“THE TACTICS WHICH ENSURED SUCCESS YESTERDAY, MAY WELL LEAD TO OUR DEMISE TOMORROW”

Dave Christie Supply chain expert, Synergic Technologies

14 Nov 2022 - 5min read

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with coining the phrase: “Change is the only constant”.  It seems that statement is as true today as it was when he made it over 2,500 years ago!

If we look only two years back in history, businesses were struggling with global supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The sort of supply chain ‘pains’ businesses were experiencing included:

• shortages and delays in product supply;

• extortionately high shipping costs, coupled with the lowest vessel schedule reliability ever;

• challenges in securing qualified resources, plus rising costs of labour and other overheads;

• inability to cater to growing consumer demand, especially in the online sales channels.  

To combat these disruptions, most businesses ‘pulled hard on the inventory lever’, so they could buffer against the significant variability and uncertainty they were experiencing across their extended supply chains – many businesses doubled, or even tripled, historic inventory levels.  This obviously had a significant impact on working capital and the balance sheet, but ensured they had enough stock to meet customer demand.   

Today, the environment has all changed.  The tactics which ensured success yesterday, may well lead to our demise today!  Demand is softening, inflation is high, shipping costs are declining but all other costs are increasing, inventory levels are now too high, interest rates remain high and the effects of global warming are devastating our communities.  Businesses are now having to pivot and re-set their tactics to respond to these changes.  For many businesses, this means that they are now pivoting away from ‘growth at all costs’, towards more ‘profitable growth only’ mindsets.

Quick-win supply chain opportunities.

Often, in challenging times like these, it’s hard to know where to start.  But it is also tempting to focus on what’s making the most noise in the business, rather than on what’s most important.

From working with a wide range of customers, across multiple markets and sectors, we at Synergic Technologies have identified a shortlist of quick-fire supply chain initiatives which can deliver significant business value, in the shortest amount of time.

1. Inventory Control

2. Track and trace visibility

3. Warehouse optimisation

4. Load optimisation

5. Cost to Serve (CTS)

6. Inventory optimisation

We will briefly cover each of these opportunity areas in our series on quick-fire supply chain opportunities. 

Please contact us at Synergic Technologies if you have any interest or queries in these topics.