Steps For Supply Chain Planning

By Betty Richardson


Different size companies have employees in various positions in order to make sure everything gets done to keep the business running. Throughout these positions are many that relate to supply chain planning. This is an important function and any business that sells a product needs to have the people in place to make it happen effectively. Without them in place, there can be disastrous consequences that cause product delivery delays, increase needs for customer service, and can cost the company money.

A very critical position in the company is the purchasing manager. This person is in charge of making sure everything from raw materials to pens are purchased at the best prices without degrading the value of the product. They will make sure everything that needs to be bought is and is tracked appropriately in order to stave off financial ruin.

Manufacturing needs to have the raw materials in place at all times. If the raw materials run out, the factory grinds to a halt and employees may be laid off periodically while they wait for more material to work with. If this happens the cost to the business is found in lost wages and lost sales. The same situation occurs for assembling products if one or more of the needed parts are not available.

Managing inventory ensures you know how much you have. It seems trivial, but it is also critical. If you sell too many products and cannot ship them, you have to refund the money. This is lost money and will develop a bad reputation. Those customers may not come back and may prevent others from becoming customers. Inventory needs to be counted both manually and digitally at least monthly to keep up with the changing numbers. The manual count ensures the tracking system is keeping an accurate count.

Warehouse management keeps things organized. Wasting hours looking for something that is needed right away can be just as devastating as running out of material. A well-organized warehouse will be able to keep track of the inventory and produce is quick to the manufacturing or assembly teams in the plant.

Transporting the products is how it gets to the customer. This seems like a basic idea, but if you have a customer calling to find out where their purchase is, this function will suddenly become extremely important. It is not just a position for those companies with their own trucks, but for any company that ships product in any way.

Customer service provides the customers with information and uses the systems in place to do this. The tracking and ordering systems need to be accessible to the customer representatives so they can quickly provide status updates to customers and work to resolve problems.

Planning how much you need is important to prevent overstocking and running out. Having too much product is just as costly as having too little. If you have product taking up warehouse space because there is too much, it will cost you money to store it. Having too little will cost you sales and your reputation. The demand planning position will need to analyze trends to make sure just enough is on hand at any moment.

There are many steps in getting a product to the customer. Each step requires someone, even if it is the same person, to manage different functions that are all critical to the balance the business needs to maintain. If one piece is missing, the product can run out and sales can be lost.




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