If you are a proud owner of a wholesale business, then your operations are likely to be growing each day. With your ever-growing operations, your distribution network might become more complex and cripple your productivity. As you continue to add products, suppliers, and customers to your network, efficiency is sure to get compromised and one might expect delays and breaks in operations. This becomes difficult to manage and handle.
Therefore, businesses should try to build a supply chain network and nurture good relationships across the elements involved. This would facilitate smoother inventory management, increase in profits and better customer handling.
Issues in supply chain operations
1. Outdated technology
One of the issues faced in managing the supply chain is the out-dated technology. A lot of wholesalers tend to keep the same infrastructure for years. These filing systems or inventory management systems are not safe and might result in redundant and unreliable data. It is time to move onto more modern technology to adapt to the changes.Â
2. Incompetent ERPs
A lot of wholesalers are resorting to enterprise resource planning for better management of their resources and inventory. However, a lot of these systems are not accustomed to working with complex supply chains and require additional features. If used to their full abilities, one can make use of an ERP system to be more productive and bring more order to the supply chain. This is one of the best ways of gaining control over your network of suppliers and customers.
 Requirements that a competent ERP must fulfill
1. Transparency
There are two important aspects of maintaining a balanced supply chain. First and foremost, distributors need transparency in the operations taking place within the chain. Whatever movement is taking place in the retail network it needs to be clearly presented to the distributors to ensure full visibility.
2. Communication
The other important aspect of the supply chain is communication. This is going to help make things move faster, help bring in new products faster into the chain and be more equipped to handle the increasing demands.
3.Cloud ERP to the rescue
Your ever growing supply chain can be easily handled with the optimum usage of a cloud-based ERP solution that would cater to all your needs under a single roof. A cloud-based ERP can be tailored to the specific requirements of the business. For instance, the dashboard can be customized to provide real-time data and updates for store managers to strengthen the control over the inventory. This will lead to a reduction in overall costs and a more refined customer experience. These measures can be data driven to bring in the best results.
If there are delays or breaks in operations, the ERP systems work by notifying the managers in order to bring about immediate actions to keep the supply chain uninterrupted. The quick response time can have positive impacts on the business and can thereby help you in increasing profits. Machine learning in ERP software can help the managers identify trends in the line of operations and thereby predict potential problems. When all of these are combined it helps you boost your customer experience and enhance your profit margins.
