Integrated Supplier Management, Integrated Supplier Management diagnostic, Resilient supply chain, Supply chain, Supply chain disruption, Supplier management

If the pandemic and other global events of the past year have taught us anything, it’s that supply chains are fragile and easily disrupted. Integrated Supplier Management is a must – manufacturers are still dealing with the effects of the global chip shortage, the Suez Canal blockage, changing trade policies and other global supply and demand disruptions.

Even without a global pandemic and its aftershocks, manufacturing supply chains are often brittle and can break easily when disruptions occur, leading to over- or under-utilized resources, premium freight costs, inventory write-offs, lost orders and faulty decision-making. Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprises understand that integrated supplier management can reduce supply chain risk and improve business performance. They work hard to establish good supplier relationships and are able to effectively manage supplier agility while at the same time improving their efficiency.

Driving a Resilient, Integrated Supply Chain

At QAD, we understand the multiple steps manufacturers need to take to achieve a resilient and integrated supply chain. That is why we developed the Integrated Supplier Management diagnostic tool. These critical steps to mastering Integrated Supplier Management are included below:

  • Plan volumes based on understanding your suppliers’ real capability and capacity, aligned on strategic, tactical and operational levels.
  • Balance cost efficiency with responsiveness and look beyond price to total cost of ownership when selecting suppliers.
  • Proactively track supplier and supply chain risk and respond appropriately.
  • Share demand data with your suppliers so they can adjust to every change with you.
  • Maintain the flow of real-time demand and supply data to adjust quickly following a disruption.
  • Streamline and automate global trade operations by strategically using free trade agreements and automating customs processes with global trade software.
  • Improve supplier quality and delivery performance by sharing short- and long-term goals, building a relationship and maintaining regular communications – merge their expertise with yours as a partner.
  • Leverage digital technology with suppliers with end-to-end connectivity, real-time tracking and predictive analytics to gain insights.
  • Go beyond supplier management to supplier development by creating collaborative relationships with suppliers and improving communications, quality and responsiveness.

Mastering Integrated Supplier Management

Are you and your suppliers prepared for the next disruption? Do you know where your enterprise stands in its journey toward integrated supplier management? Do your systems and processes support a resilient and evolved supply chain?

By using QAD’s Integrated Supplier Management diagnostic tool, manufacturers can assess their supply chain efficiency and agility and get definitive answers.   

The diagnostic tool identifies where enterprises fall on QAD’s Integrated Supplier Management Maturity Model, which gauges business adaptability. It assesses and ranks business’s strengths and weaknesses related to supplier disruption and categorizes companies in one of four stages of supplier management, from low to high:

  • Non-functional Supplier Management
  • Semi-functional Supplier Management
  • Effective Supplier Management
  • Integrated Supplier Management

Using the diagnostic tool, enterprises can reflect on behaviors observed in their organization, and assess their level of maturity in the aspects that matter to supplier management. This helps them comprehend their ability to cope with supply chain disruption. Adaptability to change requires a certain level of control to drive change, which implies mastery in Planning and Execution.

Integrated Supplier Management is one of the five critical capabilities of an Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprise, coupled with:

Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprises compare plans to execution to adjust and respond to disruptions. In the area of supplier management they look at broad-based metrics, such as:

  • What needs to be planned, executed and adapted? At the planning level, adaptive enterprises plan volume, select the most appropriate source and assess risk.
  • Delivery execution: is it on time, in full, at the right quality and at the right price? Are items tracked in transit, especially with long distance deliveries?
  • How well is the enterprise monitoring and collaborating with suppliers based on the latest information while respecting global trade and regulatory compliance requirements? Which adjustments are needed?

When these questions are fully investigated, enterprises can become more adaptable. According to Deloitte, 79% of organizations with superior supply chain capabilities, dubbed “supply chain leaders,” achieve revenue growth that is significantly above average. Integrating supplier management capabilities into day-to-day operations can yield significant competitive advantages.

Take the Integrated Supplier Management Diagnostic

QAD’s Integrated Supplier Management diagnostic provides you with 12 quick questions about your strategic, tactical and operational supply chain planning and execution. By answering these questions, you can assess your level of adaptability: are you a thinker, doer, reactor or is everything well balanced? To get a better idea of what you can expect, check out this sample results report to understand where the capabilities for Supplier Management lie along the continuum of the Integrated Supplier Management Maturity Model.

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