Supply Chain Challenges Small Businesses Face Today
Although technology has advanced so far that it is helping businesses solve many of their supply chain issues, these issues and challenges still come up from time to time. Their severity can vary from mild, where they affect a single business, to severe, where they lead to a cascade of issues that affect multiple businesses. To steer away from these challenges, it is important that business owners know what they are. In this article, we are going to look at some common supply chain challenges businesses face.
Miscommunication
One of the most common supply chain issues businesses face is miscommunication. Miscommunication is one of those issues that can have a knock-on effect and so businesses should be aware of it and know how to eliminate it. Miscommunication often happens when one party does not understand requirements or requests which leads to various needs not being met.
Communication issues like these can be solved by ensuring there is written communication between all relevant parties. The specifications should be clear enough that there would be no chance of misinterpretation or misunderstanding.
Inventory Management Issues
Inventory management issues can also lead to other issues, which can bring businesses as well as associated supply chains to their knees. This is especially true for businesses that rely on other businesses for their raw materials and inputs. Poor inventory management also increases the cost of warehousing and makes the delivery of products a lot more complicated.
A common aspect of inventory management that a lot of businesses do not think about is product identification. By knowing the exact products they have in their warehouses, businesses can increase the production and delivery of certain products to keep their inventory management healthy and their supply chains flowing.
To ensure proper product identification, businesses can turn to coding and printing solutions such as those provided by Diagraph. These systems are integrated directly with handling and packaging systems to ensure everything is well-labelled for easier identification and inventory management.
Shipping Capacity Mismanagement
Shipping capacities can bring whole supply chains to a standstill. This is especially true for periods where there is a high demand for certain products and too few ways to deliver or ship these products. Shipping capacities can also go the other way where there is a large capacity but little demand for transportation services.
Businesses should develop plans for demand and shipping capacity challenges in advance. This will allow them to adjust accordingly and ensure they are not left with too much or too little shipping capacity.
Businesses can also have shipping partners standing by to step in when there is too little shipping capacity. Remember that shipping the products should be a priority, no matter how that is done or what it takes.
Supply chain issues often come up because of a lack of preparation. However, there are certain supply chain issues that come up due to market forces and other natural phenomena. Businesses that want to remain standing should have plans in place to help mitigate the effects of these supply issues and be ready to handle them when they come up.
