Supply Chain Collaboration for today’s manufacturers

Embracing e-business means much more than just opening your web store for business. Geographical barriers have been reduced, opening new markets and suppliers, but also introducing new competitors. Customers are more demanding in terms of availability and choice. They are also more fickle, so more than ever a loyal customer is a valuable customer. Business structures have changed, with many specialised tasks or services being outsourced or sub-contracted. Business relationships have changed, with significantly more interdependence between customer and supplier.

This interdependence has brought new aspects to the relationships along the supply chain. To support the need for ever-faster demand fulfilment and cost reduction, long-term supplier and customer contracts have become commonplace where once each order would have been sourced individually from alternative suppliers.

After many false starts, technology to support supply chain integration is now an affordable reality. This includes the exchange of forecasts, orders, inventory status, contract call-off and any other information that is agreed to be available for mutual benefit not just between supplier and customer but all along the supply chain. In the retail sector, point of sale information is available not just to the primary supplier, but also to their materials suppliers and sub-contractors.

Achieving this level of supply chain collaboration involves more than plugging in a new piece of software. It involves a business project that may encompass cultural changes, new business processes, change management, systems integration, new technology and application software. It does not necessarily mean that existing supply chain applications have to be replaced – much can be achieved through the careful integration of new technology, applications and processes with existing systems.

SSI has over 20 years experience of developing, implementing and supporting supply chain solutions across a range of technologies and industries, and this experience ensures that the focus of any solution is on the business benefit – how it will enable you to deal with your customers faster, better and more profitably than ever before. SSI can provide a range of services from strategy guidelines to the development of a full collaborative solution. The following examples illustrate ways in which supply chain collaboration can be introduced.

Self-Service Customers

SSI can help you develop a secure web site to allow authorised customers to enquire on, add or amend information to do with their products or orders. This involves providing easy to use secure web based applications across the internet or an extranet with integration into back office applications to provide real time, dynamic exchange of information, even down to real time production status information. Examples of applications developed are stock enquiries, price enquiries, order entry, order status enquiry, delivery tracking, account status checking.

Self-Service Suppliers

Similarly, SSI can help you develop a secure web site to allow authorised suppliers, usually contract suppliers to make enquiries, add or amend information to do with their products or services. This involves providing easy to use secure web based applications across the internet or an extranet with integration into back office applications to provide real time, dynamic exchange of information. Examples of applications developed are stock enquiries to support vendor managed inventory, production forecast enquiries, order status updates, supplier performance analysis enquiry, requirements specifications, quality information and test results.

Private Exchanges

Usually developed from self service supplier applications, a private exchange allows you to interact with multiple suppliers across the web. In addition to the above applications, the Private Exchange, which is accessible only to authorised suppliers acts as a portal allowing suppliers to see information you would otherwise have provided by fax, post or verbally, and to provide their own information in response.

Examples of applications on a private exchange can be production forecast enquiries, where suppliers can see future demand trends and amend their own production plans accordingly, reverse auctions where suppliers can bid for the supply of goods and services against a published requirement, monitoring points where suppliers can view the performance of materials or products they have supplied to the production process, and information exchanges where relevant information can be posted to assist suppliers in improving their product and service capability. SSI can develop the exchange, train your key suppliers – and also host and manage the exchange if required.

Public Exchanges

There has been an explosion of new vertical industry exchanges run by third parties. These exchanges aim to bring buyers and sellers together across geographic boundaries to create new trading relationships. These exchanges make their money by charging a commission on sales, but they encourage the use of the exchange by providing an information portal, often free of charge, where vertical industry-specific bulletin boards, information libraries and research links are available covering all areas from product development to production techniques.

Whilst it is perfectly acceptable to use these exchanges as they are, the true value of supply chain collaboration is realised when information is exchanged dynamically without human involvement through integration from your ERP or supply chain applications to the exchange. Examples of this are to publish availability of surplus stocks, or include stock available at a supplier warehouse in your own available to promise logic.

SSI can develop solutions to enable managed integration of information from the back office (ERP) systems to web sites, trading exchanges and business partner systems.