Opportunities in Supply Chain Disruption

There’s not a client we visit who isn’t experiencing some type of supply chain challenge. Whether it’s delayed international shipments due to container backlogs, or longer lead times in every sector due to varying staffing levels, we all deal with the “Sorry, you’ll have to wait” conversations with both suppliers and customers. Here are a couple of key lessons and possible opportunities:

Communication is critical – suppliers who don’t warn customers as soon as they know an order will be late, will rarely keep that customer for long. Opportunity – consistent open communication may lead to long term agreements and order forecasting, instead of multiple single orders.
Modeling to plan for alternate schedules requires visibility in a variety of KPIs like fill rates, lead times, shortages, excess inventory, margin. Opportunity – seeing present and future risk allows companies to focus on higher revenue items, and lets sales & marketing algorithms allocate inventory short term.