Management of global supply chains is difficult. Companies that wish to take advantage of the benefits of global supply chains must overcome several complicated hurdles. The volatility of the last two years has generated significant logistics issues for firms as they handle massive variations in supply and demand as well as substantial interruptions to their delivery systems.
This volatility has resulted in growing logistical expenses and a detrimental influence on enterprises’ customer connections; according to a recent poll from one of the reputed ERP MNC, 87 percent of individuals have been adversely affected by supply chain challenges in the last year.
Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing now includes additional logistics management features to assist enterprises in optimizing performance and revenue throughout their worldwide supply chains (SCM). The new upgrades can help firms reduce costs and risk, improve customer experience, and be more adaptive to business challenges.
What does Oracle do?
The supply chain system is enormously complex, with various end markets, each with its service requirements. The disruptive events of the last two years have contributed to that intricacy on an accelerating level.
With Oracle, you can optimize logistic support processes and client support, easily attaining successful outcomes, such as lowering cost and service interruptions through partner expansion, implementing on-demand spot bidding, and dynamically shifting modes while operating with 90 percent touch-free automation.
Furthermore, Oracle Transportation Management’s built-in machine learning capabilities will also enhance ETA accuracy, providing excellent results in better customer satisfaction.
What are the Challenges to Supply Chain Management?
- Satisfactory Customer Service
Managing client expectations is one of the problems of efficient supply chain management. Supply Chain Managers provide a service. They offer services for indirect procuring requests, project and production requirements, and requests from outside customers. They must implement procedures to ensure orders are met on time.
When efficiency is the number one corporate objective, Supply Chain Managers may begin to meet consumer expectations. For example, you may acquire information quickly and accurately and track the timely completion of resourcing, planning, sourcing, and shipping.
To handle these expectations successfully, however, the necessary tools are required. You must utilize suitable expenditure management software and keep active contact lines with your consumers. With the correct management software, you can input requests and authorize orders from one place, eliminating the need to follow up with the requester (which will delay orders). Finally, this offers supply chain insight and allows everyone (not just you) to trace orders through to invoice payment. Its very important to have the skillset to manage supply chain and related issues. Learn more about Oracle Fusion SCM online training and the skillset training we offer here.
- Supplier Management
Managing suppliers is as important as managing customer expectations. Good connections with your suppliers are essential for successfully handling your supply chain. In a perfect world, you would interact with suppliers proactively through Supplier Relationship Management. You are responsible for understanding how many suppliers are required, how to handle delays, and how to accept orders.
Each stage needs clear thinking and a distinct approach that fits into your company’s broader financial culture. In addition to these responsibilities, you must identify providers that provide consistent and dependable service at a reasonable price.
But here’s the thing: one supplier always has problems. To address these issues fast, you must have instant access to credible data. In this manner, you can anticipate schedule, quality, and delivery challenges and engage and communicate with suppliers about issues to match their expectations.
- Cost Management and Risk Mitigation
Risk mitigation may be difficult for any supply chain management. While risk is a vast issue, supply chain managers should be aware of several basic supply chain risks. Some of these are:
- Reliance on a single source for most purchases: Companies that rely too heavily on a single supplier are susceptible if that provider fails to satisfy demand. To maintain company stability, broaden your supply chain as widely as feasible.
- Supply data tracking using spreadsheets or antiquated technology: The loss of supply chain data due to compromised servers or broken computers has severe consequences for continuing operations.
- Controlling rising costs: Do you remember how much money you’ve spent in the past? Can you predict how much money you’ll pay in the future? Is a commodity with a crucial cost in your business that will be diversified? This information is essential when negotiating prices with suppliers.
- Multiple changes in marketing channels: Getting the right items to the correct location at the proper pace is important to the success of any firm.
- Inventory control: Inventory is costly to acquire, expensive to store, and, in the worst-case situation, costly to write off.
- Managing Data with Efficiency
Accessibility to your supply chain data is one of the most crucial criteria in a modern supply chain. Data access can assist you in successfully managing your supply chain. Without this, you cannot begin to make knowledgeable adjustments to your supply chain or minimize risk.
The following are some popular measures used to increase supply chain efficiency:
- Request-to-approval cycle time, approval-to-purchase order cycle time, and invoicing-to-invoice payment cycle time.
- Item/vendor consolidation: A specific area for discovering cost-cutting opportunities and lowering the number of vendors to manage.
- On-time distribution reporting: Identifying what orders are outstanding is important from a financial and supplier delivery control standpoint.
- Budgetary controls: Ensuring that expenditure stays within planned limits.
Related Posts:
Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management
Oracle Fusion SCM Implementation
Oracle SCM Interview Questions
Top 10 Applications of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) Interview Questions
How will Oracle Help?
Organizations may use Oracle SCM Cloud to uncover new possibilities, reimagine procedures, and execute and plan across the whole business. Oracle Cloud SCM’s most recent features and capabilities include the following:
- Oracle Logistics Digital Assistant: A conversational interface that answers fast, enhances user pleasure, and promotes corporate efficiency. Furthermore, customers may now view the order and shipment tracking status remotely without browsing the Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) application or grasping complex data mappings. Consequently, supply chain management may be notified of all in-transit orders and get timely shipping updates from any location using any mobile device.
- Planning Advisor: Displays suggestions that optimize new product introduction (NPI) and help clients to adapt to existing and predicted production interruptions using artificial intelligence capabilities built inside Supply Chain Planning.
- Field Service Preventative Maintenance: Assists enterprises in enhancing the customer journey by delivering new preventive service flows, break-fix, and installation capabilities via the Service Logistics Cloud for Field Service.
- Multi-Tier Supply Chain Collaboration: Increases overall suppliers’ chain responsiveness by improving visibility into upstream supply. Oracle Supply Chain Collaboration can now synchronize source supply data from several levels of external companies, such as on-hand balances, purchase order data, and work order details. After that, the data is immediately exchanged with Oracle Supply Planning Cloud.
- Project-Driven Supply Chain Planning: Enhances supply planning for project-specific resource needs and implements purchase, transfer, and work orders with project and task references. Customers can unite operations and plan at the group level when supplies can be integrated across numerous projects by harmonizing demand and supply based on flexible criteria.
- New Channel Revenue Management Capabilities: Streamline and improve trade programs by allowing firms to generate, negotiate, and manage deduction and excess claims. Furthermore, the additional features make transferring supplier plans and shares easier.
- Cross-Product Procurement Enhancements: Using new and improved REST APIs, simplify integration with external systems to assist clients in integrating and extending procurement processes. Furthermore, Oracle Procurement Cloud has new deep links that allow users to navigate straight to application pages without utilizing the menu structure. These hyperlinks become important in various contexts, such as business intelligence reports, alerts, and third-party application sites.
- Intelligent Transit Time Predictions: Oracle will allow clients to assess the likely impact of macro-level interruptions (such as bad weather or airport delays) and network-level disruptions (such as labor and capacity shortages). This feature can help users forecast delivery schedules more precisely and save expenses related to delays, accelerated shipments, and extra safety stock.
- Improved Shipment Capabilities: Leaders in supply chains may streamline and optimize transportation operations for shipments. New features include automated spot bidding and the ability to aggregate and track numerous shipments in Oracle, as well as automated global trade research on trade agreements in Oracle. By optimizing and streamlining these formerly manual procedures, the new capabilities can help clients decrease human mistakes, freight costs, and shipment delays.
- Advanced Transportation and Global Trade Analytics: Customers can now swiftly obtain, evaluate, and understand highly accurate transportation and global trade data thanks to new advanced analytics capabilities. This feature contributes to cost reductions, improved logistical planning, and more conscious management decisions.
Conclusion
While the volatile business environment of the previous two years will continue to impact supply chain strategy, the priority will always be appropriately managing crucial transportation and shipping operations.
The new capabilities that Oracle now includes and the latest Oracle SCM Cloud tools help firms enhance their logistics operations while lowering associated risks. With these abilities, you demonstrate your commitment to continuous innovation and supporting your customers in navigating today’s business world so that they will remain your loyal consumers.
To learn more about Oracle and other software training, contact IQ Stream today.
