Resilient Supply Chains are the (Executive) Order of the Day

Richard Howells — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 07:08:34 +0000

In 2021, the United States Government introduced an “” highlighting the need for a “resilient, diverse, and secure supply chain to ensure our economic prosperity and national security.” The executive order also discussed the future risk of “pandemics and other biological threats, cyber-attacks, climate shocks and extreme weather events, terrorist attacks, geopolitical and economic competition, and other conditions” and how these factors “reduce critical manufacturing capacity and the availability and integrity of critical goods, products, and services.”

The past 12 months highlighted flaws in many supply chains that have been “leaned out” and stretched to reduce costs. As a result, the pandemic made supply chain management processes the center of attention in presidential briefings, corporate boardrooms and even my family dining table.

Clearly, this executive order proves supply chains are a strategic topic.

What is a Resilient Supply Chain?

have a level of agility and responsiveness required to sense, predict, and respond to change during intense turbulence. We have long talked about the importance of visibility, agility, and resiliency”, but not until now have they become the top priorities in an increasingly disruptive world.

So what are some examples of what is being done and what is needed?

Visibility through all tiers of your business network

In a global and complex supply chain, the need for visibility is critical. As all times, and especially in a crisis you need to be able to see:

Which suppliers are at risk?
What are my alternate sources of supply for key resources?
Where is my inventory?
Are all shipments on time?
Where are there demand spikes and of which products?

Agility to sense, predict and respond to change

Once you have identified a risk or opportunity, you have to assess the best course of action and act in short order. Examples include:

Identify and switch to alternate suppliers
and departments to anywhere and build anywhere
Adjust to respond to changing demand
Redirect shipments in transit

Resiliency to Minimize and Mitigate Risk

It is also critical to design your supply chain to withstand disruptions and respond to business opportunities. This requires having processes and plans in place to:

Develop and implement supply chain risk management and business continuity strategies
Diversify supply chains, from a geographic perspective, to reduce the supply-side risks of a single country or region
Multisource valuable commodities or strategic components to lessen reliance on one supplier
Adopt across the business network to buffer against disruptive events
Balance of-shoring, near-shoring and on-shoring strategy

Without a doubt, unexpected disruptions will continue to occur. The cause of disruption will vary depending on the event, such as pandemics, geopolitical or trade conflicts, natural disasters, or limited natural resources availability.

Now more than ever, supply chains need to be resilient and agile to survive in the current global environment, while demonstrating the predictive intelligence and visibility to thrive in the new normal.

As the executive order highlights, “more resilient supply chains are secure and diverse — facilitating greater domestic production, a range of supply, built-in redundancies, adequate stockpiles, safe and secure digital networks”.

It also highlights the importance of collaboration across your , saying, “close cooperation on resilient supply chains with allies and partners who share our values will foster collective economic and national security and strengthen the capacity to respond to international disasters and emergencies”.

At the end of the day, supply chain executives must be able to make informed decisions confidently, quickly, and accurately, through a transparent value chain that senses, predicts, and responds to global dynamics.

To learn more about how supply chain leaders minimize risk and maximize opportunities with resilient supply chains, download a recent Oxford Economics study.��

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Inventory Management System Spurs Ananda Diary’s Growth

Charmaine Wong — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:54:49 +0000

From ancient times, milk and milk products have been an integral part of the Indian household. The mythological stories abound with children consuming milk, butter and other such stuff. Fittingly today, India is the largest producer of milk in the world accounting for nearly 20% of the world production.

This journey from a position of scarcity to the present abundance has been possible due to multiple players who have ensured the interests of farmers, retailers and consumers are always kept centre stage. Ananda Dairy, one of India’s top dairy producers has a pride of place in this list.

Starting with just one plant in 1989, Ananda, under founder Radhe Shyam Dixit now has 4 major plants and over 400 retail stores across India. Ananda’s vision is to grow at a minimum of 30% a year and open another 1000 retail stores across India by 2020. This breakneck speed of growth is not possible without technology powering the entire system from procurement to billing. That’s where �鶹ԭ�� came in.

“Nobody can grow without technology”, says founder Radhe Shyam Dixit and it is that belief which �鶹ԭ�� nurtures by managing the entire end-to-end process, from the farmer level to inventory management to sales and distribution.

Milk is sourced from farmers and stored in tanks for diary production

The process starts at the procurement level. Ananda gets milk from 5000 different sources, all of which must be tested to ensure quality and deliver a fair price to farmers. �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA collects data from all the milk collection centres and uses it to value products and ensure timely payments to farmers. With 75 products and over 400 SKUs, manually keeping track of inventory was a huge challenge. Ananda uses �鶹ԭ�� technology to streamline this process which eases planning on a daily basis and lets management focus on business decisions. �鶹ԭ�� even helps Ananda calculate daily demand from different retail outlets by consolidating demand in �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA and dispatching vehicles directly to the given shop.

“We have adopted �鶹ԭ�� technology for the growth factor. Each and everything is connected to �鶹ԭ��”, these words by Mr Dixit embodies the Ananda story of ambition and growth. And �鶹ԭ�� is proud to be part of this journey.

Watch how Ananda streamlines inventory management with on #LifeAt: Ananda Diary:

https://youtu.be/OxUz-HpVz88