With a new year just around the corner, it is time to start thinking about your business goals for the coming quarters. While you probably already know what your immediate plans and targets are for quarter 1 of 2021, it can be good to consider longer-term improvements you can make to your business in the coming year that can open up new opportunities, improve how you do things, and make your business more efficient. This is where reviewing your business processes in general, and especially your supply chain processes can come in.
Here we look at three reasons to make 2021 the year you get your supply chain and other processes reviewed, and design and implement the leanest, best new ways of working for your business in its current shape:
The Aftermath of 2020
2020 has been a difficult year in a lot of industries, and for a lot of companies, fast changes have needed to be implemented just to remain operational during the pandemic crisis, where rules and restrictions have changed frequently – having a particular effect on companies that do business internationally.
Whether rapidly applied changes to your supply chain processes are the cause of new problems, or your processes had already become bloated and unwieldy due to having grown organically with your business, it is a very good time to take a detailed look at how your business is currently running and where improvements can be made.
We don’t know how long the COVID-19 situation will continue to require the level of business flexibility it has so far for, but even in the best case, it is a good idea to be working on leaner processes that are easier to adapt. The best approach is to start with a review of your supply chain and general processes from a Six Sigma consulting specialist like Supply Velocity, which will help you understand where inefficiencies and bottlenecks currently lie.
Become More Competitive
The more streamlined your supply chain, the better you can be at providing a fast and reliable service. Being able to offer convenience and speed can be the reason why customers choose you over a slower, less responsive competitor, and this is the case in both B2B and B2C spheres.
Analyzing and streamlining the way you work allows you to be leaner, faster, and more open to innovation when new solutions or options present themselves, and this could give you the competitive edge to drive your business forward in the coming year.
Reduce Overheads
Lastly, one of the simplest reasons to upgrade your processes is that it can significantly reduce overheads in terms of both time and costs. Overly convoluted and bloated processes take time for your staff to administer and can often include stages that can be removed altogether.
When you also factor in the time spent helping newcomers to your business to understand what they need to do with an unintuitive process it is clear that better processes mean lower overheads in just about every area of your business.
These are just three of the many good reasons to turn your attention to business process improvement in the new year – starting with your supply chain.
Interesting related article: “What is Supply Chain Management?”