Friday 2 March 2012

Common Issues Encountered In Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management forms a vital part of the business processes required to run operations in a smooth manner. Without having the appropriate supply chain management systems in place, there can be a lack of coordination within your company along with a disruption in supplies when they are demanded by customers. An efficient system helps address several needs related to replenishment of stock reserves and also helps ensure that your company is able to sustain the market demand for certain products. This is a very important aspect of supply chain management as a delay in providing supplies can cause your existing customers to shift to the competition in order to fulfill their needs for certain products that they require.

Some of the common issues that you may encounter in supply chain management have been specified below:
  1. Loss of goods at several stages of the supply chains is one of the most widespread problems for most companies dealing in the trade of tangible goods. This loss can be due to a variety of factors including pilferage, theft, misplacement, etc. An efficient supply chain management system helps pin point the exact causes of the loss of products so that you can take suitable measures to correct such anomalies in terms of the count of goods that was originally manufactured for supply.
  2. Another common problem that many companies face is the huge costs that are associated with manual record keeping of stocks. Several employees may have to be employed by an organization to perform record keeping functions especially in companies that deal in a vast volume of products on a daily basis. In such a case, there is also a chance of human error creeping in as manual counts are maintained by individual employees. Supply chain management software however can help eliminate such problems as it helps bring in automation in counting functions.
  3. Companies may also find it difficult to predict the demand for their products in the market and may not know exactly how much quantity to order for sustaining the market demand. Supply chain management software generally contain useful applications that can help make such predictions based on sales data.
For more details about Supply Chain Management visit McLane Logistics Technology, Central Pointe, Parkway, Temple, TX 76504 or call them at 1-800-989-7568.