Operations: Day to day operations is the backbone of any company. It includes the systems, structures, and processes to plan and execute the flow of goods or services from suppliers to the customer. With numerous external challenges including rapidly evolving COVID 19 threats that can affect your organization every day, companies should enable tools that can optimize remote work and help to minimize disruption in your supply chain operations.

Purchasing- Purchasing is the process of finding, evaluating and engaging suppliers to provide goods and services to business. It simply describes the process of buying. However, in a broader sense, the term involves determining the needs, selecting the supplier, arriving at the proper price, terms, and conditions, issuing the contract or order and following up to ensure proper delivery.

EDI integration is a reliable process that can help business users to communicate electronically such as purchase order, ASN & invoices to ensure accuracy & efficiency for B2B.

Distribution- Distribution is an important part of the business cycle.  It also involves making sure a supply chain is efficient enough that distribution costs are low enough to allow a product to be sold at the right price, thus supporting your marketing strategy and maximizing profit.

A Business that has a strong supply chain management system in place puts great emphasis on all four elements and also ensures that management, as well as teams, work efficiently. EDI integration can help to automate SCM and comply with retailers requirements and reduce labor costs. EDI by design is a one-stop solution for end-to-end supply chain needs. Our fully-managed cloud-based solution that uses AI to match up with all your requirements, whether you are a retailer, supplier, logistics provider or distributor.

Let us know your thoughts, write to us at social@edibydesign.com