Supply chain is the circulatory system of any kind of business. It is the process by which time, labor and materials are transformed into a finished and market-ready product. It is complex, but when properly strategized and operated, it can result in lower costs and a faster production cycle.
A list of interview questions to help you start building your dream supply chain career is provided in this video
Retail success depends on client satisfaction, so it makes sense that success in the supply chain is also closely linked to happy customers.
Here are four customer-centric supply chain secrets that will help drive sales by keeping your customers at the top of their minds.
1. Always Deliver on-time
Customers always want their products delivered on-time and easily. This is why Amazon’s announcement of a one-day delivery earlier this year was well appreciated by its customers.
Customer loyalty is founded on confidence. One missed delivery can undermine that trust and cost you a good customer. customers than to retain existing ones. But, it is much more expensive to gain new customers than to retain existing ones.
In order to build and maintain trust and encourage repeat business, it is vital to fulfil that promise and the expectations you have set with your clients when it comes to your delivery promise.
Here are five ways businesses maximize on-time delivery and reliably meet their customers’ delivery promises:
1. Diversity in delivery options
2. Proactive order management and recovery
3. Capacity forecast sharing with carriers
4. Carrier allocation management
5. Online appointment scheduling
2. Using technology to increase visibility and track inventory
In order to automate warehouse operations and ultimately fulfil today’s customer needs, technology is necessary. Beyond automation, warehouse management systems (WMS) have advantages.
A WMS speeds up procedures and makes a warehouse less vulnerable to mistakes, but it also provides greater insight into the management of the facility. And the secret to customer loyalty is increasing visibility across the supply chain.
The time between placing an order online and receiving the delivery was a black box for customers many years ago. Now, to give visibility into order status, it’s close table stakes. Coupled with the WMS, order tracking systems establish clarity and enhance customer loyalty and provide companies with key data.
3. Increase the speed of distribution with on-demand fulfilment
On-demand fulfilment helps companies add to and scale their distribution networks, whether it is for peak seasons, temporary promotions, entering a new market, or ongoing operations. In doing so, delivery centres are closer to end consumers, reducing the last mile of transport and improving customer satisfaction with shorter delivery times.
4. Fulfill client demand with an agile inventory plan
Inventory management is a constant challenge, but a vital shift in how inventory is managed is motivated by today’s customers. Meeting customer requirements for quick, inexpensive distribution means getting stock closer to your end users, yes, but the results are a warehousing and fulfilment centre network that is more dispersed. And that needs more variation in how to assign inventory.
But, there isn’t a better option. It does not inspire consumer loyalty to skip the delivery dates you have promised or have out-of-stocks. Retailers are still trying to find an optimum balance between surplus inventory and out-of-stock inventory situations. Agility enables supply chain participants to work together, not based on weekly, monthly, or annual projections, to deliver the amount of product required daily.
Murata Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of ceramic capacitors for Apple Inc. and other smartphone brands, expects demand for fifth-generation wireless devices to exceed 500 million handsets in the coming fiscal year, building on a rush to replace Huawei Technologies Co. in the global consumer arena.
As Huawei’s mobile business shrinks under the weight of U.S. sanctions, Apple, Samsung Electronics Co. and Chinese rivals Xiaomi Corp., Oppo and Vivo are vying to secure components for their devices, hoping to fill a void.
In a recent interview, President Norio Nakajima said that Murata’s factories will not take a holiday break as they are working to catch up with mounting orders, adding “the situation is most serious with our cutting-edge smartphone capacitors”.
Once taken over by Huawei, these handset manufacturers are competing to catch our supply capacity, and I am not sure how much of it is enabled by their actual production forecast,” Nakajima said.” “I feel the move is overheated, so I expect their orders in February and March to drop.”
Murata is the global pioneer in the regulation of electrical flow in circuit boards using MLCC, or multilayer ceramic capacitors. Electronics ranging from smartphones to vehicles are connected to hundreds, even thousands of them.
“During the current fiscal year, the industry had 300 million units of 5G smartphones, and I expect that to increase to at least 500 million in the next fiscal year,” said the president of the Kyoto-based group. “In order to keep up with the growing demand, we will continue making capital expenditure.”
The Murata chief’s stance is deemed too conservative by observers. Hideki Yasuda of the Ace Research Institute does not expect demand from Apple and its ilk to decline at any point in this calendar year, fueled by a greater than expected user appetite for 5G phones.
Handsets expected to be published this year will also be compliant with a wider set of frequencies, increasing the need for electricity flow adjustment components produced by Murata.
Yasuda said the production hiccups of Murata are indicative of severe shortages across the supply chain of electronics, affecting the assembly of several products, including video game consoles. Both Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X from Microsoft Corp. remain limited in availability, almost two months after their initial release.
Murata’s Nakajima does not deny that the market for its MLCC will remain high throughout the year, even though he said he anticipated a brief respite after China’s Lunar New Year holiday. He said the MLCC sales of the company will increase by 10 percent in its next fiscal year beginning in April, primarily due to 5G phones.
Apple constantly focuses on innovation and making quality products using new technologies. Be it iPhone, MacBook, iPad, or Watch, Apple supplies goods that are not seasonal and have a life cycle of more than 12 months.
Let us look at some of the top 10 reasons on what makes Apple’s Supply Chain the best in the world.
